COVER STORY

Junior advisors are looking for credit and compensation as they build careers in businesses where the asset gathering has already been done.

By Jennifer Lea Reed

HOMAS VAN SPANKEREN, 33, ENTERED THE financial advisory industry in 2017 as an associate portfolio manager. His first job was to support the lead advisors at his firm, where he stayed for five years. He then took his advisory skills to a bank, with the goal of building his own book of business. But he stayed there only three years. A firm of his own was beckoning.

“ I saw a lot of inefficiencies, and that’ s when I thought being independent could really improve on the client experience,” he says. Rather than take his vision to an existing independent firm, Van Spankeren stepped into the independent RIA space last year with one other partner and launched Rise Investments in Chicago.

According to research last year from Boston-based Cerulli Associates, more than 70 % of rookie advisors drop out of the profession within five years, a startling attrition rate for a business built on long-term relationships and continuity. And then there are those, like Van Spankeren, who exit the talent pool by launching their own firm.

The reasons for either dropping out or going solo are largely the same: Large swaths of the industry are not set up to reward or develop young advisors who are not already“ asset magnets.” That means early-career professionals have to question how they will ever build a living— or find fulfillment— in their roles.

The irony is that firms widely agree on both the problem and the solution. Training, mentorship, and clearer career paths are frequently cited as antidotes. Yet in practice, many associate advisors remain stuck in roles that limit both their productivity— defined internally as revenue produced— and their earning power.

Productivity may be how advisory firms ultimately measure success, but the day-to-day responsibilities of associate advisors often tell a different story. They are paid to contribute to an outcome they can’ t often influence, and they fall prey to a vicious cycle: no clients, no credit; no credit, no advancement.

Still, in firms that take a collaborative approach to career development, junior staff can thrive and prove their worth more quickly.“ Historically in the advisor industry, the career path pipeline was basically [ that ] you give an advisor a phone and a phone book, and if they make enough sales, they pretty much stick around,” says Sydney Squires, who boasts the title of“ senior financial planning nerd” at consultant and research company Kitces. com, headquartered in Reston, Va.

Over the last 25 years, that old model has fallen away, she says, but that does not mean a clear replacement has emerged. More early-career advisors now arrive with strong technical training and credentials, but that alone does not prepare them to manage client relationships independently.

“ They’ ve got really great technical skills, but no one has any idea how to talk to clients,” she says.“ If you don’ t let advisors talk to clients until they’ re good at talking to clients, there’ s not a clear way to help them develop that.”

Van Spankeren, as the 50 % owner of Rise, which currently has $ 34 million in AUM and is registered in Illinois and Florida, says he now controls both how existing clients are served and how new clients are brought in, and he relishes the responsibility. He wasn’ t able to do that inside an established firm where senior advisors were reluctant to share clients.

“ We’ re at a very important point in the industry where those advisors are reaching retirement age, but they’ re not willing to let go of clients,” he says, adding that this is a detriment to those firms in the long term. Firms that hesitate to invest in the training of young advisors— and that includes a program of sharing certain clients— later find

IMAGERY VIA GETTY IMAGES JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2026 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 27