Abundance of Retiring Advisors Means Growth Opportunities

Q&A January 18, 2024 at 04:51 PM
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Retiring older male advisors are providing younger independent financial advisors, especially women, with a major chance to progress.

That is a point of emphasis for David Wood, founder and chief visionary officer of Gateway Financial Partners.

"The average financial advisor is a 65-year-old white male," Wood tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview. "There's an overwhelming need for advisors to pick up some of these practices from retiring advisors."

The "change in culture is going to help more women succeed," he argues.

Gateway, an office of supervisory jurisdiction of LPL Financial in Glastonbury, Connecticut, provides services to independent advisors in 27 states. The hybrid RIA supports more than 170 financial advisors overseeing $6.5 billion, with two-thirds operating under the Gateway brand.

Helping independents grow is chief among Wood's goals; in the past two years, Gateway has helped 25 advisors acquire other practices.

Its equity ownership program for employees and advisors, The Gateway Growth Partnership, introduced in June, provides assistance in that effort: Gateway takes a 15% to 20% revenue stake in the financial advisor's practice in exchange for a combination of cash and equity in Gateway's holding company.

Some advisors are using that money to make acquisitions.

In the recent phone interview with Wood, who was speaking from Glastonbury, he opines that now is "the best time ever to be in the financial services space" because of industry consolidation, more people needing financial advice than ever before and a third of advisors planning to retire in the next decade.

Here are highlights of our conversation: 

THINKADVISOR: How have you mainly helped your advisors grow?

DAVID WOOD: Through mergers and acquisitions. We've probably helped 25 advisors in the last two years [acquire] other practices.

That's going to continue as a third of this industry retires. There's an overwhelming need for advisors to pick up some of these practices from retiring advisors.

Will that result in more women becoming financial advisors?

Female financial advisors are going to be one of the fastest-growing segments of financial advice because we're in a relationship business, and women are really good at that.

The industry has been saying that for about 20 years, and yet women make up only 27% to 31% of all advisors. The proportion has grown slowly. Why would it pick up speed and expand?

We've had a very male-dominated industry, and now those men are aging out. The average financial advisor is a 65-year-old white male.

As these advisors retire, we're seeing a big [increase] of mergers and acquisitions. 

With advisors' retirement over the next 10 years, that's going to create a void and also an opportunity: Women will continue to step in.

One of the big shifts is that a lot of older advisors who grew up in the business selling product are starting to retire.

This creates a change in the culture, which is going to help more women succeed.

Which change?

The industry has moved from selling product to a relationship business. There have always been relationships involved, but older advisors — myself included — were trained to sell stuff. 

Now we're more than ever in the planning and relationship business.

Women are better at that.

Tell me more about the opportunities for RIAs or hybrid advisors?

It's absolutely the best time ever to be in the financial services space because of, No. 1, the industry consolidation we've seen: In the last 13 years, 40% of broker-dealers have gone away.

So we have an ever-changing environment of how advisors affiliate.

No. 2: There's a bigger need than ever for financial advice: 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. And, according to a recent Cerulli [Associates] survey, clients are more willing than ever to pay for financial advice. 

Then you throw in what makes it a perfect storm: One-third of advisors are going to retire in the next 10 years.

Is there still a trend of breakaway brokers from wirehouses?

A huge trend. They become independent from the things at the wirehouse they didn't want and as an independent, have better control of their economics and more control and flexibility [in running their practice].

But the cost of that is that they have to do everything on their own — and they don't have a lot of time to do it.

So many of them are less independent in many areas than they were at the wirehouse, where they could dedicate all their time to serving the clients.

What are some things they have to deal with once independent?

Especially if they're RIAs, they have to deal with compliance and testing it, and of course technology, dealing with staff, marketing.

In many cases, they've had no experience doing these things, and they're also not very good at them, though they [may be] great advisors.

We'll continue to see a shift of advisors finding a home where they can get the independence they want — but they're trying to find the right level of support.

Broadly, what does your firm provide?

Front- and middle-office resources. Those have the biggest effect on the advisor's business. Things like front-end technology, marketing functions including branding.

About two-thirds of our advisors are under our Gateway Financial Partners brand. This creates the public perception that they're much larger than they are.

We do all the HR functions, and we have a virtual admin program.

If you're a solo advisor or a small ensemble shop, you don't need full-time people for doing social media, client experience or marketing. But you still need those resources.

We collaborate with people that specialize in them. On a very cost-effective basis, we give the advisor a lot more scale than they can ordinarily get on their own.

What do advisors need help with the most?

Taking away non-revenue-producing activities, which can [vary]. For some, it might be technology. For others, it might be HR because they don't want to deal with some of the staffing issues.

What are the advantages and benefits of your equity alignment program, The Gateway Growth Partnership.

About 60 of our employees and financial advisors have an equity interest in the organization. That makes a big difference in how we all work together as a firm.

Our program is a lot less restrictive than some offered by other firms. We give the advisors a lot of flexibility to continue to own their business and run their practice the way they want to with our help.

Partnering with an organization like ours gives them a lot more scale instantly.

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