New RIAs gather assets more zealously than veterans

There is a generational difference between RIAs in their 20’s and 30’s and those in their 40’s and 50’s. Younger advisors are more technologically astute, better educated in portfolio construction and are far more adaptable. Given the average age of the advisor is now 55, the future of the industry is with those advisors who embrace innovation and have little or no cultural reticence in doing what ever is necessary to align with the best interests of the consumer. In the process, it is easy to differentiate the broker’s approach to advice (TAMPs and UMAs)which treats advice as a product the broker sells in the best interests of the broker’s supporting firm with the advisor’s approach to advice which treats advice as a process the advisor manages in the best interest of the consumer.

So, there is no mystery as to why advisors who embrace a fiduciary standard are growing and why advisors who are selling advice as a product (TAMP or UMA) are experiencing a decline in assets.

This is why established advisory practices are well served by bringing in young advisory talent who have their future ahead of them and want to agressively grow the business embracing a faster, better and cheaper business model that outdates the old commission sales support infrastructure. Established practices gain successor management and an atttractive exit strategy. Young advisors gain scale that wouyld take them years to achieve. This is the future.

SCW