Breakaway advisor

A breakaway advisor is one who "breaks away" from an employee-model firm — typically a wirehouse — to operate independently, either by founding their own RIA, joining an existing one, or affiliating with an independent broker-dealer. The draw is usually ownership, flexibility, and economics; the friction is the transition itself.

Going independent means moving the book: repapering every client account onto a new custodian and, where the move is a Protocol move, taking the limited client information the Broker Protocol allows. The speed and cleanliness of that repapering largely determines how much of the book actually comes across.