U.S. Advisor Metrics 2021
Client Acquisition in the Digital Age
Strengthen and Scale Advisor Relationships
- Understand business development strategies and sources of organic growth for advisor practices
- Review aspects of digital client acquisition (i.e., opportunities and challenges to building trust and demonstrating value in a virtual setting)
- Review the role of technology in advisor marketing and prospecting, including lead generation and investor engagement tactics
- Analyze dashboards designed to provide a comprehensive overview of advisor demographics, staffing, growth, and fees
- Evaluate 10-year historical market sizing trends and projections for the U.S. financial advisor marketplace across channels
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Summary
This report provides a broad and deep perspective on financial advisors, highlighting their most critical needs, risks, opportunities, and challenges. With a holistic perspective, the data and analysis cover financial advisors operating across all channels, including wirehouses, national/regional broker/dealers (B/Ds), independent B/Ds, hybrid registered investment advisors (RIAs), independent RIAs, insurance B/Ds, and retail bank B/Ds.
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A Note From the Author
Wirehouses Are Under Pressure to Preserve Marketshare

Marina Shtyrkov
Associate Director
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Marina Shtyrkov
Associate Director
Marina specializes in retail financial advisor trends across affiliation models. She is a member of the Intermediary practice, where she leads research for two annual reports. She also contributes to The Cerulli Edge series and generates quantitative analysis to support strategic consulting engagements.
Prior to joining Cerulli Associates, Marina was at Baystate Financial. In her role, she managed the pre-sales process for a financial planning practice, facilitated case design, and helped implement individualized client strategies.
Full biography here.
Wirehouses are projected to cede 6.5 percentage points of total asset marketshare by year-end 2025, mainly to hybrid registered investment advisors (RIAs), independent RIAs, and national/regional broker/dealers (B/Ds).
Marketshare in the RIA channels has continued to rise, largely at the expense of the wirehouse channel, which has now lost 6.2 percentage points in asset marketshare since 2010. This can largely be attributed to B/D breakaway teams looking for greater autonomy, the ability to build financial value in their businesses, and a more boutique environment.
National/regional B/Ds’ efforts to recruit wirehouse teams have also proved successful, due to their scale, comparable infrastructure, and advisor-centric firm culture. Cerulli expects the national and regional B/D channel (15.2%) to overtake the wirehouse channel (14.9%) in headcount marketshare as of 2021.
Understand the implications and plan your strategy for success with Cerulli’s latest report, U.S. Advisor Metrics 2021. With detailed analyses of advisor market sizing, client relationships, B/D support, investment decisions and product use, practice challenges, and growth opportunities, this research offers a comprehensive overview of the dynamics at play in the U.S. wealth management market.
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