Wealthcare, Mariner pitch 1099 affiliation to advisors fed up with Form ADV work

The SEC asked 104 questions, all about cybersecurity, in an audit of one of Wealthcare Capital Management's Form ADVs last year, Matt Regan, the firm's president, said at RIA Edge Orange County on Wednesday. For a $250 million practice, Regan said, getting through that is six weeks of work it cannot spare.

"You're dead in the water for six weeks," Regan said, according to WealthManagement.com's account of the panel. He said advisors of that size are the ones approaching his firm about shutting down their own ADV and joining Wealthcare's 1099 platform, a move he attributed to rising reporting requirements tied to wealth technology.

Regan shared the stage with Rob Sandrew, head of Mariner Independent, Mariner's 1099 independent-contractor division. Both men were pitching 1099 affiliation to the RIA audience as a path to shed obligations while keeping a firm's brand and identity, per the report.

Wealthcare, owned by insurance holding company Sammons Financial Group, runs a 1099 aggregator alongside a W-2 employee platform. Mariner Independent is 1099-only, though Sandrew said advisors can consider moving to Mariner's employee-owned RIA at a later stage.

Sandrew's argument for platform scale rests on technology spending rather than compliance. He said AI advancements will push solo practitioners toward larger firms out of fear of being outspent, and predicted a widening gap. "There is going to be a massive consolidation and massive chasm between the haves and have-nots going forward," he said.

As this publication reported, Mariner budgeted $175 million for bots, a purchase framed as much around supervision and review standards as technology. Per WAD's records, Mariner reported $125.4 billion in regulatory assets and 1,889 employees as of Oct. 17.

An audience member asked whether advancing wealth technology might make it cheaper, not harder, to run a solo practice. Regan agreed with the premise but held his ground: "supported independence," he said, lets RIAs keep their clients, preserve the option to monetize the business and "not spend time on things they shouldn't be spending on."