Advisors and their firms must create more intentional marketing and business development strategies to achieve growth, Cerulli said Wednesday while announcing findings from the latest edition of The Cerulli Edge — The Americas Asset and Wealth Management Edition.
Regular income withdrawals and one-time distributions accounted for 56% of RIAs’ outflows in 2025, according to Cerulli.
RIAs usually experience annual asset attrition of between 2% and 5% of their overall assets under management (AUM), excluding client departures, Cerulli said.
Cerulli’s data found over 50% of RIAs’ clients are age 50 or older and 25% are age 60 or older, the firm said. Those clients are in or close to the decumulation stage when assets are depleted as spending rises, to Cerulli.
“Firms are implementing a wide range of organic growth solutions, some of which provide ample opportunity to increase AUM, and that are more long-term, slow boil approaches.” — Stephen Caruso, Director, Cerulli
“As we consider RIAs’ increasingly critical growth goals, organic growth has become a key success metric,” Stephen Caruso, Director at Cerulli, told Wealth Solutions Report by email.
“Within this research we learned that firms are implementing a wide range of organic growth solutions, some of which provide ample opportunity to increase AUM, and that are more long-term, slow boil approaches,” he said.
“Across the market today, one of the key trends was that RIAs who recognize that organic growth needs a dedicated strategy and resources are far more likely to succeed than firms that take an intermittent or occasional approach.”
He added, “When we consider the growth goals of the largest RIAs, many are implementing frontier approaches like dedicated business development teams or separating sales and service.”
Cerulli predicted more RIAs will go in this direction as organic growth continues to remain competitive.
“Without a dedicated business development focus, RIAs immediately put themselves at a disadvantage, as client assets naturally tend to decline throughout the year,” Caruso said in a news release announcing his firm’s findings.
Client Acquisition
To counteract the attrition, Cerulli said RIAs must strengthen their approach to new client acquisition, which has been a key challenge for more than half of firms.
Referrals are still a main source of business for RIAs, accounting for 74% of new client acquisition, but most firms are passive about referrals, Cerulli said.
Just 51% of RIAs proactively ask for client referrals, and 22% plan to implement them as part of an organic growth strategy, according to Cerulli.
Marketing
Another challenge for RIAs has been marketing, Cerulli said, pointing out their average allocation to this has been just 5% of total expenses. Only 14% of RIAs use a dedicated marketing resource, with smaller and undercapitalized firms often having limited solutions, according to Cerulli.
Some RIAs can hire an external marketing consultant or a fractional chief marketing officer initially, while others may use automation and customized content to scale efforts, Cerulli said.
“Defining their brand and documenting the type of client they can best serve are important first steps in an RIA’s successful marketing strategy,” the report says.
The report pointed out that organic growth rates may look smaller than expected after subtracting market performance.
The report goes on to say, “Lack of a repeatable, focused business development strategy can leave many firms, especially smaller ones without access to technology or personnel, at the mercy of the personal efforts of founding partners.”
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
