Nearly one in four affluent investors in the United States now holds both an advisor-led account and a self-directed investment platform - a pattern that new research identifies as a growing retention challenge for wealth management professionals.
According to the Coalition Greenwich Voice of Client – 2026 Wealth Study, roughly 22% of affluent consumers (defined as those with up to $5 million in investable assets) are using both a full-service advisor and a self-directed account. The survey drew on responses from more than 5,000 individual investors across the United States.
The data show that clients who maintain both account types are 67% more likely to consider switching or leaving their advisor than those who rely exclusively on advisor-led accounts. That figure, drawn from responses in which 15% of hybrid clients said they were actively considering or would consider switching their primary advisor, compared with 9% of advisor-only clients, puts a number to a threat that many practitioners have sensed but struggled to quantify.
The rise of zero-commission trading platforms since 2019 has steadily complicated the client relationship picture for full-service advisors. While roughly two-thirds of affluent consumers used a financial advisor in 2026, approximately 54% also used self-directed accounts during the same period - meaning the overlap between the two groups is substantial and, by the study's reckoning, consequential.
The research cautions against treating a self-directed account as automatic evidence of a deteriorating relationship. Kieran Bol, Director of Research and Analytics in Wealth Management at Crisil Coalition Greenwich in the United States, and co-author of the report Advised and self-directed: Winning the hybrid wealth client, pushed back on the conventional industry profile of the DIY investor.
"The stereotype of a self-directed investor is a young consumer who wants to bet on the market," Bol said. "In reality, relative to investors who rely solely on full-service advisors, those who use both advisor-led and self-directed accounts have a similar appetite for risk and are roughly the same age - with an average age of 63."
The study identified four distinct motivations driving hybrid behavior. Some clients simply enjoy picking stocks and use a separate account as a way to stay engaged with markets without altering their broader advisory relationship. Others are managing costs, diversifying across account types, or holding assets (such as cryptocurrency) that fall outside the scope of their advisor-serviced portfolios.
However, the study also found that hybrid clients are more price-sensitive, less convinced of the value of holistic advice, and three times as likely as advisor-only clients to be open to robo-advice. As InvestmentNews has previously reported, self-directed investors have shown increasing openness to paying for human advice - creating both an acquisition opportunity and a loyalty risk that advisors need to navigate carefully.
Beyond the headline switching statistic, the research surfaces a loyalty gap that compounds the retention problem.
Twenty percent of hybrid clients said they were not at all likely to follow their advisor to a new firm if that advisor were to move, compared with just 11% of advisor-only clients. For advisors who change firms - a dynamic that has accelerated in recent years - that gap represents a meaningful risk of asset attrition even when no immediate client dissatisfaction is present.
The findings also challenge advisors' assumptions about what percentage of the book is genuinely at risk. Less than half of hybrid clients said they prefer to work with an investment professional who can holistically meet their financial needs across investments, life insurance, banking, and taxes, compared to a majority of advisor-only clients who said the same.
That skepticism about the value of comprehensive advice is not unique to unhappy clients; it appears baked into the hybrid segment's orientation toward investing regardless of their satisfaction with a current advisor.
As InvestmentNews has covered, client retention is increasingly tied to the breadth of services advisors offer, with a separate 2026 Trust & Will survey finding that 68% of advised clients would consider switching to an advisor who offers estate planning services.
The Coalition Greenwich data extends that pressure point: clients who feel their advisor is not meeting their full range of financial needs are more likely to hedge by going elsewhere with a portion of their assets.
The report's practical recommendations center on transparency and diagnostic discipline. Nathaniel Brown, Director of Client Development in Wealth Management at Crisil Coalition Greenwich, framed the required shift plainly.
"In the age of DIY investing, advisors must cultivate open relationships in which clients are comfortable discussing their complete financial picture, which will position the advisor to provide comprehensive advice that takes into account all assets — including those with the advisor and elsewhere," Brown said.
The report advises advisors to move through four steps when engaging hybrid clients: discover by asking about assets held elsewhere, diagnose the client's motivation for maintaining a self-directed account, demonstrate the value of holistic planning through regular conversations about return on investment, and monitor for early warning signs of dissatisfaction.
For wealth management firms, the researchers recommend a candid assessment of whether product or platform gaps are driving clients to self-direct, and a serious consideration of whether offering in-house self-directed options or lower-cost digital advisory services could keep those assets - and those client relationships - closer to home.
The key point, the researchers argue, is that advisors must understand each client's motivation for using a self-directed account and build a strategy that serves both pure advisor-led and hybrid clients equally.
Firms that fail to make that distinction risk conflating benign DIY behavior with early-stage attrition and losing clients they could have retained.
As competition for affluent investors intensifies, the growing number of clients managing accounts on the side represents both a structural challenge and an opening for advisors willing to have frank conversations about the totality of a client's financial life. The 22% figure is not a ceiling - it is a baseline from which the hybrid client segment is likely to grow.
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