Advisor transitions surge as firms rethink onboarding and retention

Advisor transitions have become one of the wealth management industry's defining operational challenges. According to a March 2026 report from recruiting and consulting firm Diamond Consultants, 11,172 experienced advisors – those with more than three years in the business – changed firms in 2025, a 16.2% increase from the 9,615 who moved in 2024. That surge, the largest annual jump the firm has tracked since it began measuring advisor movement in 2022, is forcing firms across the industry to confront a question that used to be treated as an afterthought: what actually makes a transition go well?

For advisors and their new firms alike, the answer increasingly hinges on planning, technology, and – above all – how the client experiences the move. 

Why advisors are weighing more than the payout

Wendy Harrison, vice president of transitions experience at Osaic, said advisors today are approaching affiliation decisions with a wider lens than she has seen in the past. Economics still matter, she said, but technology, succession planning, operational support, and the ability to deliver a differentiated client experience now carry more weight in the decision.

"They look for partners that help them build stronger businesses while creating more time to serve clients," Harrison said.

The biggest risk in any transition, according to Harrison, is allowing the process itself to become the client's experience of the move. "A successful transition requires disciplined planning, good data hygiene, proactive communication, and a coordinated team that keeps advisors focused on their clients rather than administrative tasks," she said. "The firms that consistently deliver the strongest outcomes recognize that successful transitions are as much about preserving client confidence as they are about operational execution."

Harrison said technology's role is to make the move feel smaller to the client, not simply faster for the firm. Digital onboarding, workflow automation, integrated data, and real-time visibility, she said, have turned advisor transitions from manual, ad hoc projects into coordinated, predictable ones.

Retention starts with choosing the right firm

Gregg Cummings, a wealth manager at Savvy Advisors, said the firms winning advisor moves right now are the ones that help deepen the advisor-client relationship rather than simply offering a bigger check. Cummings said Savvy's AI-enabled technology was a key reason he moved, freeing up time he now spends on clients rather than on investments and marketing administration.

"Beyond making the advisor's life easier, the technology and other resources need to work together to ultimately serve clients, which should always be the end goal," Cummings said. "Additionally, it's important not to jump from your current firm, but to your new firm based on it being the right destination for what you are looking to gain. There's a distinctive difference in my opinion."

Cummings acknowledged that some clients simply won't follow an advisor to a new firm, but said that risk shrinks considerably when the destination is right for both advisor and client. "In the end, you need to decide which firm is going to help you accomplish your goals in serving your clients going forward as well as one that will help you acquire business in the future," he said. "With that mindset, retention takes care of itself."

On the practical side, Cummings said advisors should understand both their current and new contracts in detail and provide requested information in the format their new firm needs to keep the process moving. "During my onboarding to Savvy, our team stayed in constant communication with daily updates and made adjustments when needed," he said. "It's also very important to have the advisor and transfer team be in sync with updates to clients along the way so they aren't left guessing and feel comfortable with the new firm."

Client communication during his own move relied on regular phone calls, backed up by email. "Technology is great, but nothing replaces the relationship the advisor has with their clients, so being hands-on is a best practice that can serve advisors well," Cummings said.

Planning and control are driving the decision to move

Rick Burgess, CEO of Forms Logic, said one factor behind the rise in advisor movement is a desire for greater control over business decisions – from asset mix, including alternative investments, to third-party asset managers and customized tech stacks. Higher payouts matter too, he said, but are rarely the sole driver. "Something we are seeing play a factor is that many more advisors are adding the ability to create firm value for an ultimate sale to either a junior advisor or a rollup firm into their transition planning process," Burgess said.

Every transition carries general risks – client attrition, data ownership questions, technology and operational hurdles, and potential income loss – though the specific exposure varies by firm and channel, Burgess said. A transition, he noted, is often the first time a client actively re-evaluates the relationship with an advisor, making trust and relationship-building central to retention.

Detailed planning down to every step of the process is critical, according to Burgess, though having the client data an advisor is legally allowed to bring may matter even more for execution. "The '80/20 rule,' or the idea that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients, is amazingly true in the financial services space," he said. "Transitioning advisors have an amazing opportunity to not only move to a potentially better home, but also trim their business to only include those clients that they want to focus on. While no transition has gone exactly according to plan, constant communication between all parties either helping or involved in the transition will ensure a smooth process."

Client communication, Burgess said, requires a clear plan for gathering missing data alongside a rationale for the move. "Advisors are great at running their businesses, but potentially moving several years of your client activity within a month or so is a full-time activity, so it is mission-critical for advisors to find help navigating the process from beginning to end," he said.