themselves lacking a competent next generation.
Between the dropouts and the go-solos sit the majority of associate advisors— those trying to navigate these structural hurdles because they see the industry’ s long-term potential. Van Spankeren’ s advice to them is practical: Every lead advisor has a subset of clients they cannot serve well and would gladly hand off.
The Training Struggle Is Real
Most advisory firms did not grow up with formal training models. Instead, says Hannah Moore, a certified financial planner and founder of advisor training firm Amplified Planning in Richardson, Texas, the profession historically emphasized credentials.
“ Consistently what everyone would tell me is,‘ Earn a designation— go get your CFP,’” Moore says. While that’ s important,“ the training gap is how that knowledge is being applied in practice.”
The industry, she says, lacks a true residency model— one that systematically teaches early-career advisors how to translate technical knowledge into client conversations. Many firms rely on shadowing, informal coaching or outside vendors instead.
“ I saw a lot of inefficiencies, and that’ s when I thought being independent could really improve on the client experience,” says Thomas Van Spankeren. Rather than take his vision to an existing independent firm, he stepped into the independent RIA space last year with one other partner and launched Rise Investments in Chicago.
“ The lead advisor often has been too far away from client services to have that be a structured training program,” she says.“ And it’ s really hard to build that program for a new role in your firm.”
The problem is not confined to small practices. Firms of all sizes struggle to balance growth, service demands and mentorship. As a result, associate advisors often get stuck in administrative or support roles with no clear path to becoming client-facing or revenue-generating.
Data from the Kitces Report’ s 2024 advisor productivity study underscores why this matters. Advisors who spend time in structured junior roles— associate or service advisor positions— are significantly more productive later in their careers than those who start independently. Senior advisors with prior service-team experience generate nearly double the revenue of those who“ hang out the shingle” immediately.
What’ s The Path?
Yet many associates never reach that payoff. Mark Tenenbaum, director of advisor research at Kitces. com, says that a key reason advisors drop out of the industry is that they don’ t see meaningful progress.
“ They didn’ t understand the path,” he says.“ Or they understood it, but there weren’ t enough wins along the way to stick with it.”
Without early indicators of momentum— client exposure, measurable contributions, expanded responsibility— associate advisors often conclude that the profession itself is the problem rather than the structure around them. John Froberg, 30, encountered this early. His first exposure to the profession came through a 10-week internship at Northwestern Mutual.
“ It was a typical entry-level program where you call your friends and family and do whatever you have to do to sell as much as you can,” he says.“ Most people don’ t make it. And I was very much one of those. I got four weeks into that internship and said, well, I still want to be a financial advisor, but I’ m not ready to just go sell.”
His next firm, Siller & Cohen Family Wealth Advisors in New York, gave him six years to learn networking, collaborate with CPAs and attorneys, and build a small book of roughly 15 households. When he moved to IronBridge Wealth Counsel in Austin, Texas, he was able to buy those clients and bring them with him.
His productivity then accelerated once he focused on joint work with other advisors.“ There were partners and other advisors in the firm who were at or near capacity,” he says. In other cases, his colleagues had clients that weren’ t a good fit for their target markets and would hand them off to him.“ So in both joint work capacities and pure handoff capacities, I got the opportunity to work on those cases and didn’ t have to go out and find them myself.”
Now that he’ s IronBridge’ s director of planning, Froberg attributes much of his success to operational discipline— helping clients follow through on goals they have already articulated. He also says young advisors often miss things they could be doing that are right in front of them— what he calls“ inside-the-box” opportunities to grow.
“ How many advisors who have clients in their 60s and 70s have actively followed up on getting introduced to and speaking with their children?” he asks.“ That’ s a massive source of new assets.”
Owning Your Work
The most successful associate advisors do not wait for permission to be productive. Instead, they redefine productivity within their firm— and document it.
Dr. Julie Ragatz, vice president of financial planning and advisor growth at Carson Group in Omaha, Neb., says firms often undervalue how much associates contribute to asset retention.“ The effective servicing of a client relationship and the retention of client assets depends far more on the skills and competency of your service team than on the charisma of the lead advisor,” she says.
28 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2026 WWW. FA-MAG. COM