Advisor moves jump 16.2% as the platform war moves to retention

InvestmentNews reported figures from a March report by Diamond Consultants, the recruiting and consulting firm, showing that 11,172 experienced advisors — those with more than three years in the business — changed firms in 2025, a 16.2% increase from the 9,615 who moved in 2024 and the largest annual jump the firm has tracked since it began measuring advisor movement in 2022. That surge is forcing firms to confront a question that used to be an afterthought: what actually makes a transition go well.

Wendy Harrison, vice president of transitions experience at Osaic, said advisors are approaching affiliation decisions with a wider lens than she has seen in the past: economics still matter, but technology, succession planning, operational support, and the ability to deliver a differentiated client experience now carry more weight. "They look for partners that help them build stronger businesses while creating more time to serve clients," Harrison said.

The biggest risk in any transition, Harrison said, is allowing the process itself to become the client's experience of the move; digital onboarding, workflow automation, integrated data, and real-time visibility, she said, have turned transitions from manual, ad hoc projects into coordinated, predictable ones. "A successful transition requires disciplined planning, good data hygiene, proactive communication, and a coordinated team that keeps advisors focused on their clients rather than administrative tasks," she said. The firms that deliver the strongest outcomes, she added, recognize that successful transitions are as much about preserving client confidence as they are about operational execution.

The title alone — vice president of transitions experience — is a measure of how far this has come: the role has moved from shepherding paperwork to preserving client confidence through the moment when confidence is easiest to lose. The technology conversation has moved from back-office automation to the client meeting itself, and the firms spending the most on retention are the ones that can show an advisor a better daily workflow, not just a bigger number.

Osaic's own month is a case study. PWD's records show the firm has put AI at the center of its retention pitch, naming its first chief AI officer, and landing the Sarsfield father-son team with a $367 million book — while watching a president leave for AE Wealth. That is the churn in miniature: the same firm pulling in teams and losing executives, all in service of the same platform story. AI's client-facing payoff will be won by whoever owns the cleanest integrated data, not the best model. The transition numbers are an early test of that thesis: advisors who move for a software story are betting their clients will feel the difference.

The Diamond data extends the talent-war case: the fight has shifted from team-level breakaways to custody and enterprise deals, and the custody layer is now the battleground. A bigger check can still win a single team, but teams that move for the check alone are the ones most likely to move again when a larger check arrives. The firms with an operational story — onboarding that is planned, technology that integrates, data that is clean — are buying something closer to loyalty.

The 11,172 count is now the benchmark: firms that treat transitions as a discipline will watch the 2026 number with some confidence, while those still leading with the biggest check are paying for the same advisor twice, once on the way in and once on the way out.