In many ways, the narrative around breakaway advisors has revolved around the “big three” custodians. But as more advisors leave wirehouses and broker‑dealers for the RIA channel, a growing share are choosing smaller, tech‑forward platforms to support the move – or at least to handle key slices of their business.
Executives at Axos Securities and Betterment Advisor Solutions say their firms are positioning themselves as flexible partners for advisors who want independence, modern infrastructure and less friction in the transition.
Mike Watson, executive vice president and head of Axos Securities, described a familiar migration path: advisors begin in the wirehouse world, move to an independent broker‑dealer, then eventually decide they have outgrown that model and want full control. At that point, many come knocking on Axos’ door.
"You just have a one-way street of people moving from brokerage commission‑based products to advisory types of solutions," Watson told InvestmentNews in an interview.
Alison Considine, head of strategy and business development at Betterment Advisor Solutions, says the breakaways working with her firm "run the gamut" from seasoned advisors who've been at a wirehouse or a broker-dealer for years to career changers launching their first RIAs.
At Betterment, many incoming advisors are frustrated when the demands of a firm pull them away from financial planning or client conversations.
“One might be … spending too much time on things that aren't what they want to be doing, which is focused on planning, focused on advice for their clients,” Considine said. Outdated systems and fragmented tech stacks compound that issue, so breakaways are “wanting to be more intentional about the technology they're choosing to improve things.”
Control is the other big theme she sees among advisors going indie. Advisors want to set their own pricing, choose products that align with their values and design a practice that reflects how they believe fiduciary advice should be delivered. “Going independent allows them to deliver better outcomes for clients because they can design everything themselves and make those really intentional choices as a fiduciary,” she said.
Watson hears something similar from teams coming off large broker‑dealers. They may have already shifted most of their revenue to advisory fees, but still feel hemmed in by compliance frameworks and economics they don’t control. Many are also sensitive to how large firms mark up pricing on tools and vendors.
He pointed to platforms that charge extra for basic capabilities – logging into technology, viewing accounts, or even trading them – on top of a payout that will never reach 100%. Over time, those layers of cost become “another fee” on top of everything else. To distance itself from that model, he says Axos emphasizes transparent schedules with no hidden markups.
Leaving a wirehouse or broker‑dealer is not just a business decision; it's a deeply personal moment that puts client trust on the line.
“Making the choice to go independent and then moving the client assets is definitely a really important moment,” Considine said. “The stakes are high because the clients are involved as well.”
For Betterment, that means designing bespoke transition plans through its platform solutions team, which she said works “really hands‑on with advisors to design a transition plan based on the firm's unique situation and needs, and then create clear timelines and next steps." That includes drafting client communications, facilitating digital account opening and coordinating ACATS transfers.
While the traditional “repapering” process has long had a reputation as “quite a headache,” Considine argued that fully digital account opening with “no paperwork or signatures required” can compress timelines from several months into a matter of weeks for advisors who are ready and proactive with client outreach.
Watson described a similarly high‑touch but tech‑enabled approach. Axos leans on what he called a “high stakes, high touch” model, then augments that with artificial intelligence so advisors do not spend weeks buried in spreadsheets and forms.
“You're trying to get information so we can get those accounts opened,” he said. Much of that data already exists in statements and systems; the challenge is converting it into clean, structured onboarding files. As Watson tells it, Axos creates repositories of client information and uses AI agents to extract names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other required fields, then populate paperwork from the advisor’s own source documents.
In one recent case, Watson said, Axos prepared everything in advance while an advisory team waited for its new RIA registration to go effective. When the green light came, “we were just waiting with them to say, 'When do you want to do it?' And we did everything over a weekend ... no big deal.”
Given the dominance of the big three custodian firms, both executives are realistic about where smaller players fit in the landscape. They acknowleged that many RIAs will remain multi‑custodial – for better or worse – largely in an effort to balance big names against scrappy challengers.
“We don't have any minimums to get started on our platform,” Considine said. “Some will use us as an all‑in‑one platform to launch their whole business. And then others will use us as a platform for a segment of their clients alongside other custodians.”
She framed Betterment’s advantage in simple terms. “For us it boils down to two things. It's great technology and great service and support,” she said.
On the tech side, Betterment is a “fully integrated custodian” that combines custody with portfolio management, billing, and paperless onboarding in a single interface. That can reduce the patchwork of point solutions many RIAs juggle today, freeing up more time for client work.
On the service side, Considine said the firm wants to deliver robust support regardless of AUM. Beyond its transition team, she said advisors have access to regional sales representatives who act as practice management consultants, and day‑to‑day support staff handling “any tactical questions advisors have.”
At Axos, Watson also put service at the center of the value proposition. “Service is a strategic differentiator, and service shows up more than just how you answer the phone,” he said, stressing an ethos of being proactive, focusing on outcomes rather than outputs, and empowering teams to make faster decisions.
Axos’ roots as a digital bank matter too, he argued. Being “part of a digital bank that's leveraging AI and automation” means routine processes are built to be straight‑through rather than falling into manual queues. The bank‑brokerage integration also allows Axos to offer business banking, working‑capital lines, and other services that support RIAs as operating companies, not just as investment managers.
Watson also drew a sharp line between Axos and custodians with retail advice arms or proprietary products. The firm chose to enter securities “as a service provider,” he said, rather than building its own wealth management arm.
"We could have built our own wealth management arm, but we chose not to. We don’t manufacture asset management products that compete with the asset managers our clients use," he said. "Our goal is to complement what our advisor clients do, not to compete with them. That positioning is powerful for us as a challenger custodian."
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