How to Form Your Own RIA in 14 Steps

Starting your own Registered Investment Advisor firm is one of the most significant career moves a financial advisor can make. The independence, the ability to serve clients on your terms, the potential to build something that's truly yours. It's compelling. It's also intimidating if you've never done it before.

Here's the thing though. Forming an RIA isn't some mysterious process reserved for people with armies of lawyers and consultants. It's a series of logical steps that thousands of advisors have navigated successfully. The process has actually gotten easier in recent years as RIA software and wealth management AI have matured, making it possible for solo practitioners to operate with the efficiency of much larger firms.

This guide walks you through everything from writing your business plan to preparing for your first regulatory exam. Each step builds on the last, so by the end you'll have a clear roadmap to follow.

Step 1: Develop Your RIA Business Plan and Niche

The temptation when starting an RIA is to jump straight into the regulatory paperwork. Resist it. The decisions you make in your business plan will shape everything that follows, from which custodian you choose to how you structure your fees to what technology you actually need.

Start by getting specific about who you want to serve. "Anyone who needs financial advice" isn't a niche. It's a recipe for generic marketing and scattered service delivery. Think about the clients you've enjoyed working with most in your career. Maybe they were tech executives navigating stock options, or physicians dealing with student debt and high incomes, or small business owners planning for succession. If you're focused on attracting high net worth clients, your service model and fee structure will look different than a practice serving young accumulators. When you narrow your focus, you can build specialized expertise that larger firms can't easily replicate.

Your niche choice has downstream effects you might not immediately consider. A practice serving young families will need different planning software than one focused on retirees. An advisor working with business owners might require knowledge of entity structuring that someone serving W-2 employees doesn't. The services you offer, the credentials that matter, and even the hours you work will all flow from this initial decision about who you're building the firm to serve.

Once you've identified your target clients, work out the economics. How will you charge for your services, and does that fee model align with what your ideal clients actually value? Model your revenue against realistic operating costs, including everything from technology subscriptions to E&O insurance to the health coverage you'll need to buy yourself. Most advisors who run into trouble in year one didn't fail because they couldn't get clients. They failed because they underestimated how long it takes to become profitable and ran out of runway.

Set measurable goals, such as "add 10 client households representing $15M in AUM within 12 months." These specific targets give you something concrete to measure progress against and force you to think backwards about what activities will produce those results. If you need 10 new clients, how many prospects do you need to meet? Your business plan isn't a document you write once and file away. It's something you'll revisit as you learn what's actually working in your market.

Step 2: Ensure You Meet Licensing and Education Requirements

Before you can register your RIA, you need to confirm that you're personally qualified to give investment advice for compensation. The path to qualification depends on your background and what licenses you already hold.

If you're a breakaway advisor leaving a broker-dealer, you likely already have the credentials you need. Most wirehouse and broker-dealer representatives hold the Series 7 and Series 66, often obtained specifically to conduct fee-based advisory business under their firm's corporate RIA. State regulators generally credit these exams toward investment adviser representative qualification, so you won't need to take the Series 65 separately as long as your Series 7 and 66 are current and recorded in the CRD system.

The critical factor for breakaway advisors is timing. If your FINRA registrations are still active or within two years of termination, virtually all states will accept the Series 7 and 66 combination without requiring additional exams. This creates a strong incentive to move quickly. File for your new RIA's IAR registration while your licenses are still active or well within that 24-month window.

Here's where breakaway advisors need to plan carefully. Since an RIA-only practice doesn't involve broker-dealer activity, you may intend to drop your Series 7. But once a Series 7 license lapses after 2 years without a FINRA member firm affiliation, the Series 66 also effectively loses its validity. At that point, many states will require you to take the Series 65 as if you were a new advisor.

For advisors entering the industry without prior securities licenses, the Series 65 is the standard path. The exam covers investment advisory knowledge specifically and doesn't require a sponsor, making it the straightforward choice for someone launching an independent RIA. Certain professional designations, like the CFP, CFA, ChFC, or PFS, can exempt you from the exam entirely. Check with your state regulator to confirm which designations they accept, as there can be minor variations. Getting your personal licensing squared away early removes one potential bottleneck from your launch timeline.

Step 3: Choose a Business Structure and Register Your Company

Now you need to give your advisory firm a legal identity. This step is less glamorous than designing your logo or picking your tech stack, but it's foundational. The entity you create will be the legal home for everything that follows.

Most independent advisors choose to form a Limited Liability Company. The LLC structure offers a good balance of simplicity and protection. It separates your personal assets from your business liabilities, which matters in a profession where clients could sue over investment losses. Setting one up is relatively straightforward in most states, and the ongoing administrative requirements are manageable for a small firm.

Other structures exist. You could form a corporation or operate as a sole proprietorship. But corporations come with more complexity and formality than most solo advisors need, and sole proprietorships offer no liability protection at all. Unless you have a specific reason to choose otherwise, an LLC is probably your answer. If you're unsure about which state to register in or how to structure ownership, spend an hour with a business attorney. It's a small investment that can prevent headaches later.

Pick a name that reflects the brand you want to build and verify it's available. File your Articles of Organization with your state's Secretary of State office, pay the filing fee, and wait for approval. After your LLC is approved, get an Employer Identification Number from the IRS and open a dedicated business checking account. Keeping personal and business finances separate isn't just good practice. It's essential for maintaining clean accounting and for protecting the liability your LLC provides. At this point, you have an honest company that exists on paper, has a tax ID, and has a bank account.

Step 4: Navigate Registration with Form ADV and Regulatory Filings

With your legal entity established, it's time to actually register as an RIA. This is the step that transforms your LLC from a generic business into a regulated investment advisory firm. Where you register depends on how much money you expect to manage.

The general rule is straightforward. If you plan on managing over $100 million in client assets, you register with the SEC. Below that threshold, you register with your state securities authority. Some states have specific rules that allow or require SEC registration at slightly different levels, so verify the requirements where you'll be doing business. Most new advisors start at the state level and only move to SEC registration as their AUM grows.

The heart of your registration is Form ADV, which is divided into multiple parts. Part 1 is a structured form filed through the Investment Adviser Registration Depository system that provides basic information about your firm, including ownership structure, business activities, and disciplinary history. Part 2 is a narrative document often called your "brochure" that describes your services, fees, investment strategies, and potential conflicts of interest in plain English. This is the disclosure document you'll provide to clients. Part 3, called Form CRS, provides a brief relationship summary for retail investors.

Many advisors hire a compliance consultant to help prepare these filings. The requirements are detailed, and an experienced consultant can provide templates, catch errors before submission, and often deliver a compliance manual as part of the engagement. You can certainly do it yourself if you're willing to invest the time in learning the requirements, but professional help can accelerate your timeline and reduce the risk of deficiency letters from regulators.

Submit your completed ADV through IARD along with the required fees and wait for approval. The SEC has up to 45 days by law to process your registration, while state timelines vary from a few weeks to a couple of months. During the review period, regulators may raise questions or request clarification. Respond promptly and thoroughly. Once approved, you're officially a Registered Investment Advisor.

Step 5: Establish Compliance Policies and Procedures

Being a registered investment advisor means you're a fiduciary. That's not just a marketing term. It's a legal obligation that requires you to maintain a real compliance program from day one. Regulators will eventually show up to check, and they want to see the policies you actually follow, not documents filed away in a drawer.

During registration, you likely created or purchased foundational compliance documents, including a compliance manual, code of ethics, privacy policy, and template client agreements. The danger is treating these as checkbox items. Regulators have specifically called out new RIAs for adopting generic, off-the-shelf manuals that don't reflect the firm's actual operations. If your manual says you review trades quarterly for best execution, you'd better be doing those reviews. If your code of ethics requires reporting personal securities transactions, you need a system to collect and review those reports.

Think through the key areas your compliance program needs to address. How will you protect client data and maintain privacy? What's your process for ensuring best execution on trades? How will you handle advertising and marketing rules, especially the newer provisions around testimonials and endorsements? If you'll deduct advisory fees directly from client accounts, you need to understand custody rule requirements. For a solo practice, you'll serve as your own Chief Compliance Officer, which means you need to genuinely understand these rules rather than outsourcing the thinking entirely to a consultant.

Recordkeeping deserves special attention. RIAs are legally required to maintain various records for set periods, often five years or more. Client communications, trade records, advertising materials, and advisory agreements all need to be retained and retrievable. Invest in systems that make retention automatic rather than relying on manual filing. A secure cloud-based archiving solution for emails, organized document management, and a CRM that logs client interactions will make your life dramatically easier when an examiner asks for documentation from two years ago. Building good compliance habits early is one of the best investments you can make in your firm's longevity.

Step 6: Set Up Your Custodian and Core Technology

Running an RIA requires a web of interconnected services and tools. The most important infrastructure decision you'll make is choosing a custodian. This is the brokerage firm that will hold your clients' investment accounts, execute trades, and provide the infrastructure that makes your advice actionable.

The major RIA custodians include Schwab, Fidelity, and Pershing. TD Ameritrade was a popular choice before its acquisition by Schwab. Newer platforms like Altruist have emerged with technology-forward approaches appealing to smaller firms. When evaluating custodians, think beyond trading costs, since most have already moved to commission-free trading. Consider the quality of their advisor platform, the reporting tools available to you and your clients, how well they integrate with other software you'll use, and the level of support they provide to firms of your size. Some custodians roll out the red carpet for large RIAs but offer minimal attention to startups. Others have built their business specifically around serving smaller independent advisors.

Your technology stack needs to help you serve clients efficiently without burying you in manual work. A Client Relationship Management system is essential for tracking client information, meeting notes, tasks, and workflows. Options explicitly built for advisors like Wealthbox and Redtail fit better than generic CRMs because they understand the advisor workflow. If you're offering financial planning, you'll need planning software like MoneyGuidePro, eMoney, or RightCapital. Portfolio reporting may come from your custodian or a dedicated platform, depending on your needs.

When evaluating the best AI tools for financial advisors, look for solutions that integrate with your existing workflow rather than creating additional complexity. Jump AI works as an AI assistant for financial advisors, automatically capturing meeting notes, generating follow-up tasks, and keeping your CRM up to date without manual data entry. For a solo advisor focused on financial advisor productivity, this kind of automation is transformative. Instead of spending thirty minutes after every client meeting writing up notes and creating tasks, you walk out of the meeting with documentation already complete. The time savings compound quickly when you're having dozens of client conversations each month.

Start lean and don't overbuy technology in your first year. Some custodians offer bundled tools at low or no cost to new advisors. Free trials let you test before committing. The goal is to create a connected ecosystem where your tools share data rather than forcing you to re-enter information across multiple systems manually.

Step 7: Create Your Client Experience Through Branding, Website, and Onboarding

At some point, you need to shift from building infrastructure to thinking about how clients will actually find and experience your firm. This is where your business starts to feel real. The brand you create and the processes you design will shape every client relationship you build.

Start with your firm's visual identity. If you haven't finalized a name during your LLC formation, do it now. Choose something professional that resonates with your target clients and doesn't run afoul of compliance rules prohibiting misleading names. A simple logo and consistent color palette give your firm a polished appearance across all touchpoints. You don't need to spend thousands on a branding agency. Clean and professional beats elaborate and expensive, especially when you're just starting out.

Your website is the digital front door of your practice. Most prospective clients will look you up online before ever reaching out, so what they find matters. The site doesn't need to be complex, but it should clearly communicate who you serve, what services you offer, and how you charge. An "About" page that tells your story and explains why you started your own firm helps build a connection. Transparency around fees is increasingly expected and signals that you operate differently from firms that bury pricing in fine print.

Think through your client onboarding process before you need it. What information will you collect from new clients? What documents do they need to sign? How will you walk them through opening accounts with your custodian? Map out each step and create the materials you'll need, including an advisory agreement template, a welcome packet, and a new client checklist.

Your discovery meeting agenda should include the questions for financial advisors to ask clients that reveal their true goals, concerns, and circumstances. Using Jump AI from your very first prospect meeting ensures every conversation is documented thoroughly and consistently. The discovery call notes, the questions they raised, the concerns they mentioned, and the next steps you promised all get captured automatically. When that prospect becomes a client, you have a complete record of how the relationship began. This level of documentation impresses clients and demonstrates the kind of attention they can expect going forward.

Step 8: Arrange Key Business Logistics Including Office, Insurance, and Support

Starting an RIA means you're no longer just an advisor. You're also running a small business. There are operational details to handle that don't involve client work but that create real problems if neglected.

Figure out where you'll work. Many new RIAs launch from home offices or coworking spaces to keep overhead low. This is an innovative approach as long as you have a professional environment for client calls and video meetings. What you don't need is an expensive office lease to project success. Clients care far more about the quality of your advice than the view from your conference room. If you prefer a dedicated office, keep it modest and make sure the cost fits comfortably within your budget projections. You can always upgrade later once revenue supports it.

Insurance is non-negotiable. You need Errors and Omissions coverage with at least $1 million in protection. E&O insurance protects you if a client alleges your advice caused them financial harm. It's professional liability coverage for advisors, and you shouldn't operate without it. Consider adding cyber liability coverage, given the sensitive client data you'll handle. If you're leaving a firm with employer-provided health insurance, factor individual coverage into your budget. This is an expense many breakaway advisors underestimate in their planning.

Set up basic accounting systems to track your firm's finances. QuickBooks or Xero works well for small advisory firms and makes it easy to categorize income and expenses, generate reports, and prepare for tax time. You'll also need to make quarterly estimated tax payments as a self-employed business owner, so build that rhythm into your calendar.

Identify professional relationships you can call on when needed. A compliance consultant available for questions, an attorney who understands securities law, and an accountant familiar with RIA taxation. You may not need these people often, but knowing who to call before you do prevents scrambling in stressful situations. Building your support network early is part of running a sustainable business rather than just reacting to whatever comes next.

Step 9: Develop a Marketing Plan to Attract Clients

Opening your doors doesn't automatically bring people through them. You need a deliberate approach to building your client base, especially in the early months when word of mouth hasn't had time to develop. Even advisors transitioning clients from a prior firm should consider marketing, because those clients won't sustain growth forever.

Start with the network you already have. Friends, family, former colleagues, and professional contacts should know you've launched your own firm. Be thoughtful here, particularly if you're leaving an employer with non-solicitation agreements in place. But within appropriate boundaries, let people know what you're doing and who you're trying to help. Some of your earliest clients may come from people who've watched your career and trust you already. A personal note explaining your new venture often generates more interest than any advertisement could.

Build a digital presence that works for you even when you're not actively prospecting. A LinkedIn profile that clearly describes your services and target clients puts you in front of people searching for advisors like you. Regular posts sharing useful insights keep you visible to your network without being pushy. Consider creating content that addresses the specific questions and challenges your ideal clients face. A blog post about equity compensation strategies will attract tech employees navigating stock options. An article on practice succession planning will resonate with business owners considering retirement.

Among the most useful tips for financial advisors building a practice is this: content that solves real problems attracts better prospects than generic marketing messages. Your client engagement strategies should extend to prospects too, providing value before they ever become clients. Track what's working. If most of your leads come from a particular CPA who refers clients, invest more in that relationship. If a webinar generates strong interest, do another one. Set aside time each week for marketing activities so they become habitual rather than something you only do when your pipeline feels empty.

Step 10: Launch Your RIA and Start Serving Clients

Everything you've done so far has been preparation. Now comes the moment you actually open for business and begin working with clients under your own firm. Whether you're transitioning an existing book of business or starting completely fresh, this step is where theory meets reality.

If you're bringing clients over from a previous firm, execution matters enormously. You'll coordinate account transfers through ACAT, walk clients through new paperwork, and answer the inevitable questions about what this change means for them. Expect some anxiety from clients even if they're enthusiastic about following you. Their money is moving to a new custodian and their relationship is now with a firm they've never heard of before. Over-communicate during this period. Explain how their assets are protected at the third-party custodian. Reinforce the benefits of your independence and your ability to serve them without corporate constraints. The extra reassurance you provide now builds trust that will carry the relationship forward.

For clients who are completely new to you, your onboarding process gets its first real test. Discovery meetings, proposal presentations, agreement signing, account opening, and initial investment implementation all need to flow smoothly. Pay attention to where things feel clunky or confusing. These early experiences will teach you how to refine your process for future clients.

Establish your service rhythm immediately. If you've promised quarterly reviews, get those meetings on the calendar. If your model includes monthly check-ins, start scheduling them. Use your CRM religiously to document every interaction and set follow-up tasks. The habits you build in these first months will define how organized your practice feels as it grows. Small firms win by providing personalized attention that larger firms can't match, so lean into that advantage. Respond promptly, remember the details of clients' lives, and deliver on what you said you would do.

Take a moment to acknowledge what you've accomplished. Launching your own RIA is a significant achievement that most advisors only dream about. But also recognize that this is the beginning, not the destination. The real work of building a sustainable practice starts now.

Step 11: Transitioning from a Prior Firm

If you're launching your RIA by breaking away from an existing employer, this step requires careful planning and disciplined execution. The transition period carries real legal and reputational risks if handled poorly. Done well, it preserves client relationships and sets you up for a clean start. Done badly, it can result in litigation, lost clients, and a cloud hanging over your new firm.

Start by reviewing every agreement you signed with your current employer. Employment contracts, partnership agreements, and any other documents may contain non-compete clauses, non-solicitation provisions, or confidentiality requirements that constrain what you can do when you leave. These provisions vary dramatically in their enforceability depending on your state and specific circumstances. Don't assume you know what's allowed. Engage an attorney experienced in securities industry transitions to review your agreements and advise you on the boundaries. The cost of legal guidance upfront is a fraction of what defending a lawsuit would cost later.

Timing and confidentiality matter enormously. Generally, you should not solicit clients or discuss your departure with them until after you've resigned from your current firm. Doing so beforehand could violate your duty of loyalty or breach specific contract terms. Keep your plans quiet until you're ready to execute. Once you resign, move quickly and professionally. Have client communications ready to send explaining your decision, the benefits of your new firm, and the process for transferring their accounts. Keep the tone positive and forward-looking. Criticizing your former employer serves no purpose and may actually make clients uncomfortable.

Client data is where advisors most often get into trouble. Do not take any documents, files, or information that belongs to your employer. Firms actively monitor departing advisors and will investigate if they suspect you downloaded client lists or emailed yourself account information before leaving. If your firm participates in the Broker Protocol, follow its requirements precisely. The Protocol allows you to take limited contact information for clients you personally served, but only the specific data elements it permits. Taking anything more forfeits the Protocol's protection and exposes you to legal action. If your firm isn't part of the Protocol, the safest approach is to leave with nothing and reconstruct your client list from memory and public sources after departure.

Think about this transition from your clients' perspective. They're being asked to follow you to a firm they've never heard of, move their assets to a new custodian, and trust that this change is in their best interest. Make the process as easy as possible. Prepare account transfer paperwork in advance, use electronic signatures to minimize friction, and be available to answer questions. The clients who follow you through this transition are demonstrating real loyalty. Honor that by making their experience as smooth as you can.

Step 12: Preparing for Audits and Regulatory Exams

Once your RIA is operational, expect a regulatory examination within your first year or two. The SEC typically examines new advisors within twelve months of registration. State regulators follow similar timelines, though the specifics vary by jurisdiction. These initial exams serve partly as education, helping new firms understand what compliance looks like in practice. But don't mistake the educational intent for leniency. Examiners are evaluating whether you're running a compliant operation, and deficiencies will need to be corrected.

The best preparation is simply running your firm the way you're supposed to all along. If you've implemented your compliance policies rather than just filing them away, if you've maintained proper records and documented your client interactions, and if you've followed through on the procedures outlined in your compliance manual, an exam becomes a demonstration of good work rather than a scramble to cover gaps. The advisors who struggle are those who adopted generic compliance documents without customizing them or who let documentation slide because they were busy with client work.

Examiners will request a wide range of documents covering your advisory business. Client agreements, financial records, trading records, Form ADV disclosures, your compliance manual, and evidence of how you've implemented your policies. They want specifics. Regulators have noted that they may ask to see the exact conversation where you recommended a particular investment to a client. If that record is incomplete or missing, you have a problem. Organized files and thorough documentation transform an exam from a stressful ordeal into a straightforward review.

This is where consistent use of AI documentation tools pays dividends. Jump AI creates a timestamped record of every client meeting, capturing the discussion, the recommendations made, and the rationale behind them. When an examiner asks for evidence of a specific conversation from eighteen months ago, you can retrieve it in seconds rather than digging through incomplete notes or relying on memory. The audit trail Jump creates isn't just convenient. It's exactly the kind of documentation that demonstrates you're running a compliant, well-organized practice.

Consider conducting a mock audit before the real thing arrives. Walk through the types of requests examiners typically make and verify that you can produce the required documentation. Are your client communications archived and searchable? Can you pull up the suitability information for any client on demand? Is there evidence that you actually performed the reviews and tasks described in your compliance manual? Identifying gaps during a self-assessment gives you time to fix them before they become findings in an examination report.

Step 13: Measuring Your Firm's Performance and Operations

Running your own RIA isn't something you set up once and let run on autopilot. The advisors who build successful practices treat their firms like the businesses they are, which means tracking performance and making decisions based on actual data rather than gut feelings alone.

Decide early on which metrics matter for your business and create a simple system to monitor them. What gets measured gets managed, and the discipline of regular review forces you to confront reality rather than operating on assumptions. Too many new advisors skip this step entirely and end up surprised when problems have been building for months without their awareness.

Client growth is a foundational metric. Track how many households you're adding and whether you're retaining the clients you have. A firm that adds ten clients but loses eight hasn't really grown. Asset growth matters too, but separate market performance from actual client flows. If the market rose 10% but your AUM only increased 5%, you experienced net outflows that market gains masked. This organic growth number tells you more about the health of your business than the headline AUM figure.

Revenue and profitability deserve regular attention. Track your income monthly or quarterly and compare it against your expenses. Are you on pace to reach the breakeven point you identified in your business plan? Are certain costs creeping up in ways you didn't anticipate? Understanding your profit margin helps you make informed decisions about investments in technology, marketing, or staff. It also tells you whether your fee structure is actually working or needs adjustment.

Operational metrics reveal how efficiently you're serving clients. How long does it take to fully onboard a new client from the first meeting to invested accounts? Are you delivering on your service model, whether that's quarterly reviews or monthly check-ins? Client satisfaction indicators like survey responses or referral rates tell you whether your service quality matches what you think you're delivering. Sometimes the data reveals gaps between your intentions and your clients' actual experience.

Your technology can help you understand operational capacity in ways that manual tracking cannot. Jump AI captures data on your client interactions automatically, showing you how many meetings you're conducting, whether follow-up tasks are being completed on time, and where bottlenecks might be forming in your workflow. This visibility helps you understand your true capacity and spot problems before they affect client service. Build a regular rhythm for reviewing these numbers. Monthly dashboard reviews and quarterly deep dives keep you connected to reality.

Step 14: Planning for Scaling and Your First Hires

As your RIA gains momentum, you'll eventually bump up against the limits of what one person can accomplish. Your time and energy are finite resources, and at some point growth requires adding capacity. Knowing when and how to scale is one of the most consequential decisions you'll make as a firm owner.

There's no universal formula for when to hire. It depends on how quickly you're adding clients, how complex your service model is, and where your own capacity constraints show up first. Some advisors can effectively serve fifty client households solo, while others feel stretched at thirty. Pay attention to the warning signs. If you're consistently working unsustainable hours, if tasks are falling through the cracks, if clients are waiting too long for responses, or if you're turning away prospects because you can't handle more, you're probably approaching the point where help makes sense.

Before jumping to hire, evaluate whether technology can further extend your capacity. Many of the tasks that consume advisor time are administrative rather than strategic. Meeting documentation, CRM updates, follow-up emails, and task management are all necessary work, but they don't require your personal expertise. Jump AI handles these functions automatically, effectively giving you back hours each week that would otherwise go to paperwork. Some advisors find they can serve significantly more clients than expected simply by eliminating the manual work that used to follow every meeting. This doesn't mean you'll never need to hire, but it does mean you can grow further before that investment becomes necessary.

The question of who to hire first matters as much as when. Many advisors instinctively think they need another advisor to share the client load. In most cases, that's the wrong first hire. A better choice is typically someone who can handle the administrative and operational work that consumes your time but doesn't require your specific expertise. A client service associate or operations person can manage account paperwork, scheduling, client inquiries, and workflow coordination. This frees you to spend more time on the activities that actually grow the business, like meeting with prospects, building financial plans, and deepening client relationships.

When you do bring someone on, hire for character and fit rather than just skills. Technical abilities can be taught, but trustworthiness, initiative, and genuine care for clients are harder to develop. In a small firm, everyone wears multiple hats and works closely together. A bad cultural fit creates friction that affects everything. Take your time, involve others in the interview process if possible, and trust your instincts about whether someone will thrive in your environment.

One advantage of having strong documentation systems in place is that new team members can get up to speed quickly. When a new hire can review the complete history of client conversations, meeting notes, and action items that Jump has captured, they understand each relationship's context without you having to brief them from memory. This accelerates training and ensures consistency as your team grows.

Turning Your RIA Vision into Reality

Building your own RIA is one of the most rewarding paths a financial advisor can take. The fourteen steps we've covered form a clear progression from initial planning through launch and growth. While the process requires real work, none of it is beyond the capability of a motivated advisor willing to learn and execute.

Remember why you wanted to do this in the first place. Most advisors who start their own firms are driven by a desire to serve clients better or build something meaningful. Keep that motivation front and center when administrative details feel tedious or growth comes slower than you hoped.

You don't have to figure everything out alone. The independent advisor community is filled with people who have walked this path and are willing to share what they've learned. Consultants, custodians, technology providers, and peer networks all exist to support advisors like you.

The advisors who thrive as independents are the ones who recognize that their time is their most valuable asset. Every hour spent on meeting notes, CRM updates, and administrative follow-up is an hour not spent with clients or growing the business. Jump AI was built specifically to solve this problem. It captures every client conversation automatically, generates complete documentation, creates follow-up tasks, and maintains the audit trail regulators expect. Solo advisors using Jump operate with the efficiency of firms twice their size, serving more clients without sacrificing the personal attention that makes independent practices special.

tipsIf you're serious about launching an RIA that runs smoothly from day one, schedule a demo with Jump and see how much easier the journey can be.