Market Intelligence

How We Built This

Every figure on these pages comes from one place: the public registration record that investment adviser representatives and their firms file with regulators. We do not estimate assets, repeat press releases, or scrape anonymous tips. We read reported registration changes and organize them so a pattern that is otherwise buried in filings becomes legible.

What the data is

A daily snapshot of investment adviser registrations from public SEC IAPD records. It covers investment adviser representatives. It does not cover broker-only registered representatives, and it does not include assets under management.

What a move means

When an advisor's registration ends at one firm and begins at another, we count a move. We track when they left, when they arrived, and how long they had been at the prior firm.

Competitive moves vs all registration changes

Many registration changes are not recruiting at all - they happen because a firm was acquired, rebranded, or moved to a new platform, and every advisor's registration changes on paper at once. We separate these corporate changes from competitive moves, and default to showing competitive moves. You can switch any flow view to see all registration changes.

Geography

We place each advisor in a state using their registered branch location, falling back to their registration state. Advisors who clearly operate across several states are shown as Multi-State.

What these tools are not

They are directional signals built for research and conversation. They are not audited counts, not investment or career advice, and not a recommendation about any firm. Counts include non-client-facing home-office and supervisory staff, so they will differ from other industry tallies. Always do your own due diligence.

Who built it

Continuum Search Group is a platform-agnostic advisor recruiting firm. We built these tools from the same public record everyone can access. We work for advisors, and advisors never pay us.

Source: public SEC IAPD adviser registration data. Classification and analysis by Continuum Search Group. Updated daily.

Where you stand is a starting point, not a verdict.

The data shows the pattern. The decision is personal. Whether you are pressure-testing a possible move or thinking about the value you have built, Continuum helps you weigh it without an agenda - we are platform-agnostic, and advisors never pay us.

Looking for the right home

Find the right partner or platform

If your firm's flow has you wondering, we map the full landscape against what actually matters for your practice over the next 10 to 20 years - not just the biggest upfront check.

Confidential platform and partner search across BD, RIA, and hybrid models
6C Alignment benchmarking of every realistic option
Economics modeled over the life of the deal, with hidden costs surfaced
Negotiation and transition management, not just an introduction

Explore your options

Thinking about monetizing

Sell or transition your practice

If you are closer to harvesting the value you have built, we guide the sale, succession, or equity path - evaluating buyers on cultural and operational alignment, not just the headline multiple.

Buy-side and sell-side M&A guidance for practice sales and acquisitions
Succession structures, equity partnerships, and continuity planning
Buyers assessed against client impact and long-term alignment
Compensated by the acquiring party - clear about whom we represent

Discuss your practice value

Not sure which path is yours yet?

Most advisors start with one private conversation to figure that out. No pressure, no resume blasting, no obligation.

Schedule a Confidential Call

Every Continuum engagement - platform move, acquisition, or succession - runs on the same 6C Alignment Standard: Culture, Community, Compatibility, Capability, Compensation, and Capital.

Source & Method

Net advisor flow: The number of advisors who joined a firm in this window minus the number who left it. A positive figure means the firm gained more advisors than it lost; a negative figure means it lost more than it gained. This counts advisors, not assets or revenue. Example: 285 arrived and 137 left gives a net flow of +148.
Net flow rank: This firm's position on net advisor flow compared with every other ranked firm, where #1 is the biggest net gain and the highest number is the biggest net loss. It measures direction of movement, not firm size, quality, or prestige. A very large, well-regarded firm can rank low simply because more advisors left than joined during this window. Example: a firm ranked #143 of 155 had one of the more negative net-flow figures this window. That is a statement about recent movement only.
Tenure at exit (and the retention rank bar): Among advisors who left a firm in this window, the median number of months they had been there before leaving. It is not a measure of how long all advisors stay; it only describes the people who departed. A low number means departures tended to be recent hires; a high number means departures tended to be long-tenured. Example: 36 months means half of the firm's departing advisors had been there under three years, half longer. The small bar beneath the number is the retention rank: it places this firm against peer firms with enough departures to compare. The marker sits further right when departing advisors stayed longer than peers, further left when they left sooner. It shows the firm's position, not the reader's.
Early exits (under 12 months): The share of a firm's departures that happened within a year of the advisor joining. A higher share suggests recent hires are not sticking, which often points to an alignment or onboarding problem rather than seasoned advisors reassessing. Compared against the dataset-wide average.
Where leavers land / Where arrivals come from: The firms most frequently chosen by advisors leaving (destinations) and the firms advisors most frequently came from (sources) in this window. A path that repeats many times is a recurring route, not a one-off move.
Small sample: A flag on the tenure and early-exit figures when a firm had between 5 and 19 departures this window. The numbers are still that firm's real medians, but with so few departures a single move can move them noticeably, so they are shown in muted text, worded as approximate, and labeled with the exact count. Treat them as a hint, not a firm conclusion. Below 5 departures the figures are withheld entirely, and the retention rank is shown only for firms with 20 or more departures, where the comparison is stable.
Veteran departure share: Among advisors who left this firm in the window, the share with 15 or more years in the industry. A high share means departures skew experienced; a low share means departures skew newer. Neither is a verdict - growth models, retirements, and training programs all shape this number.
Clustered departure share: The share of a firm's departures that landed inside a burst window - a 30-day stretch in which most of a lane's moves occurred, the signature of clustered movement. Losing a team is a different event than losing individuals one at a time. Shown for firms with 20 or more departures in the window.
This window / dataset: The set of advisor moves currently shown. The current view is all advisor moves reported in the last 12 months. Going forward this becomes a rolling trailing-12-month period, so the figures always reflect the most recent 12 months of activity.
What counts as a move: Any registered investment-adviser representative whose firm registration changed during the window. It is a count of registrations, not vetted client-facing advisors, so it can include non-producing registrants such as home-office or supervisory staff.
Directional: These figures describe broad patterns of advisor movement, not audited counts. Firm names and categories come from reported registration changes and can include reclassifications or internal channel shifts. Use the numbers to spot trends and questions worth exploring, not as a precise scorecard.