What Drives Growth for Financial Advisors? Evidence from a Multi-Year Survey

This paper uses one of the largest surveys of financial advisors to shed light on the key drivers of advisory firm growth. Firms offering a larger variety of services, such as education planning and account aggregation, experience a significantly higher growth in assets under management (AUM), revenue, and clients. Firms that source new clients from multiple sources and meet with more prospects also grow more. The strongest detractors from growth appear to be the rising average age of the client base and the lack of a succession plan or exit strategy