Under $100M in AUM: Six Options for Advisors Who Want Out
The independence pitch is written for a book you don't have. It assumes $150M, a team, and a payout math where keeping 65 cents on the dollar clears a fixed-cost floor without straining. Under $100M, the same floor eats a punishing share of your revenue, and you've probably already run the spreadsheet that says so. The recruiters stop returning calls at your deal size. That doesn't mean you're stuck — it means the honest set of moves is different from the one being marketed, and nobody's laid it out for you because there's no commission in it.
There are six doors. This walks all of them at your size specifically — what the economics actually are, what you give up, what you keep, and who each one genuinely fits. Then it names the floor plainly, because the floor is the reason the default answer doesn't work and the reason the other five doors exist.
The fixed-cost floor, said plainly
Start here, because every option below is measured against it. A bare solo RIA — you doing everything, no staff — runs an overhead floor of roughly $25,000 to $40,000 a year: compliance, E&O and cyber, a basic tech stack, registration. Add one admin or paraplanner and the loaded cost jumps to roughly $85,000 to $120,000 a year.
Now put revenue against it. At a roughly 1% fee, $50M of AUM is about $500,000 in gross revenue; $75M is about $750,000. The recruiter version quotes you the 85% take-home ceiling and stops. The honest version subtracts a market rate for your own labor and any support you actually need, and lands at 55% to 65% of revenue, not 85%. At $50M, that's a real net around $275,000–$325,000 for running the whole thing solo — workable if you want to wear every hat, thinner the moment you hire. And below roughly $30M to $40M in AUM, a staffed standalone shop stops penciling at all: the floor consumes too much of too little revenue for a hire to make sense.
That is the number the independence pitch leaves out, and it's why "just go independent" is advice for a bigger book than yours. It is not, however, the end of the conversation. It's the start of a better one.
The six doors
Each of these keeps something and costs something. The right one depends on what you're actually trying to get out from under — the payout, the operational burden, the lack of ownership, or the channel itself.
| Option | Economics at this size | You give up | You keep | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Tuck-in to an existing RIA | Plug into the host's compliance, tech, and back-office; skip months of setup and the startup cost. Payout below owning your own RIA, but you clear no fixed-cost floor of your own. | Some autonomy over investment and business decisions; a lower valuation on your book than a standalone RIA would fetch. | Book ownership, most of the independence economics, a far faster and cheaper move. | Advisors who can't clear the floor alone but want to stay an owner with a path to more. |
| 2. Join an RIA as a partner, with an equity path | Trade some near-term cash comp for equity that vests over time, plus team scale a solo can't build alone. | Full independence and part of current cash comp; you're now a minority partner under someone else's governance. | A share of enterprise value — the thing solo practices struggle to monetize — plus growth and succession. | Advisors who value long-term equity and a succession answer over maximal current payout. |
| 3. Supported-independence / platform model | Most of the independent payout without owning the compliance and tech burden; the platform takes a split or fee in exchange for the back office. | A revenue split and some control; you don't own the full stack you're operating on. | Independence-lite economics with the operational floor carried by someone else. | Advisors who want the independent payout but not the fixed-cost floor or the operational load. |
| 4. Change broker-dealers | An independent-BD move can pay a forgivable loan around 150–200% of trailing-12 production over a 7–10 year term, on a higher grid (independent BD grids commonly reach ~90%). | RIA-level fiduciary independence and enterprise-value creation; the note is golden handcuffs — leave early, repay the balance. | Your commission and brokerage business, an upfront check, and a higher payout than a wirehouse. | Advisors with meaningful commission business who aren't ready to run a fee-only RIA. |
| 5. Lateral to another employee channel | Move to another wirehouse or regional as a W-2 employee and collect a recruiting deal — historically up to ~300% of trailing revenue for competitive books, mostly a ~9-year forgivable loan with retention hurdles. | Ownership, the higher independent payout, and enterprise value; you stay on a ~40–45% grid and remain subject to small-household haircuts and deferred comp. | A large upfront check, zero operational lift, firm-provided infrastructure and brand. | Advisors who prioritize a big check now and no operational burden over long-term economics. |
| 6. Sell and stay on as an employee advisor | Sub-$500M books usually price on recurring revenue (~2–4x) or ~5x EBITDA — well below the multiples big firms fetch. Cash at close has fallen to ~55–65%, with rollover equity and earnouts making up the rest. | Independence and full upside; a chunk of the consideration is deferred and at risk if retention slips. | A liquidity event now, a W-2 salary as an employee advisor, and some second-bite upside through rollover equity. | Advisors near retirement or without a successor who want to monetize and de-risk. |
1. Tuck-in to an existing RIA
A tuck-in is the middle ground between a wirehouse and full independence. You bring your book to an established RIA and plug into its compliance, technology, and back office — "plug and play" — skipping the months of setup and the startup cost of standing up your own firm. You keep ownership of your book and a path to more independence later. What you trade is some autonomy over investment and business decisions, a payout below what owning your own RIA would pay, and a lower valuation on your book than a standalone RIA would command, because a book sitting inside a larger firm is worth less than the firm around it. The buyer universe at your size is mostly other individual advisors and small tuck-in acquirers — the large platforms mostly hunt in the $100M–$1B range — so the deal is personal and negotiated, not a program. It fits the advisor who can't clear the fixed-cost floor alone but isn't willing to stop being an owner.
2. Join an RIA as a partner, with an equity path
One step past a tuck-in: instead of parking your book under a host, you become a partner and earn equity that vests over time. You trade some near-term cash comp for a share of enterprise value and, usually, team scale and specialist depth a solo practice can't build alone. The cost is real — you're now a minority partner under someone else's governance, your equity is deferred and illiquid, and full independence is off the table. But you're buying the one thing sub-scale solo practices consistently fail to monetize: an ownership stake in something saleable, plus an actual succession answer. It fits the advisor who values long-term equity and a way out at the end over maximal current payout, and who would rather join a growing organization than try to become one.
3. Supported-independence / platform model
Here a platform carries the compliance, technology, and back office and takes a split or fee in return, so you get most of the independent payout without owning the operational stack. The unit economics explain why it works: a $100M RIA at a 1% fee produces about $1M in revenue and would spend only $20,000–$50,000 a year on technology, while the custodian earns $100,000–$200,000+ off that same $100M in client assets. That spread is what lets platforms bundle a back office for a haircut on your payout. Small and mid-sized advisors are increasingly closing their own RIAs to join these platforms precisely to escape rising compliance, tech, and staffing costs. You give up a revenue split and some control, and you don't own the full stack you're operating on — but you also never have to clear the fixed-cost floor yourself. It fits the advisor who wants the independent payout without the operational load.
4. Change broker-dealers
If what you're escaping is the wirehouse specifically — not commissions, not being an employee — moving to an independent broker-dealer keeps your brokerage business intact while raising your payout. Independent-BD deals commonly pay a forgivable loan around 150–200% of trailing-12 production over a seven-to-ten-year term, on a grid that frequently reaches ~90%. You keep your commission and brokerage business and collect an upfront check, at a higher payout than a wirehouse pays. What you give up is RIA-level fiduciary independence and any enterprise value you'd build as an owner — and the note is golden handcuffs: leave before it's forgiven and you repay the unforgiven balance. It fits the advisor with meaningful commission business who isn't ready to run a fee-only RIA but wants off the wirehouse grid.
5. Lateral to another employee channel
The simplest door, and the one recruiters push hardest: move to another wirehouse or regional as a W-2 employee and collect a recruiting deal — historically up to around 300% of trailing revenue for a competitive book, mostly structured as a roughly nine-year forgivable loan with back-end retention hurdles. You keep a large upfront check, zero operational lift, and firm-provided infrastructure and brand. What you give up is ownership, the higher independent payout, and enterprise value: you stay on a ~40–45% grid and remain exposed to small-household haircuts and deferred-comp forfeiture. Be honest with yourself about the headline percentage — it's gross, forfeitable if you leave early, and taxed as ordinary income as it's forgiven, not free money. It fits the advisor who genuinely values a big check now and no operational burden over the long-term economics.
6. Sell and stay on as an employee advisor
If you're near the end, the honest door is to sell. Sub-$500M books usually price on recurring revenue (~2–4x) or about 5x EBITDA — well below the 13–15x that billion-dollar fee-only firms command — and deal structure has shifted: cash at close has fallen from roughly 80% in 2019 to about 55–65% in 2024–26, with the balance in rollover equity (20–40%) and earnouts (10–25%) often tied to retention. You give up independence and full upside, and a real chunk of the consideration is deferred and at risk if retention slips after you hand over the relationships. You keep a liquidity event now, a W-2 salary as an employee advisor, and a second bite through rollover equity. It fits the advisor near retirement or without a successor — and roughly a quarter of advisors retiring within ten years have no succession plan at all — who wants to monetize the book and de-risk while they still can.
How to read the matrix
The six doors sort onto two questions. First: do you want to keep owning something, or are you ready to trade ownership for a check and someone else's back office? Options 1, 2, and 3 keep you an owner or an equity holder; options 4, 5, and 6 trade some or all of that away for cash, infrastructure, or a clean exit.
Second: what are you actually escaping? If it's the payout, the supported-independence and tuck-in doors move the number most without the full floor. If it's the operational burden you fear as a solo owner, that's exactly what the platform and tuck-in models carry for you. If it's the lack of ownership, the partner-track door is the one that builds the equity a solo book rarely monetizes. If it's the channel itself — the culture, the grid, the bureaucracy — and you're not ready for fiduciary life, changing broker-dealers or lateraling keeps you employed while getting you out. And if you're near the end and want to monetize, the sixth door is the honest one nobody at a platform will steer you toward.
Where FastTrackr fits
Every one of the six doors moves client data — and at your size, the data move is the transition cost you have the most control over. FastTrackr builds every household from your existing documents and generates the repapering onto whatever platform you land on, so the move stops being the weeks-long, error-prone part. You can't cut the compliance floor; you can make the data cost close to zero. At sub-$100M that's exactly the kind of leverage the math needs.
The thing the spreadsheet doesn't capture
If the numbers were the whole story, this article could end at the floor and tell you to stay put. But you didn't get here because a spreadsheet came out wrong. You got here because something about where you are isn't working — the grid, the bureaucracy, the ceiling on how you serve clients, the sense that you're building someone else's enterprise. A cost floor doesn't answer that, and pretending it does is exactly the scolding that sends sub-scale advisors away from honest advice and back into the arms of whoever will flatter the plan.
So the floor is real and the default answer — go fully solo independent — is genuinely hard to make work under about $40M with staff. Both things are true. What's also true is that "independence" was only ever one of six doors, and it's not the one that fits most books your size. The tuck-in, the partner track, and the platform model exist precisely for the advisor the pure-independence math leaves behind, and each of them gets you meaningfully more of what you're after without asking you to clear a floor you can't clear alone.
Start by naming which of the four things you're escaping — payout, burden, ownership, or channel — because that answer picks your door faster than any calculator will. If you want to see how the ownership doors actually pay out over five years, run your figures through the full map of your options. And if part of what you're weighing is the biggest employee-channel check on the table, the wirehouse-to-independent path lays out what that trade really costs. Six doors. You only need one of them to open.
