2025 has roared in as another record-shattering year for mergers and acquisitions in the financial advice industry. As the pace of consolidation quickens and legacy names get absorbed or spun off, many financial advisors are rightfully pausing to ask: What’s the best next step for my practice and my clients? Amid this flurry of deal-making, quietly innovative firms like Rossby Financial are gaining notice—not by pushing the biggest transition checks, but by helping advisors rethink profitability, regain control, and align every business decision with their most important objectives.
A New Standard for Evaluating Affiliation
At this year’s Schwab IMPACT Conference in Denver, Andrew J. Evans, founder of Rossby Financial, didn’t mince words about the current state of the industry. As firms across the country pitch splashy technology, talk up their culture, and trumpet big acquisition rollups, Evans urges advisors to hone in on the vital metrics that actually shape their future.
“A lot of the time they get clouded with technology. People like to talk about culture. That's all important stuff, but they miss out on the general business metrics. What’s the net positive revenue into your pocket, into your business? ” Evans says. “Advisors don’t take the time to figure out net profitability. ”
His advice is refreshingly direct: “As all of these companies get acquired or there’s roll-ups, there’s money on the table, but what did you give up for the actual control of your business to take that money? Did you actually do the math to understand the business metrics and the end result of your net profitability? ”
Looking Past the Headlines: Big Broker Moves and Mid-Size Shakeups
With so much attention focused on high-profile moves by giants like Commonwealth and LPL, and the recent Stifel sell-off, Evans cautions that headline numbers rarely tell the whole story. “I don’t think it’s going to end up the way that everybody thinks it’s going to with LPL and Commonwealth,” he notes. “LPL does a great job with their PR saying, ‘Oh, we’re going to retain 80% of all the money. ’ But then the very next day, you see another note: a $20 billion team leaves. They’re not staying. ”
Evans predicts ongoing instability in mega-firm channels and advises skepticism toward promises of “seamless integration” or “permanent alignment. ” For many advisors, the repeated feeling of being packaged, sold, and resold is more than just frustrating—it highlights fundamental trade-offs about culture, support, and independence.
His take is pragmatic: “You can only get sold again so many times before you say, that's it. I just don’t want to do it. Can I just have me and my team and my clients? Can't somebody just be nice to me as opposed to putting money in their pocket? ”
Why the Basis Points Model Is Broken
Rossby Financial has become known for challenging compensation models that no longer serve advisors’ best interests. Specifically, Evans rails against the automatic fees many firms take as a percentage of assets managed, regardless of the value provided.
“I find that basis points that firms charge for being on an asset management platform, it is an unfair tax. I’m like the libertarian of the RIA space—no more taxes. Don’t take that money from advisors,” Evans asserts. “As an advisor grows their AUM, that firm continually takes that basis point from them—and that firm didn’t do anything to help them grow that. ”
He presses further: “If firms are telling their advisors, hey, you’re the fiduciary to your client, somebody needs to say to the firms, you should be the fiduciary to your advisor. What are you doing with all that money? Some firms have said, ‘Oh, we’re spending $500 million on technology. ’ On what? You still just have Redtail, Laser App, DocuSign. . . Where’d the money go? ”
Rossby’s model, by contrast, removes those ongoing basis-point charges for more transparency and keeps more capital in the advisor’s control.
“Less but Better”: Strategic Use of Newly Controlled Capital
The philosophy at Rossby is clear: streamline expenses, restore control, and enable capital for true growth. With the overhead spend reduced, Evans shares that advisors gain options they often didn’t realize they had—whether that’s upgrading talent, investing in their own infrastructure, or actually pursuing M&A on their own terms.
“Now you know these are my dollars, this is exactly what I have. You can allocate those better to what aligns with you,” he explains. He shares a compelling example: “One of my advisors, when they joined us, it put back in her pocket about $500,000. What did she do with it? She invested back in her company by hiring two new staff, plus a portfolio manager. These are younger people she brought into the firm to now help that next generation, improving her own succession plan and legacy. ”
This adjustment of business economics, Evans argues, empowers advisors to build true enterprises that aren’t beholden to the next wave of roll-ups.
The Human Side of AI: ROffice and AnchorPoint
The conversation around operations and technology is evolving quickly, especially as artificial intelligence reshapes so many back-office activities. Rossby’s ROffice business—a virtual operations team for RIAs and broker-dealers—harnesses AI, but Evans is clear-eyed about its actual impact.
“As advisors are adapting artificial intelligence, it’s actually creating more work. Firms aren’t keeping up, NIGOs [not in good order paperwork] still happen, DL requirements and paperwork persist. AI isn’t infallible, and you still have errors,” he observes. “What we have found is that we're actually getting more work from an administrative standpoint with advisors trying to consolidate and use more AI tools. ”
According to Evans, the solution isn’t to eliminate humans—it’s to maximize efficiency by blending AI with fractional expert assistance so advisors spend their time with clients, not forms. “Just because we’re adding new technologies doesn’t mean that these things go away. It hasn't happened before, it won't happen in the future. ”
Another recent innovation, AnchorPoint, brings a suite of productivity and marketing tools into a single integrated offering.
“In my less but better world. . . over the summer, I looked at what all my advisors were using—funnels for marketing, calendars, websites, text messaging, billing, LMS systems. . . All of these things are cost,” Evans notes. “In the rest of the world, outside financial services, you could just do this all in one place. And so that's why we built AnchorPoint. You can do all those things—website, funnels, email marketing, text messaging, billing, LMS—inside of it. There’s a compliance setup, but the ongoing monthly cost is way better than paying for each piece independently. ”
For small practices, the benefits are significant: “So what did we do? We just looked at the market and said, ‘Here, this is your business in a box. Be more efficient. Less but better. Do it all right here. ’”
Rethinking Succession as the Advisor Workforce Ages
Finally, the “Great Wealth Transfer” has led to widespread commentary on aging advisors and succession planning. Evans’s advice defies the common rush-to-retire mindset. “There tends to be too much emphasis put on [advisors] to say, 'Oh, you have to figure out your succession plan now. Oh, why aren't you selling? Oh, you’re 68, are you getting out? Cut that out. Nobody likes that. '”
Instead, he urges firms to "set up a way for them to stay on, maybe have a way for them to gently sunset, but give them time. " For Rossby, this means enabling advisors to “practice in place,” supported by options to glide into mentorship or phased exits—with legacy, expertise, and firm value preserved.
“Large firms: stop selling yourselves because organizations like mine, I’m in my mid-40s and we tend to bring in a younger class of advisor. Since we have more control of capital, we’ll just end up being that place where advisors can come and stay, practice in place, and then I’ve got a huge group of younger advisors. We’re more than happy to work out generous terms for someone to stay here and exit when they want to,” Evans says. “Keep being aggressive. . . fine. They’ll come here and we’ll help them exit when they want to. Practice in place. ”
Are you an advisor searching for transparent economics, true independence, and the capital to build your next chapter? Discover how Rossby Financial can help you unlock your firm’s potential by visiting rossbyfinancial. com.
