Wealth management is quickly becoming a team sport, with more than half of financial advisors now working on teams, according to research firm Cerulli Associates. There is solid logic behind the trend. Teams enjoy the benefits of scale and having different members focus on specific responsibilities, which can help them grow faster than solo practices. But plenty of advisors happily continue to work on their own, often without even administrative support. For this week's Barron's Advisor Big Q, we asked these solo practitioners to share some of the pros and cons of how they work.
Brian Shea, owner, Shea Financial Advisors: At the beginning of my career there were no real fee-only firms to potentially partner with, so I started as a solo practice and have continued like that since the beginning. I have occasionally had administrative assistants, but for the most part it has been just me. It worked for what I was looking for, which initially was a flexible time schedule. I had two young kids at home, and my wife at the time was working in the city, so if one of them was sick I was the one who stayed home. As they grew older, I was the one who wanted to jump out at three in the afternoon to go coach Little League. Those days are gone; my kids are grown and out of the house, but I still maintain that flexibility with my schedule.
But taking, say, two weeks off to go on vacation is a little bit more difficult, because I do need to be in touch with my client base. That takes a little more handling, which is usually just checking in regularly, but I'm fine with that. I don't like to fully disconnect, but I also don't want to be working 24/7. I've got to wear a bunch of different hats, including the administrative stuff, the office management, in addition to working with clients and doing the plan, which is good for me. I've talked to colleagues who are focused on doing one thing for extended periods. I prefer not to do that. If I start repeating the same stuff day after day, it gets boring.
Anna Rathbun, founder and CEO, Grenadilla Advisory: I was chief investment officer of CBIZ Investment Advisory Services before starting my own firm last July. Now I am the sole advisor. The biggest pro is that I get to control every aspect of the business; sales, operations, investing, client service. I am responsible for everything. I view that as a pro because I'm the type of person who loves to dot the i's and cross the t's, and I sleep really well at night knowing that I have done my absolute best in every aspect of this business.
Giving what I believe is the highest quality makes me very happy, very satisfied, and fulfilled. And I have all these visions about how I want to grow the business. Sometimes you have to invest in the business before the dollars come in, and that is the situation right now. But I'm very fortunate to be able to do this. I do not have any qualms investing in this company, because I believe in it. And that is not a decision you can make easily with a whole bunch of people. I can make it because I am a solo practitioner. The con is that I am a social animal, and I miss having a team. CBIZ is a big organization. We had conversations across the country with different advisors. I had a team, and we had a lot of fun while working very hard. I miss mentoring younger analysts and the interaction with really genuine people.
Cordi Powell, founder, Favored Financial Planning: I decided to remain a solo practitioner because of the nimbleness it affords me. Prior to Covid I had systems in place that allowed me to move to virtual meetings, and so during Covid, it was easy to make that transition with my clients. Seeing firms advertising the move to virtual meetings is remarkable to me, because that is something that I did pre-Covid. That is an example of how being a solo advisor has allowed me to be nimble with the pendulum that swings within society and in the financial service industry. Another example is the implementation of artificial intelligence. Just using artificial intelligence for data extraction has made me a much more efficient advisor. It has allowed me to serve my clients better without hiring a virtual assistant or a paraplanner or adding staff. It has allowed me to provide a higher quality of service, because a lot of the grunt work and data entry is handled through artificial intelligence. Being a solo advisor has allowed me to adapt and put things into place a lot faster than some of the larger firms where you might have to go through the compliance department.
Of course, there is the big C, compliance. But I am a member of the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners, which provides a discussion forum so that as new methodologies come along, like artificial intelligence, or like when the advertising rule was clarified, my peers shared what they were doing. It allows you to filter your ideas through the group.
Ramin Abrams, wealth advisor, Concurrent Advisors: One of the best benefits of being a single advisor is quality control. Not having a large team allows me to really set my standards. And because I'm not managing employees and payroll and a bunch of HR stuff, my focus, and a lot of my time, is solely directed toward my clients. I wear all the important hats, and I love all sides of the business. I'm really enjoying the life of being my own CEO and focusing more on my clients than any employees. I have the platform and philosophy and structure and infrastructure to grow my practice, which definitely is a goal, but with having a couple of years under my belt as a solo practitioner, I'm really crafting what I want to do in this business and how I want to represent clients.
One of the drawbacks would be not having someone next door who is the financial planning expert or the estate-planning expert. I've solved that by being a part of a community within [the Concurrent registered investment advisor platform] and hopping on Teams calls. We've got 120-plus advisors, with different service models, with expertise in insurance, financial planning, estate planning, portfolio management, and they're always available. But having someone in-house who knows your clients as well as you do is very helpful, so I'd say that is a drawback to being a solo practitioner. There's also this issue of camaraderie. I'm a 32-year-old guy going to 57th and Broadway to an empty office 50% of the time.
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July 01, 2026 13:39 ET (17:39 GMT)
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