wealth

There are only two business plans left for growing RIAs: Build to Sell or Build to Buy. And for all the firms not doing either, they are counting on running out a clock that is moving faster than even the most cash-sheltered RIAs can imagine.

Minority investors are finding what we’ve found in our years of working with RIAs: The ATT Trifecta (Acquisitions, Talent, and Tech) is not sufficient to produce scalable growth, and in the wrong hands it makes things worse. New entrants are trying to "fix" that.

For the last ten years, every RIA has been bemoaning the need for “differentiation,” revealing a stark misunderstanding of what the real issues are. Wealth firms no longer understand what they are selling to the marketplace that has dramatically changed since the Boomers called them into existence.

It’s hard to look at the wealth space and scream “Crisis!” Margins remain high, consolidation is still producing big payouts, and there are more new entrants to the field each year. But these are all lagging indicators of a category’s health. Leading indicators offer a different story.