Triad's Hybrid Platform Nears $2B

The new advisors “need the core infrastructure to be able to run and grow their business without interfering with their entrepreneurial vision,” Bryan explained.

“Whether they’re coming from wirehouses — and some of them are — or coming from other independent advisory … or independent broker-dealer environments, and whether they are currently fee-only [or] going to fee-only,” Bryan explained, “in that relatively small sample size, we’ve had every one of those examples, including advisors shutting down their RIA in order to leverage [our] infrastructure.”

While the executive says the growth of Triad’s hybrid platform shows the continuing industry trend of advisors moving away from Financial Industry Regulatory Authority registration to become fee-only RIAs and IARs who must comply with Securities and Exchange Commission rules, there also are many advisors who represent a “slight variation on that trend.”

Some advisors prefer the hybrid model because it “gives the most flexibility, meaning being able to continue to do commissionable business, perhaps for specialty products, perhaps for very specific types of clients, but their primary focus perhaps is on the advisory side of the house,” Bryan explained.  As a result, Triad’s hybrid platform is “seeing a sweet spot there, where advisors feel like the true hybrid model is a great place to grow a business.”