Can 2026 Be Another Landmark Year for Advisor Movement?

2025 was a watershed year for the financial advisory industry.
The scale, sophistication, and complexity of advisor transitions reached levels never seen before. Elite teams proved that independence is no longer an operational leap of faith. It is a viable, institutional-grade alternative to the wirehouse model.

Trends that will shape the next decade of wealth management moved from theory to reality. Firms founded within the past five years demonstrated they can support the most demanding advisory businesses in the industry.

As we look ahead, 2026 appears poised to extend and potentially accelerate this transformation.

Our Key Predictions for 2026

• Acceleration of mega-team moves, fueled by second-order effects of 2025 defections
• Market uncertainty increases volatility in M&A and recruiting economics
• Supported independence platforms compete for dominance as AI commoditizes the back office
• Equity eclipses recruiting deals as the primary driver of advisor movement

Acceleration of Mega Moves

In 2025, some of the largest and most complex teams inside the wirehouse ecosystem reached a critical realization: they were no longer dependent on big-firm infrastructure.

For the first time, breaking away felt operationally comparable to moving laterally between wirehouses. Advances in custodial services, technology, compliance support, and transition execution eliminated much of the perceived risk that historically deterred elite advisors.

Clients are increasingly comfortable moving assets to well-known custodians such as Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing and now Goldman Sachs. Capital partners like Merchant have proven they can provide meaningful liquidity without sacrificing advisor control. Transfers are seamless, and many clients report a superior post-transition experience.

Two headline transactions crystallized this shift:

• A $129 billion Atlanta-based team departing Merrill Lynch demonstrated that even the most complex corporate advisory practices can thrive independently. Schwab provided custody and the backbone infrastructure for their business while Dynasty Financial Partners helped it obtain $90 million in capital and operational support.
  • These corporate finance practices have always been linked to a major firm given the myriad resources required to support them. These practices also act as hubs serving accounts of other advisors at the firm and sharing in the revenue, which made them very sticky. Nobody ever thinks of these teams leaving. But it happened here, proving that even there is nothing stopping even the most entrenched practices from striking out on their own.
• UBS Private Wealth advisors Denis J. Cleary III and Gregory M. Devine left to launch 71 West Capital Partners — just five years after joining UBS from Goldman Sachs. Once viewed as institutional loyalists, the duo had grown their revenue from $20 million to $37 million on the wirehouse platform and brand.
  • This was a team that hit all growth hurdles by a large margin. They also likely had six to seven years to go on their contract, which meant staying would have yielded tens of millions compared to having pay back money when they left. But the economic benefits of ownership and leaving the constraints of a big firm outweighed the money left behind.

In 2026, these moves are likely to create powerful second-order effects. Advisors are no longer merely breaking away — they are building mini-empires within supported independence platforms.

Justin Waterman’s $25 million move from Summit Trail to NewEdge Capital exemplifies this trend. In his mid-40s, Waterman is building a long-term growth engine, anchoring a 30,000-square-foot New York City office through recruiting and acquisitions. This is an example of how sharp, entrepreneurial advisors are building out the equivalent of branches and complexes on supported independence platforms.

This transaction also validated NewEdge as a destination platform. Founded just five years ago by former UBS advisor Rob Sechan, the firm has rapidly evolved into a magnet for large, growth-oriented teams. Sechan’s move is a case study in how a breakaway advisor with $5 billion was able to rapidly build an $85 billion AUM firm that is one of the fastest-growing RIAs in the nation.

Similar dynamics are playing out across the landscape with firms that are being financed by Merchant, a minority private equity firm that typically takes a non-controlling position. Merchant has invested in 125 companies with $300 billion in AUM.

Two examples that made headlines in 2025 spotlight the growth potential for Merchant partners. The $2.5 billion Laurel Oak Group left Ameriprise with Merchant’s backing to expand under Sanctuary’s tru Independence platform. Meanwhile, Seventy2 Capital, another Merchant-backed company that custodies with Wells Fargo Financial Network has grown from $3 million to $75 million in revenue by following the same playbook and was a frequent recruiter last year.

Market Uncertainty Raises the Stakes

Geopolitical risk, election-year uncertainty and speculation around an AI-driven market bubble may introduce meaningful volatility in 2026. Even the perception of instability can delay decisions and complicate transitions. As markets have generally gone up since 2022, clients have been happy and more willing to move. Advisors have seen the value of their practice climb with fee-based revenue increasing. Market instability could slow those tailwinds and decrease the ease of movement.

As a result, advisors are acting with increased urgency — either accelerating moves or establishing contingency plans to preserve revenue and maximize valuation. This dynamic helps explain the surge in deal activity seen over the past year.

The decision framework has shifted. Advisors are no longer optimizing for headline economics alone. They are prioritizing long-term stability, alignment, capitalization, and predictability, whether that leads to full independence, supported platforms, or hybrid models such as FiNet.

Supported Independence Ascends as the Traditional 1099 Model Lags

Large firms remain under structural pressure from rising regulatory, compliance, and operational costs. Historically, these expenses are passed directly to advisors through compensation changes and incremental fees.

Recent examples include Ameriprise’s new fees for 1099 franchisees. Compensation is one of the few levers firms can pull to defend margins.

While 1099 platforms once served as a bridge between wirehouses and independence, their limitations are becoming increasingly apparent. True ownership requires open architecture, branding control, flexible technology, and multi-custodial access — none of which are fully available in closed or semi-captive systems.

Raymond James and Ameriprise advisors remain constrained by proprietary platforms, closed compliance frameworks, and limited investment optionality. In contrast, RIAs now benefit from institutional-grade open architecture through custodians such as Schwab, Fidelity, Pershing — and Goldman Sachs’ independent platform.

Supported independence has rewritten the economics of breaking away. Firms like Dynasty, Sanctuary/tru Independence, NewEdge and some emerging growth platforms like Concurrent and Elevation Point amongst others deliver full-service infrastructure for as little as 10% to 15% of revenue while saving advisors from the operational headaches of running their own back office and compliance.

These platforms also offer flexible equity solutions, allowing advisors to monetize a portion of their businesses while retaining control.

AI will not replace advisors, but it will further commoditize back-office functions. While wirehouses may see margin expansion, the true beneficiaries will be independent advisors who own their businesses. Lower barriers to entry, improved automation, and reduced administrative friction all favor independence.

Equity — Not Recruiting Deals — Drives Advisor Movement

Equity has become the most powerful catalyst for advisor transitions. Advisors historically have thought of themselves as employees and still believed they had some ownership of their book because their clients were loyal to them. They’re now realizing that they actually do not own their practice, and that their business is essentially worthless in a W2 ecosystem unless they take a wirehouse recruiting deal or “sell it” at a depressed multiple through internal succession programs.

By contrast, selling even a minority stake to a strategic acquirer or private equity backer can frequently command six to eight times EBOC, taxed at favorable capital-gains rates.

Even modest payout improvements can overwhelm traditional wirehouse recruiting deals over time. The Cleary and Devine transition illustrates this clearly: a 20% payout improvement alone generated more annual value than UBS’s note forgiveness.

As 2026 approaches, the advisory landscape is no longer defined by payout grids or headline transition packages. It is defined by who really owns their business.

Scale, technology, and capital have eliminated historical barriers to independence, while rising costs and shrinking flexibility continue to pressure traditional models. Advisors are no longer chasing the biggest deal — they are optimizing for control, equity, and long-term enterprise value.

If 2025 proved the old assumptions no longer hold, 2026 may be the year independence fully cements itself as the default destination for elite advisory teams.