Strategic Planning: The Setup for Proactive, Team-Aligned Execution That Drives RIA Growth

The numbers speak for themselves: According to Schwab’s 2024 RIA Benchmarking Study, 82% of top-performing RIAs (the top 20%) have a written strategic plan—compared to only 44% of firms under $250 million in AUM and 68% of those above that mark. It’s hard to ignore the clear correlation between strategic planning and firm performance: lasting, sustainable growth doesn’t just happen; it comes from being intentional.

This spread makes sense. Most firms around the $250 million mark are typically run by one or two advisor/owners with maybe 2-3 other teammates, where the focus has been on prospecting and great client service. But as you add more people to your team, you need to start laying the groundwork with clear direction and strategy instead of just grinding forward. You shift from managing a practice to running a real businessa with a team. Scaling demands a plan—a cohesive vision that aligns your team, prioritizes long-term goals over daily distractions, and pushes you to lead, not just advise.

When strategic planning is done with the right mentality and framework, you’re set up to witness the proactive, team-aligned execution needed for sustainable growth. I’m not here to break down every tactical step of strategic planning today; rather, I want to show why a well-executed plan is crucial. Simply going through the motions won’t automatically make you one of those top performers from the Schwab study—it’s about laying the groundwork to execute properly.

When your team truly understands where you’re headed and why it matters, your firm becomes a magnet for top advisors, talent, and clients who want to be part of something bigger. This is about building something bigger together—not just a practice—and getting everyone rowing in the same direction to finally break through those growth ceilings.

Proactive Planning = The Bedrock of Sustainable Growth

Too many RIAs spend their days putting out fires. That reactive approach leads to three big issues:

• Reactionary Decision-Making: Accepting clients indiscriminately rather than strategically selecting those who align with your growth trajectory.
• Unexplored Potential: Failing to fully capitalize on specialized market segments or expand service offerings strategically.
• Team Exhaustion: Advisors juggling an unsustainable combination of client relationships, new business prospecting, compliance requirements, and operational responsibilities.

In contrast, forward-thinking firms leverage strategic planning to:

• Anticipate Evolution: Identify potential resource gaps before they impede growth.
• Deploy Resources Strategically: Channel investments of time, capital, and talent toward the highest-impact initiatives.
• Capitalize on Market Opportunities: Confidently expand into new client niches or service offerings that prospective clients are demanding.

The point isn't about having a crystal ball; it's about being ready and prepared for what's next. Sure, your plan will evolve, but moving from reactive chaos to purposeful, proactive execution is what makes the difference between chasing your tail and making real progress.

Team Alignment & Buy-In = Rowing in the Same Direction

No matter how great your strategy looks on paper, it won't go anywhere without genuine team buy-in. Alignment doesn't mean everyone agrees on every detail; it means they're all moving forward with a shared goal.

Here’s how to build that alignment:

• Engage Everyone: Don't limit discussions to just your leadership. Junior advisors, ops staff, and paraplanners can often identify problems and opportunities you don't see.
• Disagree but Commit: Not everyone has to love every decision, but they do need to understand the reasoning and commit once the call is made.
• Assign Clear Ownership: Instead of vague goals like “improve client service,” set specific targets—like “reduce onboarding from 14 days to 7 days by Q3”—and assign one person to own each goal.

People support what they help create. Involving your team in the planning process builds the kind of energy and commitment that no memo can deliver. A fully aligned team executing a decent plan will always beat a fractured team chasing perfection.

Accountable Execution = No More "We'll Try"

Plans often fail because there’s no real accountability. You see it all too often: a big committee forms, responsibilities blur, and nothing gets done. To avoid this, you need a framework that works:

• Individual Ownership: Don’t leave critical tasks to vague groups. One person needs to be the go-to for each objective.
• Link Incentives and Consequences: As Charlie Munger famously said, “Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome.” Without clear rewards (or risks), nothing changes.
• Don't Tolerate Stagnation: If someone keeps saying, “I didn’t have time,” it’s time to reexamine their role and priorities. Mediocrity drains momentum.

We see this struggle a lot in RIAs where client-facing advisors try to run the firm. Saying “clients come first” often means there’s no time left for strategic work. To truly grow, you must separate these roles or set strict boundaries so that firm-building doesn’t get sidelined.

Leadership: The Foundation of It All

Strategic planning isn’t a once-a-year event—it’s a core leadership responsibility. Good leadership takes a plan from theory to reality.

Three non-negotiables for leaders:

• Transparency: Don’t leave your team guessing why big decisions are made. When they understand the rationale, they’ll be more willing to tackle the tough stuff.
• Empowerment: Delegate decision-making to those on the front lines. Often, the best insights come from those closest to the work.
• Communication: Hold regular team huddles and skip-level meetings to share wins, discuss challenges, and ensure everyone knows the goals. Keep it simple and avoid buzzwords—speak plainly about what matters.

At a recent Summit Growth Partners conference, reported on by WealthManagement.com, General Jim Mattis said, “In future battles, outcomes will depend on the aligned independence of subordinate units.” That’s exactly it—teams that understand the mission can make faster, smarter decisions on their own, which is half the battle in effective leadership.

Scaling Past $500M AUM = Where Leadership Begins to Matter Most

When RIAs hit the ~$500 million mark and aim for $1 billion or more, you face a crossroads. It’s not about giving up client work entirely—you simply need to be disciplined about dedicating 25-50% of your time to working on the firm. Here are your options:

• Transition Yourself: Shift from being a hands-on advisor to running the business like a CEO by setting aside dedicated time to focus on strategy and growth.
• Bring in Leadership: Alternatively, or in addition, bring on key leaders like a COO or CFO to manage the growing complexities.

Too many firms stall because the founding advisor remains so immersed in client work that there’s little time left for strategic growth. Carving out that crucial time for the business—and holding yourself accountable to clear, strategic goals—is essential for breaking through to the next level.

Becoming a Magnet = How a Strategic Vision Attracts Talent, Clients, and Ambassadors

A strategic plan isn’t just for internal organization—it’s a secret weapon for attracting top talent, winning new clients, and turning existing ones into passionate advocates.

Here’s why it works:

• Top Advisors: They want more than just a paycheck—they’re looking for a firm with a clear vision and real growth potential.
• Clients: They aren’t choosing a random wealth manager; they want to know where you’re headed and why it matters.
• Ambassadors: When clients see your clear direction and feel part of your story, they naturally spread the word, drawing in more like-minded people.

Think of your strategic plan as your firm’s story. When you clearly lay out where you want to be in the next three to five years, everyone—from top advisors to loyal clients—gets excited to be part of the journey.

How to Get Started

Feeling fired up but not sure where to begin? Here's a practical game plan:

1. Set a Date and Get Offsite: Block out time for a dedicated offsite meeting with your core team to kick things off. (Going offsite separates it from the typical day-to day operating of the firm.) It doesn't have to be perfect, and you certainly won't finalize your entire strategic plan in one day. Strategic planning is an ongoing process, and the plan will undoubtedly evolve over time.
2. Prepare the Right Deliverables: Before the meeting, give your team a meeting gameplan, combined with a clear list of questions and topics so they can arrive ready to share insights. Proper preparation is half the battle—outline what you want to discuss and make sure the right data or reports are on hand.
3. Define Your North Star: Use the offsite time to start sketching where you want the firm to be in the next 3–5 years. Don't worry about refining every detail; just get the big-picture vision on paper and look to work backwards on how you plan to get their
4. Assign Ownership: When you do establish actionable goals, make sure each one has a single owner. This stops things from slipping through the cracks.
5. Communicate Relentlessly: We recommend quarterly strategic planning sessions to keep momentum. Between meetings, hold short weekly huddles to track progress. Share wins, address hiccups, and keep everyone in the loop.
6. Include Everyone (in Some Capacity): Not everyone can attend every strategic session, but do gather feedback from frontline staff. As Elon Musk's skip-level meetings illustrate, those closest to the work often have the best insights.
7. Consider a Facilitator: If you're new to this process or uncomfortable leading these discussions, bring in a neutral third-party facilitator. They can surface the tough questions you might shy away from and ensure every voice is heard. Remember, it might take a few sessions to feel like you're making real progress—don't give up. The discipline of consistently refining your plan is what ultimately drives growth and keeps everyone working together toward your evolving North Star.

Concluding Thoughts

Most RIAs won't do any of this if they aren't already. They'll keep going with business as usual, see incremental growth at best, and call it a day. But if you want something bigger—if you're truly serious about scaling—here's what you should remember:

• Lead, don't just advise: Decide if you’re going to lighten your client load or bring in dedicated leadership to steer the ship.
• Align, don't just plan: Involve your whole team in building the plan—this is how you spark real commitment.
• Execute, don't just hope: Hold people accountable, assign clear ownership, and tie meaningful incentives to results.

A robust strategic plan sets you on the path to proactive, team-aligned execution—where everyone knows their role and is excited about the destination. In wealth management, it’s easy to say “the client comes first” and let everything else slide. But if you do that, you’ll never break through to the next level.

Embrace strategic planning. Empower your team. And get ready to see how an intentional, disciplined strategy can catapult your firm forward. Because if you fail to plan, you're essentially planning to progress forward at this stage of your business—and I know you're aiming for so much more than that.

• How AI & Data Are Reshaping the Advisor-Client Relationship with Natalie Wolfsen - The Connected Advisor Podcast

Recap: Natalie Wolfsen, CEO of Orion Advisor Solutions, explains how AI and data are revolutionizing wealth management by boosting advisor productivity and enhancing personalized client experiences. She highlights Orion’s partnership with Snowflake—showing how seamless data integration can deliver real-time insights—and shares survey findings on AI’s growing adoption, along with the often-overlooked investor preference for deeper, in-person connections. Ultimately, Wolfsen stresses that technology should enhance the human touch, not replace it.

My Thoughts: RIAs should focus their tech efforts on data warehouse solutions that centralize data integration. While it might not be a “shiny new tool,” it’s the linchpin for maximizing AI’s potential in the coming years. Right now, AI mostly handles tasks like streamlining meeting notes or generating marketing content, but the real revolution will come when it can tap into data from every system. Today, you might be manually plugging data into ChatGPT—but firms like Orion and Milemarker are working on solutions to pull both structured and unstructured data together in one place to better analyze your client's situations and your overall firm.

I was out at Orion Ascent last week, and Orion’s recent acquisition of Summit Wealth Systems is a great example of this trend. With Reed Colley (Summit’s founder and former Black Diamond founder) now leading tech at Orion, expect them to up their game in data integration. If you’re not exploring data warehousing and data lakes right now, you’re already behind. Data integration is set to be the biggest tech conversation in 2025 among RIAs that truly understand how to leverage AI for future growth.

• McKinsey Estimates Advisor Shortage of 100,000 by 2034 - Wealthmanagement.com

Recap: McKinsey projects a shortage of 100,000 advisors by 2034. This forecast is driven by an aging workforce—42% of industry assets are tied to roughly 110,000 advisors expected to retire in the next decade—paired with an annual growth rate of only 0.3%, which is now projected to decline further. At the same time, demand for financial advice is surging, with fee-based revenue jumping from $150 billion in 2015 to $260 billion in 2024, meaning the industry will need to attract 30,000–80,000 new advisors and boost productivity by 10–20% to bridge the gap.

My Thoughts: Over the past decade, we’ve seen a real surge in colleges offering CFP Board–registered programs—enough to crank out 4,000 to 7,000 new financial planning grads every year. That influx, paired with the rapid rise of AI, makes the so-called 100,000-advisor shortfall look a little less dire. If we assume a conservative 5,000 new CFP-linked program grads annually over the next decade and that around two-thirds stick with the career, that’s about 33,000 new advisors right there. Layer on a 20% productivity bump from AI (realistic in my opinion) —roughly equal to adding another 60,000 advisors, covering a a majority of the gap McKinsey lays out.

Of course, we’re also expanding the scope of what advisors do with ambitions of a one-stop-shop approach, so the need for talent is growing in tandem. Leading RIAs are shifting to team-based setups, where lead advisors “quarterback” relationships and offload specialized tasks to colleagues so its a little muddier trying to understand who will fill those roles as that would likely college graduates who are looking for investment and accounting related roles.

The real bottleneck, though, is training and retaining young talent. Sure, mega-RIAs have made strides in developing solid training programs, but the broader industry hasn’t done so hot, too often viewing junior advisors as an expense rather than an investment. If we want to meet the rising demand and truly capitalize on AI-driven efficiencies, more RIAs need to provide real-world mentorship, structured onboarding, and clear career paths. It may take a few years for those investments to pay off, but building a future-ready advisory force is worth the wait.

• Fidelity's Q4 2024 M&A Report - A Decade In Review

Recap: Fidelity’s Q4 2024 M&A report caps a record year for RIAs, with 233 transactions totaling $670 billion in purchased assets—35% of them crossing the $1 billion mark. Over the last decade, the number of RIA transactions has more than doubled at a 14% compound annual growth rate, driven by private equity’s growing influence, aging advisors exploring exit strategies, and strategic expansions into adjacent practices. As this space matures, new entrants and first-time buyers will continue to reshape the landscape, positioning the industry for even more ambitious “mega-mergers” in the coming years.

My Thoughts: From what I’ve seen and heard, there are dozens of private equity firms still waiting on the sidelines, eager to snap up their first “platform RIA” so they can start rolling up additional firms. Of course, I do think we’ve got a bear market on the horizon—it could hit this year, next, or five years down the road—and if it lingers for more than a year, that might cool PE’s enthusiasm or at least force them to re-evaluate valuations.

Since 2010, our industry has had an almost uninterrupted market bull run, which has helped drive up AUM and valuations. In a longer-term flat or down market, you have to wonder if many smaller, “lifestyle” RIAs (especially those whose owners are eyeing retirement) would still be attractive at today’s prices. Honestly, those in the $250–$500 million range might only have a few years left to sell at the premiums we’ve seen over the last five years... unless they can truly show strong organic growth, which is what really matters at the end of the day.

Meanwhile, the mega RIAs will just keep getting bigger, but I suspect they’ll soon focus on acquiring other large PE-backed RIAs, rather than the smaller ones. That might spark a new kind of breakaway trend—not just advisors leaving wirehouses but whole teams spinning off from the massive RIAs. What’s making all of this even more interesting is how robust the RIA support ecosystem has become—between various support platforms and third-party services, it’s never been easier to start your own shop or pick and choose what you outsource.

The biggest takeaway for me is that the RIA channel is set to capture another 5–10% of market share from wirehouses and IBDs over the next decade as both clients and advisors increasingly demand an independent advisory experience. With evolving technology, shifting talent dynamics, and ongoing consolidation, the landscape is about to get even more dynamic and exciting than it has been in recent years.

Your Partner in Building Your Iconic RIA

Thanks for reading along!

Building an iconic RIA takes more than just insight—it requires a trusted partner to turn vision into reality. At LIMESTONE Strategic Partners, we’re here to help you unlock growth opportunities and maximize value. Our team is dedicated to scaling your practice into a thriving enterprise through fractional strategic planning and execution support. From financial strategy to operational excellence, we provide the support you need to achieve your goals.

Ready to take the next step? Visit limestonesp.com and schedule a free consultation. Let’s work together to build your iconic RIA.

-Jared

Jared Luegers, CFA, CEPA, Founder, LIMESTONE Strategic Partners