About a thousand new investment advisor firms register with the SEC each year. They show up first as fresh Form ADV filings, then a few months later as actual practices with clients and assets. The live tracker is at /insights/new-rias, listing every new SEC-registered RIA by registration date.
This article walks through what the new-registration data shows about where the industry is forming new firms, who is starting them, and what they look like in their first 12 months.
How many new RIAs register
The trend in SEC RIA registrations has been gradually upward for the past decade. The annual count typically runs in the 800–1,200 range, with no obvious cyclicality. Counted differently — including state-only registrations for firms below the $100M federal threshold — the total new-firm pipeline is closer to 1,500–2,000 per year.
The federal-vs-state split is a useful filter. Firms registering at the federal level typically launch with $100M or more in expected AUM (or otherwise qualify under SEC criteria). State-registered firms are usually solo practitioners or two-person teams below that threshold. The federal segment grows faster percentage-wise than the state segment, suggesting the trend is toward fewer but larger new firms.
Who starts new RIAs
The four most common origin stories for a newly registered firm:
Breakaway advisors. An advisor leaves a wirehouse (Morgan Stanley, Merrill, UBS, Wells Fargo) and starts an independent practice. Their clients are typically asked to transfer to the new firm, with the broker-protocol agreement governing what the advisor can and cannot bring. This is the dominant pattern at the top end of new-RIA AUM — breakaways often launch with $200M-$2B already committed.
Hybrid spinouts. An advisor previously operating under another firm's RIA (as an investment adviser representative) decides to register her own entity. Often this happens because the advisor wants more control over fees, technology, or compliance posture, or because she's negotiated equity in the original firm and wants to monetize it.
Post-acquisition restarts. An advisor sells her firm to a platform consolidator, completes her earn-out, and starts a new firm with the next chapter of her career. Most of these are smaller-scale than the original firm because the new firm is intentionally lighter on operations.
First-generation entrepreneurs. Younger advisors (typically 35-45) starting their own firm from scratch, having built a book of business through a previous employer. This is the most common origin in the state-registered segment.
Where new firms register
The geographic distribution of new RIA registrations is uneven and tells you something about where the industry is growing. The states with the highest new-firm count consistently year over year are:
- Texas (around 110-130 new federal registrations per year)
- California (90-110)
- Florida (70-90)
- New York (60-80)
- Illinois (40-50)
- Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona (25-40 each)
The Texas and Florida concentrations have grown materially in the past five years as advisor populations migrated. The California number has plateaued. The New York number is concentrated in Manhattan and the surrounding metro and skews higher AUM than the median.
What a new RIA looks like at filing
The median new SEC-registered firm at the time of initial registration reports:
- 1-2 investment adviser representatives
- 2-4 total employees
- AUM somewhere between $0 (firm registered before transferring assets) and $250M (breakaway with assets already in motion)
- Client count 0-80 at filing, growing rapidly in the first year
- Fee-only or fee-based compensation model (commission-only has nearly disappeared from new registrations)
- A single principal office, typically in a tier-1 or tier-2 metro
The interesting reads happen 12-24 months later. Firms that filed with $0 AUM and reach $100M+ within 24 months are usually breakaways whose clients took longer than expected to transition. Firms that filed with $200M+ and grew modestly are usually retaining their original client base without aggressively prospecting. Firms that started with $50M and reached $200M in 24 months are the high-velocity growth stories.
Why this matters
The new-registration list is a useful resource for several different audiences:
Prospective clients sometimes prefer a brand-new firm where they can be among the founding clients. The early-relationship discount in time and attention is real. The downside is operational immaturity — new firms haven't yet smoothed out their custodial relationships, billing systems, or compliance processes.
Industry researchers use new-registration data to spot emerging trends — the rise of niche practices, the geographic migration of advisor populations, the structural shift away from commission-based models.
Service providers targeting new RIAs (compliance consultants, technology vendors, custodial onboarding teams) use this list as a lead-generation source. Most providers ping each new firm within 60 days of their first filing.
Recruiters watch the list for advisors who recently broke away and may be hiring junior talent in their first 12-18 months.
Browse the live new-firm tracker at /insights/new-rias. Each entry links to the firm's full profile with its initial filing details, the principal advisor names, and the current AUM and client picture as of the most recent filing.
Every new SEC-registered RIA, refreshed monthly. Filter by state, registration year, and initial AUM.