Why female financial advisors are slow to embrace independence

As the breakaway movement accelerates across wealth management, one pattern is drawing scrutiny: female advisors are underrepresented among those making the leap to independence. According to a February 2026 Cerulli Associates report, roughly 9% of advisors — representing $3.1 trillion in assets — were expected to change firms in 2025, with 71% saying they would choose an independent channel if they switched. Yet the women driving those numbers remain a minority, and three senior women in the industry say the reasons run deeper than confidence alone.

Casey Jorgensen, chief growth officer at Cyndeo Wealth Partners, said the conversation has to start further back than the decision to go independent. "Some of what appears to be an independence gap is really a representation and ownership gap that starts much earlier in a female advisor's career," Jorgensen said, pointing to the fact that women remain underrepresented among lead relationship owners on advisory teams — a prerequisite for taking a book independent.

Jorgensen also cited loyalty to firms that helped build careers, the pull of institutional community and mentorship, and what she called a "time collision" between the career stage when advisors have enough client equity to go independent and the years when caregiving demands often peak. "Starting an independent business requires capital," Jorgensen said. "An advisor may be walking away from significant retention compensation while simultaneously funding a transition, investing in infrastructure, and assuming the financial risk of ownership."

Visibility and skepticism compound the hesitation

Amy Drinkard, partner and client advisor at Steadmont Advisors — the Birmingham, Alabama-based independent RIA that has previously discussed its own breakaway experience with InvestmentNews — said the scarcity of visible female role models in the space raises the perceived risk of leaving. "Without seeing other women who have done this and thrived, the move can feel riskier than it actually is, simply because there is less proof of concept to point to," Drinkard said. She added that women in the industry are "often second-guessed more on whether their book will transfer or whether they can run a business, even when their track record says otherwise."

Timing compounded the pressure in her own transition. "I found out I was pregnant with our third about three months after we broke away," Drinkard said. "If I had not had a phenomenal team around me, I don't know how I would have gotten through that timing."

Brittany Hartnett, principal partner and chief growth officer at OpenArc Corporate Advisory, said perceived risk — both at home and at work — is often the deciding factor for advisors who stay put, regardless of gender balance within her own firm. "They may feel significant responsibilities to their families while also believing that transitioning to independence and running a firm is more complex and risky than they have appetite for," Hartnett said.

What women say would close the gap

Jorgensen pointed to four priorities: ownership, capital, community and infrastructure support. "The industry has spent a lot of time encouraging women to become financial advisors," she said. "The next frontier is encouraging women to become owners of advisory businesses." Drinkard agreed that peer networks matter most. "Hearing directly from other women who made the move, including what was hard and what they wish they had known, does more to build real confidence than any amount of marketing material from a custodian or platform," she said, adding that women need "the same on-ramps to funding that have existed informally for men for years, just made explicit and accessible."

Hartnett emphasized support at home during a launch, along with experienced transition partners. "Business partners — both internally and externally — who have navigated a transition before can help you know what to expect and what to do next," she said.

Ownership pays forward

Once independent, all three said the benefits extended beyond their own practices. Jorgensen said independence lets owners "design career paths, compensation structures, parental leave, flexibility, succession opportunities, and ownership pathways" around their own teams rather than corporate policy — "one woman gaining ownership can create opportunities for many more women behind her," she said. Hartnett recently wrote her own advisor maternity leave policy for two expecting advisors on her team, rather than defaulting to a wirehouse's standard terms. Drinkard said the shift unlocked creativity she hadn't tapped in a larger firm: "You start tapping into parts of your brain you never had the chance to use before, simply because now it's actually an option."