Case Study
A $310M team leaves a wirehouse — and what it actually cost
The full arc of one transition, scored through the Signals of Clarity Framework and the same nine-dimension assessment you can run yourself in six minutes. Including the two points where staying was still the better answer.
The practice
Two advisors, eleven years in seat, one move they could only make once
They had been told independence was obvious for three years — by recruiters, by peers, by every podcast. Nobody had shown them the arithmetic on their own book. The first engagement deliverable was not a recommendation. It was the honest number.
Details are composited across engagements and figures are rounded to protect client confidentiality. The sequence, the scores, and the trade-offs are as they occurred.
- Practice
- Two-advisor team, one client associate
- Assets under management
- $310M
- Trailing twelve revenue
- $2.4M gross, $780K net to the two advisors
- Prior affiliation
- Wirehouse, 11 years in seat
- Households
- 94, top 20 held 61% of revenue
- Outcome
- Independent RIA, own ADV, third-party TAMP and outsourced ops
The assessment
Nine dimensions, scored before a single recruiter call
This is the same diagnostic behind the Independence Fit Assessment. Two scores below are the reason the recommendation came with conditions attached.
Growth ownership
4
All new assets came from one advisor's centre-of-influence relationships. No second channel existed.
Client portability
8
Relationships were personal, not branch-driven. Non-solicit rather than non-compete, reviewed with counsel.
Economic readiness
7
18 months of household reserves plus a modest transition loan capacity. Deferred comp forfeiture was the real cost.
Operator appetite
5
Willing to own P&L decisions. Unwilling to own compliance, billing, or a technology stack personally.
Household alignment
9
Both spouses were briefed on the 24-month income dip before anything was signed.
Capability coverage
4
No in-house compliance, no billing infrastructure, no performance reporting, no HR function.
Concentration risk
3
Top 20 households at 61% of revenue. Losing four of them would have broken the model.
Brand independence
6
Clients described the advisors by name, not by firm — but institutional custody mattered to eight households.
Transition tolerance
7
Accepted a planned 5–15% asset loss and a 12–24 month organic growth pause.
Composite fit for independence: 68 of 100 — a go, conditional on a named retention plan for the nine concentrated households and on buying operational capability rather than building it. At a composite of 55 or below, the recommendation would have been to stay.
Model selection
Affiliation is a fit function, not a ladder
Four models, ranked against the practice's projected seven-to-ten year state — not against first-year payout.
01
Independent RIA, outsourced operations
Selected
High portability and household alignment carried the economics. Weak capability coverage was solvable by buying operations rather than building them.
02
Supported independence platform
Close second
Cheaper to start and lower risk, but the platform economics capped enterprise value at exactly the point they wanted to sell.
03
Join an existing RIA as equity partners
Considered, declined
Solved capability and concentration in one move, but required accepting someone else's operating model for the next decade.
04
Stay at the wirehouse
Ruled out on the numbers
Modeled honestly against the alternatives. Staying protected income for three years and cost roughly 40% of terminal enterprise value.
Signals of Clarity Framework
How the three phases ran in practice
Phase 01
Diagnose — six weeks
Before any recruiter conversation, we established what was actually true about the practice.
What we did
- Rebuilt revenue by household and by advisor, separating organic growth from market drift
- Scored every household on likelihood to follow: definite, probable, at risk, will not move
- Had counsel read the employment agreement and inventory stranded revenue and forfeited deferred comp
- Modeled the household's cash needs month by month through the first 24 months
What it surfacedPortability was stronger than they feared and concentration was worse than they admitted. Nine households — 23% of revenue — required a named retention plan before the move could be recommended at all.
Phase 02
Architect — ten weeks
Model selection, platform choice, and the growth engine the practice had never had.
What we did
- Compared four affiliation models side by side on ten-year net economics, not first-year payout
- Shortlisted two custodians and one TAMP; negotiated pricing against modeled asset levels
- Designed a second acquisition channel — CPA and estate-attorney referrals with a documented handoff
- Wrote a dated 90-day transition sequence with resignation timing, contact order, and paperwork batches
What it surfacedThe independent RIA won on ten-year value, not on year-one income. The decision only held because the household had already agreed to the dip.
Phase 03
Institutionalize — nine months post-close
The part most breakaways skip, and the reason valuations disappoint five years later.
What we did
- Documented service tiers, review cadence, and the process nobody had written down
- Put reporting and CRM data into a state a buyer's diligence team could read
- Drafted equity, succession, and continuity terms while both partners still agreed
- Installed monthly growth review with pipeline stage gates and named channel owners
What it surfacedBy month 18 growth was no longer dependent on one advisor's relationships — the change that moved the firm from a book to a business.
Twenty-four months on
The numbers, including the ones that hurt
Every transition costs assets and growth. The only question is whether you priced it before you moved.
87%
Assets transferred in 90 days
94%
Assets transferred by month 12
6 of 94
Households lost
−22% year one, +34% year two
Net income vs. final wirehouse year
16 months
Time to pre-move organic growth rate
$310K
Revenue from the second channel by month 24
What this case does not prove
The same diagnostic tells plenty of advisors to stay
This team scored well on portability and household alignment, and those two dimensions are what make a transition survivable. Change either one — a real non-compete, a spouse who has not agreed to a 22% income year, a book that belongs to the branch — and the honest recommendation reverses. Independence is not a reward for ambition. It is a fit function, and the cost of getting it wrong is measured in clients you cannot get back.
Illustrative composite based on Green Byrd Advisory engagement work. Not a performance representation, a projection, or investment advice. Individual outcomes vary with agreements, market conditions, and execution.
Contact
Start with a candid conversation
Tell me what you are working on. I will come prepared with a point of view, and I will say so if this is not a fit.
- Response Time
- One business day, principal to principal.
- Discretion
- All inquiries handled in confidence. NDAs executed on request.