The Advisor's Growth Hack You're Not Using

Why Buying AUM Beats Social Media Shenanigans

Let's face it – we've all done it. Sat through that webinar promising "10X Your Prospect List with LinkedIn," or shelled out for the "Ultimate Client Acquisition System" that ended up being about as useful as a chocolate teapot. All while watching our marketing budget bleed out faster than our enthusiasm.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most financial advisors are absolutely terrible at marketing. There, I said it. We're brilliant at managing money, crafting thoughtful financial plans, and holding clients' hands through market turbulence – but ask us to create a viral TikTok or design a "customer journey" and suddenly we're all thumbs.

But what if I told you the most successful advisors in our industry aren't marketing wizards at all? In fact, they've completely sidestepped the marketing hamster wheel altogether.

The Changing of the Guards (And Why It's Your Golden Ticket)

There's a fascinating demographic shift happening in our industry that's creating what I can only describe as an arbitrage opportunity of epic proportions. As Baby Boomer advisors head for the exits, many with substantial books of business they've built over decades, an enormous transfer of AUM is underway.

This changing of the guards has created a unique window for entrepreneurial advisors to build monster-sized practices without the traditional growing pains. All while most of the industry remains obsessively fixated on chasing prospects through increasingly expensive marketing channels.

Think about it this way: which sounds easier?

A) Spending the next five years trying to convince strangers on the internet to trust you with their life savings through a carefully curated Instagram presence

OR

B) Acquiring a $100M book from a retiring advisor who's already done the hard work of building those relationships

When you put it that way, it's almost comical how much time and money we collectively spend on option A.

The Elite Advisor Flywheel: AUM Acquisition on Steroids

Let me introduce you to a concept I call the Elite Wealth Advisor Flywheel 2.0. It's not entirely my invention – the smartest advisors in the industry have been quietly using variations of this model for years – but I've refined it based on observations of practices that have achieved stratospheric growth rates.

The traditional Elite Advisor Flywheel looked something like this:

1. Acquire AUM from retiring advisors or those leaving the business

2. Grow those accounts by capturing outside assets through enhanced service

3. Sell off the clients who aren't a good fit

4. Hire associate advisors to manage portions of the book

5. Sell some AUM to those associates

6. Improve your service model to attract referrals from existing clients

7. Rinse and repeat

This model works – quite well, in fact. But there's a bottleneck: you. As long as you're the hub that everything flows through, your growth will always be constrained by the number of hours in a day and clients you can personally manage.

The CEO Advisor Model: Flywheel 2.0

The most forward-thinking advisors have evolved this model further by fundamentally changing their role from "advisor to every client" to "CEO of an advice business." This subtle shift creates exponential growth potential.

Here's how Flywheel 2.0 works:

1. Recruit and train exceptional associate advisors (This is now step one – notice the difference?)

2. Acquire AUM from retiring advisors or those leaving the business

3. Immediately allocate newly acquired AUM to your associate advisors

4. Grow those accounts by capturing outside assets through enhanced service

5. Improve your service model to attract referrals from existing clients

6. Sell off the clients who aren't a good fit for your approach

7. Eventually sell portions of your AUM to your associates as part of your own succession plan

The key difference? You're building a wealth management machine rather than a practice dependent on your personal bandwidth. Your associates become the primary relationship managers from day one, freeing you to focus on the highest-leverage activities: finding more acquisition opportunities and managing the team.

Why This Is a Win For Literally Everyone Involved

Let's break down why this model creates so much value:

For clients: Instead of being "orphaned" when their advisor retires (or worse, shuffled into a call center), they get a dedicated advisor who's energetic, eager to prove themselves, and backed by an experienced team.

For associate advisors: They get to skip the brutal early years of building a book from scratch and immediately start working with substantial assets. No cold calling, no awkward client appreciation events at the local winery hoping someone brings a friend.

For retiring advisors: They get a premium valuation for their life's work and confidence their clients will be well-served.

For you: You create a scalable business machine that can grow far beyond what you could build alone, plus you establish a built-in succession plan with motivated buyers already in your practice.

The Math That Will Make Your Head Spin

Let's get concrete about how powerful this approach can be:

Imagine you start with $100M AUM and bring on two associate advisors. You acquire another $100M from a retiring advisor and allocate it to your associates. Through enhanced service and planning, your team captures an additional 20% in outside assets from these clients within the first year.

You've now grown from $100M to $220M without a single cold call, social media post, or networking event.

Repeat this process twice more over five years, and suddenly you're managing north of $500M – a 5x increase that would be virtually impossible through traditional marketing methods.

And here's the truly beautiful part: because you're not spending 30% of your revenue on marketing like many growing RIAs, your profit margins can be substantially higher. This creates a virtuous cycle where you have more capital to fund additional acquisitions.

"But Where Do I Find These Retiring Advisors?"

I can hear the skeptics already: "Sure, this sounds great, but where exactly am I supposed to find these advisors willing to sell their book?"

First, they're all around you. Look at the demographics of our industry – the average advisor is in their late 50s, and a significant percentage are over 65 with no succession plan in place. This isn't some mythical unicorn; it's the dominant reality of our profession.

Second, these opportunities are rarely advertised. The best books never make it to the open market. This is a relationship business, which means you need to be proactively building connections with potential sellers long before they're ready to retire.

Some practical steps:

1. Make a list of all advisors in your firm/region who are over 60

2. Start having coffee with them with no agenda beyond building a relationship

3. When appropriate, ask about their long-term plans

4. Position yourself as a potential solution for when they're ready

Remember: this is a marathon, not a sprint. The best acquisitions often come after years of relationship building. But unlike the marketing lottery (where you might spend thousands on campaigns that generate zero clients), these relationships almost always bear fruit eventually.

Why Traditional Marketing Is a Sucker's Game

At this point, you might be wondering if I'm suggesting you abandon all marketing efforts. Not exactly – but I am suggesting you view marketing through an entirely different lens.

The dirty secret of our industry is that most marketing efforts produce inconsistent, unpredictable results that can't be reliably scaled. One advisor catches lightning in a bottle with a seminar series while another uses the exact same approach and gets crickets.

Think about it this way: how many advisors do you know who have predictably grown their practice year after year through marketing alone? Now compare that to how many have tried various marketing approaches with mixed results at best?

The modern marketing industrial complex – from social media agencies to digital lead gen platforms – is very good at selling hope to advisors desperate for growth. But the data on conversion rates tells a very different story.

Meanwhile, every dollar you spend acquiring AUM from a retiring advisor has a clear, measurable ROI. There's no guesswork, no "building your brand" with uncertain payoff. You know exactly what you're getting and what it costs.

Building Your Associate Advisor Dream Team

If you're convinced that the CEO Advisor model makes sense, the next question becomes: how do you find and develop these associate advisors who will be the engine of your growth machine?

This is where most advisors go wrong. They hire based primarily on experience or credentials, looking for mini-mes who can immediately handle client relationships.

The most successful implementing this model take a completely different approach. They hire for:

1. Learning velocity – How quickly can this person absorb new information?

2. Emotional intelligence – Can they build rapport and trust with clients?

3. Growth mindset – Are they constantly looking to improve?

4. Cultural alignment – Do they share your philosophy about wealth management?

Technical skills matter less than you might think. A smart, emotionally intelligent associate can learn financial planning. But someone with all the credentials in the world can't be taught empathy or work ethic.

The best associates typically come from:

• Recent CFP graduates hungry for opportunity

• Career changers with transferable relationship skills

• Junior advisors stuck at firms with no clear path to partnership

These individuals are often thrilled to join a growing practice where they'll have immediate client responsibility and a clear path to ownership – even if the initial compensation is largely salary with modest incentives.

Structuring the Perfect Deal

As you bring associates into your practice and begin allocating acquired AUM to them, compensation structure becomes critical. Get this wrong, and your beautiful flywheel will grind to a halt.

The most effective structures I've seen follow these principles:

1. Base salary plus variable compensation tied to retention and growth of their allocated book

2. Clear path to ownership of a portion of the book over time (typically 3-5 years)

3. Equity or profit-sharing in the overall practice to create alignment

This creates immediate stability for the associate while incentivizing the behaviors that drive practice growth. It also establishes a natural succession mechanism as associates gradually buy into the practice.

For example, an associate might start with a $75,000 base salary plus 20% of revenue on their allocated book. After three years, they begin purchasing 5% of their book annually at a predetermined valuation formula, eventually owning 25-30% of "their" clients while still participating in the overall practice growth.

The Service Model That Makes It All Work

None of this works without an exceptional service model that creates raving fans who stay with your practice through transitions and refer their friends.

The paradox here is that the best services models are both highly systematized and deeply personalized. Every client interaction follows documented processes, but feels completely customized to the client's needs.

The secret sauce? Technology as the backbone, with human touch at every critical juncture.

Leading practices implementing this model typically have:

1. Client journey maps detailing every interaction from onboarding through review cycles

2. Service tiers with clearly defined deliverables for different client segments

3. Technology stack that eliminates administrative friction and creates transparency

4. Communication protocols that ensure no client feels forgotten

This systematic approach is what allows associates to successfully manage relationships that might otherwise require decades of experience. The guardrails ensure quality while still allowing for personalization.

The Alternative Is Quite Dull, Isn't It?

When you compare the Flywheel 2.0 approach to the traditional advisor growth path, the difference is stark.

The traditional path means:

• Years of grinding to build a book client by client

• Constantly chasing the latest marketing fad

• Hitting growth plateaus as you reach capacity

• Working increasingly longer hours as your practice grows

• Struggling to find a succession solution as you approach retirement

The flywheel approach offers:

• Predictable, repeatable growth through acquisitions

• Leverage through a team of associates

• Consistently improving profit margins

• More time to focus on strategic opportunities

• A built-in succession plan

Put that way, it's hard to understand why every growth-minded advisor isn't adopting some version of this model.

Getting Started on Your Flywheel Journey

If you're intrigued by this approach but wondering how to take the first step, here's a simple roadmap:

1. Assess your current capacity. Do you have the financial resources to bring on an associate before acquiring additional AUM? If not, you might need to start with a smaller acquisition you can manage yourself.

2. Define your ideal acquisition target. What size book? What client profile? What geographic area? Get crystal clear on what you're looking for.

3. Start building relationships with potential sellers in your area. Remember, the best deals never make it to market.

4. Begin recruiting potential associates. Even if you're not ready to hire immediately, start building a pipeline of talented individuals who might be a fit down the road.

5. Document your service model. Before you can scale, you need systems that ensure consistent client experiences regardless of who's managing the relationship.

Final Thoughts: The Great Wealth Management Land Grab

We're in the early stages of what I believe will be the greatest transfer of client assets in the history of our profession. Trillions of dollars in AUM will change hands over the next decade as aging advisors exit the business.

The question isn't whether this transfer will happen – it's who will benefit.

Will it be consolidators and private equity-backed aggregators? Regional RIAs with acquisition war chests? Or individual entrepreneurial advisors who recognize the opportunity and position themselves accordingly?

I believe there's room for the smart, nimble advisor who embraces the CEO mindset and builds a practice designed for acquisition and scale. The window won't stay open forever, but for now, the opportunity is enormous.

So while your peers are busy debating whether to start a TikTok channel or hire that marketing agency promising doubtful returns, perhaps it's time to think bigger. There's a flywheel waiting to be spun.

What will you do with it?

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The Chairman’s Council | Strategy Playbook

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