The Research

Advisor Dependency Risk, by the numbers.

The transition facing wealth management is already underway. These are the figures behind it, and the sources they came from.

105,887

Advisors heading toward retirement within the next decade, representing 37.4% of industry headcount and controlling 41.4% of client assets.

Cerulli, U.S. Advisor Metrics 2024
42%

Of RIAs had a written succession plan in 2024, the lowest share recorded since DeVoe began tracking it in 2019.

DeVoe & Company, 2024 Talent Management Report
72%

Rookie‑advisor failure rate, compounding a retirement wave the industry isn’t replacing fast enough.

Cerulli, U.S. Advisor Metrics 2023
75% / 52%

Share of top‑performing firms with a written succession plan, versus firms under $250M in AUM.

Schwab, 2024 RIA Benchmarking Study
20%

DeVoe’s Next‑Gen Affordability Index in 2024, down from 38% in 2021 as internal succession became harder to finance.

DeVoe & Company, 2024 RIA M&A Outlook
11.6x

Median RIA EBITDA multiple across 60 transactions completed in 2025, up 5% from the prior year.

Advisor Growth Strategies, 2026 RIA Deal Room Report

Wealth management is one of the few professional industries where its most valuable asset, the client relationship, is typically owned by an individual advisor rather than the firm itself. That is what makes the numbers above so consequential, and why that exposure surfaces as succession risk, recruiting friction and a capped valuation.

The White Paper

A book of business is worth what it produced last year.
An enterprise is worth what it can produce without you.

From Practice to Enterprise sets these figures in context: what drives Advisor Dependency Risk, why succession keeps slipping, and how firms deliberately build transferability and enterprise value.

Read the White Paper → 15 pages · opens in your browser
Cover of the Proso Capital white paper, From Practice to Enterprise
Sources

Where the numbers come from.

  • Cerulli AssociatesU.S. Advisor Metrics 2024 and 2025; “The Financial Advisor Industry Has a Headcount Problem,” January 2024.
  • DeVoe & Company2024 Talent Management Report, as reported in PLANADVISER, December 2024; RIA M&A Outlook survey, as reported in Wealth Solutions Report, December 2025.
  • Schwab Advisor Services2024 RIA Benchmarking Study; Independent Advisor Outlook Study.
  • McKinsey & Company“The advisor shortage in US wealth management,” February 2025.
  • Mercer Capital“Succession Planning and Its Impact on RIA Valuations,” May 2025.
  • MarshBerry“Built to Last: Successful Succession Planning for RIAs,” December 2025.
  • ECHELON Partners2025 RIA Deal Report, summarized in InvestmentNews, February 2026.
  • Advisor Growth StrategiesRIA Deal Room; “Why Growth Alone No Longer Drives Premium RIA Valuations,” 2026.
  • Investment Adviser Association with COMPLY2025 Investment Adviser Industry Snapshot, figures reported in InvestmentNews, May 2025.
  • Adastra Equity“RIA Valuation: Multiples and What Your Firm Is Worth,” 2026.

Figures are reproduced as published by the original source. Proso Capital has not independently verified underlying source data beyond the citations shown. Deal and valuation figures aggregated across multiple reports should be treated as directional rather than exact. This page is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice.

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