According to Independent Financial Partners, a blend of education, customized business development assistance and technology can launch young advisors to success in the retirement plan space.

The Tampa, Fla.-based hybrid RIA might be right: Seven of its advisors made the National Association of Plan Advisors’ 2015 list of “Top Plan Advisors Under 40,” more than any other firm.

Chris Hamm, executive vice president, says that IFP goes out of its way to attract younger advisors, who seem to want the freedom of independence with the infrastructure and support typically available at a wirehouse.

“We have begun to work with younger advisors because it’s necessary,” says Hamm. “This business survives if the millennial generation adopts it.”

With an average age of 51.7, IFP’s aging contingent of advisors mirrors a greying industry. Making matters worse, advisors typically work with clients within a close range of their own age, so as advisors near their own retirement years, these clients become a sandbag on growth as they cease accumulating and begin to withdraw from their retirement accounts.

In an effort to get some younger skin in the game, IFP is engaging in a two-pronged initiative to attract and then retain millennial advisors, starting with the IFP University, a large training center being built into the firm’s expanded headquarters.

Young advisors aren’t avoiding the independent channel out of fear, says Hamm, but because most training opportunities are still offered by large wirehouses and broker-dealers.

“We were never built to work like that on the independent side of the business,” Hamm says. “Millennials are getting better at what they do earlier on, and it’s time for the independent channel to prepare them for the things they need to do as an independent advisor themselves.”

When advisors start their own firms, IFP’s assistance may extend to helping them find office space, purchase furniture and create a brand. Young advisors may also be linked with older practitioners interested in creating a succession plan or selling their businesses outright.

“We had a group of millennial advisors come over last year,” Hamm says. “They were in the same geographic region as one of our older advisors, and they decided to buy his business. When you have a network of 500 advisors like ours, you have guys getting older every year providing younger advisors an opportunity to buy a business.”

IFP’s millennial-friendly offerings include a production studio for advisors to create original video content and curated software platforms that can be customized to the practice and the individual.

“Millennial advisors like that wirehouses are providing marketing materials, websites, curated technology, training, everything they need to get off the ground,” Hamm says. “That doesn’t mean that they have a preference for wirehouses. If they can get the same offerings or better from independence we think they’re more likely to go independent. Most wirehouses don’t have best-in-class facilities or technology; they have options that have been hard-coded into their businesses. Millennials will see that now there are more options on the independent side.”