At a glance
- Their number rose from 83 to 121 over the same five years, a 7.8% compound rate.
- RIAs with a brokerage affiliation grew from 104 to 186 over the same stretch, a 12.4% compound rate, while RIAs whose advisors hold state insurance licenses went from seven to 36, 37.3%.
- RIAs whose advisors hold state insurance licenses raised their share of segment assets from 7% to 14%, while hybrids with brokerage businesses held steady at 51%.
Fee-only RIAs with at least $5 billion in assets held 34% of that segment's assets in 2025, down from 42% in 2020, according to a Cerulli Associates white paper. Their number rose from 83 to 121 over the same five years, a 7.8% compound rate.
RIAs with a brokerage affiliation grew from 104 to 186 over the same stretch, a 12.4% compound rate, while RIAs whose advisors hold state insurance licenses went from seven to 36, 37.3%. The total population of $5 billion-plus RIAs rose from 194 to 343.
RIAs whose advisors hold state insurance licenses raised their share of segment assets from 7% to 14%, while hybrids with brokerage businesses held steady at 51%.
Cerulli defines true fee-only as having no affiliated broker/dealer and no license to sell insurance products. The comparison sets are RIAs whose advisors carry state insurance licenses—enough to offer fixed annuities, life insurance and, in some cases, fee-based variable annuity contracts—and RIAs with a broker/dealer affiliation for commission-based business. Credent Wealth Management commissioned the research, which included interviews with nearly two dozen wealth management executives.
The insurance cohort's 37.3% rate comes from a base of seven firms, so a modest number of additions swings the percentage. The brokerage comparison is sturdier: that category added 82 firms over five years while fee-only added 38.
These are category aggregates, not a study of firms that switched, and they do not establish that a fee-only practice that adds a license or affiliation grows faster. Brendan Powers, a senior director at Cerulli and head of its product development and institutional practices, said: "Because of how much market share the larger hybrids and independent with insurance licenses occupy, they are still growing at a faster pace and occupying more market share."
Powers also said fee-only firms are a larger share of RIAs below the $5 billion threshold and that the trend line would not change if the analysis were expanded beyond that segment.
Cerulli warns in the white paper that the "shrinking footprint" could make it "more challenging for clients to find a firm held exclusively to a fiduciary standard."
Reported by The Practice desk from WealthManagement.com and Cerulli Associates white paper, "Fee-Only, Fiduciary, and the Changing Landscape of Independent Advice". Published . Corrections