The migration of financial advisors from wirehouses and broker-dealers to independent channels continues to accelerate. According to data released in January by AdvizorPro, more than 17,000 advisors joined the RIA channel from other channels in 2025, more than double the figure recorded in 2021. Wirehouses lost a net 1,864 advisors to other channels during the same year. Independent and hybrid RIAs now manage approximately 27% of all industry assets, up from 21% in 2014, according to a February 2026 Cerulli Associates report. Cerulli estimated that about 9% of advisors, representing $3.1 trillion in assets, were expected to change firms in 2025, with 71% of advisors saying they would choose an independent channel if they were to switch.
Three advisors who made the leap shared their experiences, highlighting that the hardest part was not the client conversation but the unexpected operational and legal challenges. Tim McEwen, president of Prairie Wealth Advisors, a Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska-based independent RIA managing more than $1 billion in client assets, spent over two decades in the wirehouse and broker-dealer world, most recently at RBC Wealth Management. After COVID, he noticed a widening gap between the firm's priorities and what mattered most to his clients and team. “The biggest challenge was making sure the transition felt smooth and reassuring for the clients who had placed their trust in us,” McEwen said. “It took time, patience, and a lot of careful attention to get every detail right.”
McEwen emphasized that the operational lift of going independent is frequently underestimated by advisors who have spent their careers inside large institutions. “What I wish I had known earlier is how much lighter and more purposeful the work feels when you’re truly independent and surrounded by people who share your values,” he said. The Prairie Wealth merger in May 2026, combining McEwen’s former firm, The McEwen Group, with Prairie Wealth founder and CEO Craig Hundt’s existing practice, exemplifies a pattern of advisors affiliating with established independent RIAs rather than launching from scratch.
Colin Walker, co-founder and financial advisor at CoFi Advisors, a Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based independent RIA affiliated with Integrated Partners, an LPL-affiliated hybrid RIA platform, wrestled with the independence decision for several years. He had built a successful practice inside a larger institution and worried about client reactions. “We wanted the freedom to choose the best technology, investment solutions, and service model without being constrained by a single firm’s platform,” Walker said. The client reaction surprised him: rather than treating the transition as disruptive, clients responded with enthusiasm. “Advisors often overestimate how difficult the client conversation will be,” Walker said. “Looking back, the only thing we would have done differently is make the move sooner.”
Walker’s experience aligns with Cerulli’s research, which consistently finds that the fear of client attrition during a transition is typically the primary barrier to independence, and it is also the barrier that proves least founded in practice. The team-building dimension has also exceeded expectations. “It’s also been incredibly rewarding to build a stronger team and create a workplace where our employees have more opportunities to grow alongside the business,” Walker said.
Brad Morgan, founder of Beyond Wealth Partners, a Cincinnati-based fee-only independent advisory practice operating through Savvy Advisors, reframes what independence actually means for advisors coming out of larger RIA environments. For him, the move was about gaining the structural freedom to build something that could outlast him as an individual practitioner. “Partnering with Savvy gave us the infrastructure and technology to do that while allowing us to build Beyond Wealth Partners with an entrepreneurial mindset,” Morgan said.
The obstacle Morgan did not fully anticipate was legal. Many advisors who leave larger organizations are subject to non-solicitation provisions, restrictive agreements, and garden-leave clauses signed years earlier. The prospect of legal action, Morgan says, can make an otherwise clear-cut decision feel far more uncertain than it should. “The most rewarding part has been the freedom to build a business that aligns with our values, but the legal hurdles were something I didn’t fully appreciate until I was in the middle of it,” Morgan said.
For advisors considering the move, the three emphasize that while the operational and legal challenges are real, the benefits of independence—values alignment, client-centricity, and entrepreneurial freedom—can outweigh the costs. As the industry continues to shift, with platforms like LPL Financial recruiting UBS veterans and Modern Wealth, Arax, and Waverly executing acquisitions, the independent channel is likely to keep growing.
