Why the Advisor Shortage is Really a Talent Opportunity

The demand for wealth management services is rapidly outstripping the advisor pipeline. A look at how we got here and six strategies Brighton Jones is pursuing to create a culture where talent and clients thrive together.

The wealth management industry is transforming.

As client needs grow more sophisticated and technology reshapes how we work, one challenge stands out: attracting and retaining the talent required to serve clients at a high standard. 

A projected shortfall of 100,000 advisors by 2034 signals something deeper than a simple supply-and-demand imbalance. It reflects a profession at an inflection point, where the traditional models that built our industry may not be the ones that sustain it. 

At Brighton Jones, we believe this moment calls for more than incremental fixes. The future of wealth management depends on people, not just productivity. Even as technology evolves, the heart of our work remains deeply human: building trust, offering wisdom, supporting complex lives. The firms that thrive will attract advisors who see this work as a calling and then support them in living out that calling fully. 

This isn’t just about recruiting enough advisors to meet demand. It’s about attracting people with empathy, judgment, and purpose, then creating the conditions for them to do their best work throughout their careers. Because we believe the quality of the advisor experience directly shapes the quality of the client experience: we thrive together. 

As employers, we can continue competing for a shrinking pool of candidates willing to accept outdated expectations, or expand the pool by building firms where talented people genuinely want to spend their careers. 

The Numbers Point to a Deeper Story 

The data tells us where we’re headed. Roughly 110,000 advisors (38% of today’s workforce, representing 42% of client assets) are expected to retire in the next ten years. Meanwhile, affluent households (those with $500,000 or more in investable assets) are growing at 4–5% annually, far outpacing the 0.6% growth rate of the overall population. 

Technology will help. McKinsey research suggests that even moderate adoption of AI-enabled tools could deliver meaningful time savings. But efficiency gains alone won’t close a gap this significant. The more important question is: why aren’t more talented people choosing careers in wealth management? And what does the answer tell us about what needs to change? 

Efficiency Helps, But Culture Decides 

The industry’s initial response has focused heavily on productivity: better technology, smarter teaming models, streamlined processes. These improvements matter and should continue, but they don’t address why finance struggles to attract next-generation talent. 

As Investment News recently explored, many younger professionals prioritize quality of life differently than previous generations. Where the entrepreneurial dream of “owning a book” once motivated people to endure years of quota pressure, delayed reward, and independent hustling, today’s talented professionals seek meaningful work, supportive culture, and integration between professional and personal life. 

The challenge runs deeper than career paths. For many Millennials and Gen Z professionals, finance carries associations they find hard to reconcile with their values. Shaped by economic volatility, social upheaval, and environmental concerns, they’re drawn to organizations that demonstrate purpose beyond profit. 

The research is clear: 92% of Millennials and 89% of Gen Z consider purpose essential to job satisfaction, with nearly half willing to leave jobs that lack it. Similarly, Gen Z and Millennials frequently rank work-life integration alongside compensation as a top consideration. While 86% still cite salary and benefits as critical, these are now weighed alongside purpose, values, and quality of life. 

The traditional model resonates less with talented professionals today. What does resonate: diverse leaders in meaningful roles, transparent career paths, collaborative rather than competitive environments, and flexibility to integrate work with the other dimensions of a full life. 

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The Brighton Jones Approach:
A People-first Model 

We’re not reacting to the advisor shortage — we’ve spent the last 25 actively building the model we believe serves both advisors and clients. Our leadership team has always led with the belief that helping clients live their richer life requires that we empower our teammates to do the same. Here are 6 foundational strategies we pursue to create an environment where both are possible: 

1. Employee-owned, purpose-driven 

While much of the industry consolidates under private equity ownership, Brighton Jones remains proudly 100% employee-owned. This structural choice shapes how we operate in numerous ways. 

Traditional ownership models often create barriers, particularly for talented professionals without access to capital for large buy-ins or who can’t afford to wait decades for ownership opportunities. Many private equity-backed models prioritize near-term growth and eventual exits over long-term culture and client relationships. 

At Brighton Jones, every person who joins our team has a transparent pathway to ownership based on performance and cultural contribution, not capital requirements. Partnership is achievable for those who embody our values and consistently deliver excellence. 

“I joined Brighton Jones for the opportunity to be entrepreneurial while having the support of a national firm. But what matters most is knowing I’m building something I’m genuinely part of, not just a book I’ll sell someday.” 

Boston Lead Advisor Andrew Richardson, CFP® 

For clients, this means: Working with advisors who are invested (literally) in the firm’s long-term success and in their relationships. We want our advisors to build careers here, not exit strategies. Their incentives align with yours: lasting partnerships, consistent service, and advice given with a decades-long horizon in mind. 

2. A career path, not just a job 

Many firms struggle with high attrition among new advisors because the path forward feels uncertain or the early years feel unsustainably difficult. The sink-or-swim approach wastes talent and creates unnecessary stress for advisors and clients alike. 

At Brighton Jones, career development is systematic. Brighton Jones University is designed to be the most comprehensive advisor development platform in the industry, ensuring each person has a clear roadmap, structured training, and meaningful mentorship at every stage. 

Whether someone’s path leads toward managing a practice, deepening expertise in a particular planning area, or taking on firm leadership, we invest in that development. Great advisors are grown, not just found. 

“I came in wanting a job. What I found was a calling. The training, the mentors, the culture. It all adds up to a place where your growth is taken as seriously as your clients’ success.” 

Seattle Advisor Noah Arrick, CFP® 

For clients, this means: Working with advisors who continuously develop their expertise within a structured framework. You benefit from both their individual growth and the institutional knowledge they gain through mentorship and systematic training. 

3. Work-life integration, not balance 

The concept of “work-life balance” implies a constant trade-off, as if success in one domain requires sacrifice in another. That framing perpetuates exactly what drives talented people away from our industry. 

At Brighton Jones, we hire whole people, not just professional skill sets. Work and life aren’t opposing forces to balance on a scale. They’re interconnected parts of an intentional life. That’s why we focus on integration rather than balance. Integration means doing meaningful work alongside colleagues you genuinely care about. It’s serving clients in ways that feel aligned with who you are. It’s knowing that your life outside work (your family, your health, your interests) matters to your teammates and to the firm. 

Sometimes integration means working late to help a client through an urgent situation. Sometimes it means leaving early for a child’s event or taking time for personal wellness. Both are valued. We prioritize time together for collaboration and community-building, but we don’t measure commitment by hours logged. What matters is accountability: consistently excellent work delivered by people living full, sustainable lives. 

“The work lets me make a difference in clients’ lives while staying aligned with one of my core values – family. When I can bring my full self to both my professional and personal roles, I find myself showing up as my best self for both my clients and my community. I get to prioritize what matters most in the moment through flexibility balanced with excellence.”

Washington D.C. Lead Advisor Jesica Ray, CFP®, CDFA® 

For clients, this means: Working with advisors who understand holistic success because they’re living it. They bring better perspective to your planning because they’ve thought deeply about their own. They model the integration of wealth and wellbeing that they help you achieve. We want them in this for the long term, not burning out after a few intense years.

4. Collaboration over competition 

The two models that still dominate much of our industry are the traditional “eat what you kill” approach and the emerging “centralize everything” model. The first creates isolation and can reward individual ambition over collective wisdom, making mentorship feel threatening rather than natural. The second creates scale but relegates advisors to relationship managers, removed from the decision-making that directly impacts clients’ lives. 

At Brighton Jones, advisors serve as Personal CFOs for their clients, a role requiring depth and breadth of expertise that no single person can fully embody alone. Our team-based model replaces isolation and production quotas with genuine collaboration, shared accountability, and a culture where senior advisors invest in developing the next generation. 

New advisors don’t face the lonely grind of building a practice from nothing. They join established teams where experienced colleagues want them to succeed because their success strengthens everyone’s ability to support clients. 

“Working with a team changes what’s possible. When clients have complex estate or tax questions, I can bring in colleagues with deep expertise in those areas. It’s about delivering comprehensive guidance, not just what I personally know best.” 

Scottsdale Lead Advisor Tim Amen, CFP® 

For clients, this means: Access to collective expertise, not just one person’s knowledge. Seamless service whether your primary advisor is available or not. Confidence that your planning benefits from diverse perspectives and institutional knowledge. And relationships built with a team, not dependent on a single individual. 

5. Impact beyond the balance sheet 

Purpose isn’t just a buzzword. It’s why many of our people chose this career and this firm. We believe work needs to mean something beyond financial success, and we’re committed to demonstrating that in everything we do. 

At Brighton Jones, impact is woven into our mission: to work as #OneTeam to help our clients, colleagues, and the global community live richer lives. As a certified B Corp, we formalize this commitment. We dedicate 1% of revenue to charitable programs, provide teammates 2% of their time for volunteering (along with donation matching and board training), and aim for 100% employee participation in impact initiatives. 

Through the Richer Life Foundation and Community Impact Circles, we channel this commitment into meaningful action, engaging our entire community of employees, clients, and partners. This isn’t corporate social responsibility as an afterthought. It’s how we do business. 

“What drew me here was knowing I could grow my career and make a real impact at the same time. From volunteering with my team to supporting clients with their philanthropy, I see every day how our mission goes beyond managing wealth to helping people live with purpose.” 

Seattle Lead Advisor Christian Linares, CFP® 

For clients, this means: Working with advisors who understand that wealth is a tool for impact, not just accumulation. When you want to explore values-aligned investing, strategic philanthropy, or building a meaningful legacy, your advisors can guide you authentically because they’re living these values themselves. Your planning becomes about living richly, not just becoming rich. 

6. Diversity as a growth strategy 

The traditional path to success in wealth management has been narrow, often requiring relationship capital and demographic advantages that not everyone has access to. This leaves enormous talent untapped, particularly among women and people from underrepresented backgrounds. 

We’re intentional about building teams that reflect the communities we serve and the clients we partner with. Today, 30% of our advisors and 42% of our service teams are women (meaningfully above industry averages), and we’re committed to continuing that progress. 

Through Women Living a Richer Life (WLRL), we create dedicated spaces for women to lead, connect, and support one another. Our JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) framework ensures that equity is built into our hiring, development, and advancement processes. Our culture of community reinforces that diverse perspectives make us not just better advisors, but better colleagues and people. 

“The mentorship here has been one of the biggest surprises. Senior advisors genuinely want us to succeed. They see our growth as everyone’s success, not as competition. That’s the kind of culture I want to be part of.” 

Seattle Advisor Marie Padiong, CFP® 

For clients, this means: Working with teams that reflect diverse experiences and perspectives. Having access to advisors who may better understand your particular background, challenges, or goals. Benefiting from the richer thinking that emerges when different viewpoints collaborate on your planning.

Building the future of our industry 

The wealth management industry is at a pivotal moment. The advisor talent challenge reflects a deeper truth: the profession is evolving, and our models need to evolve with it. 

Some firms will respond with incremental changes (slightly better technology, modestly improved compensation, surface-level commitments to culture). Others will continue the playbook that’s driven recent industry consolidation: aggressive growth through acquisition, focus on scale efficiencies, optimization of financial metrics. 

At Brighton Jones, we’re taking a different path. We’re building a firm where talented people genuinely want to spend their careers, not because we’ve made a few accommodations, but because we’ve reimagined what a wealth management firm can be from the ground up. 

We believe this approach doesn’t just help us attract and retain great advisors. It fundamentally makes us better at serving clients. The firms that will lead this industry forward aren’t those that simply grow fastest or largest. They’re the ones that create environments where advisors bring their full selves to work, develop their capabilities systematically, collaborate generously, and stay energized for decades-long careers. Those are the advisors clients deserve: people who chose this profession for the right reasons, work in environments that bring out their best, and have the support to sustain excellence over time. 

The industry’s transformation is underway. Client expectations continue rising. Technology keeps evolving. And the talent that will serve the next generation of clients is choosing where to build their careers right now. For advisors ready to grow, lead, and live richer lives (and for clients who want to partner with a firm built on that foundation), we’re here. The future isn’t something to wait for. It’s something we can create, together. 

Brighton Jones is a 100% employee-owned, certified B-Corp wealth management firm with over $30 billion in assets under advisement. We’re seeking experienced advisors who share our commitment to helping clients Live a Richer Life®.

Learn more at brightonjones.com/careers.

Disclaimer: Brighton Jones LLC (“Brighton Jones”) is an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as individualized advice. For individualized advice tailored to your specific circumstances, please consult with your adviser. Individuals quoted are current employees of Brighton Jones and were not compensated for their statements.