86% Of Brokers And Insurance Agents Want To Join An RIA Firm Hot
The sheer preponderance of independent brokerage reps and insurance agents who would at least like to try out life at an RIA was initially noteworthy enough to make me wonder if the question was worded in such a way that participants thought they were expressing abstract interest in the model or a concrete desire to work in it personally.
But Schwab says that the question was a noncommittal "How appealing is the idea of becoming an independent registered investment advisor at some point in the future?"
Interestingly, 92% of the reps already feel like "somewhat" to "completely" independent performers and 82% of their AUM are already in fee-based programs, so they see the RIA channel as the secret to growing their business and fine-tune their service offering and team.
Factors holding them back from taking that step include the economy and the small business tax environment.