Open Benchmark · H1 2026
RIA Leadership Searches Rose From 11% to 18% of Hiring in a Year
Leadership searches, for chief executives, chief operating officers, heads of advice and heads of growth, rose from 11% to 18% of The Well's total search volume over the trailing year in The RIA Talent Report. That is a rise of nearly two-thirds, not a doubling. Advisor and planner searches rose from 40% to 57% over the same year.
RIA Leadership Hiring: The Fastest-Growing Executive Search in the Talent Report
Leadership searches as a share of total search volume (Talent Report, Exhibit L).
The report says it precisely, and so do we: 11% to 18% is a rise of nearly two-thirds, not a doubling. The market is consolidating fast enough that firms are hiring leaders to run the result, not only advisors to staff it.
Advisor Hiring Is Growing Too
Searches for advisors and planners rose from 40% to 57% of total volume over the same trailing year. Firms consolidating enough to need leadership are also staffing the revenue seats underneath it, not trading one for the other.
| Search type | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership (CEO, COO, head of advice, head of growth) | 11% | 18% |
| Advisors and planners | 40% | 57% |
The RIA Talent Report, chapter 9 (pages 24 and 25).
Why RIA Executive Search Is Rising
Consolidation is colliding with demographics. Per licensed industry tenure benchmarks cited in the report, the average advisor is in their mid-fifties, close to two in five plan to retire within a decade, and only a small fraction of new CFPs are under 30. The senior bench is the thing aging out, which makes succession a search for the next generation. See RIA succession planning and our passive advisor candidates benchmark on who is in motion.
What an RIA Executive Search Looks Like
Leadership seats are what our Retained Executive Search is for: the full market is mapped before the first candidate is contacted, a senior partner oversees the search, and the fee is built to its scope. The fastest search in the first half 2026 record behind the Talent Report filled a chief operating officer seat in under a week. Recent COO placements include seats in Las Vegas (August 2025), Sacramento (June 2026) and Phoenix (July 2026).
A $4B, 244-employee RIA hired its first true finance executive, an SVP Finance and Controller, through us: 16 candidates presented, the search closed in under six weeks, and the hire was not looking. Read when a leadership hire needs executive search and our wealth management executive search page.
Recruiting a COO for an RIA: What to Settle First
A first chief operating officer changes how the firm is run, so the search goes better when the firm settles four things before it starts. Scope: which decisions move from the founder to the COO, and which stay. Authority: what the COO can approve without asking, from hiring to technology spend. Reporting: who the COO reports to, and how disagreements get resolved between founders or partners. And the decision process for the hire itself, because a leadership hire often needs buy-in from partners, key producers or minority owners, which naturally extends the timeline.
Expect the candidate pool to be smaller and more guarded than for an advisor seat. Many strong operators are not looking and would never answer a generic message; reaching them takes existing relationships or a reputation that makes a passive candidate take the call.
Confidentiality matters more than in an advisor search. News that a firm is looking for a new leader can unsettle staff, clients and referral partners before anything is decided, so leadership searches usually run through a small, tightly controlled process.
Executive Search and Succession Together
The same demographics that drive leadership hiring drive succession. The report puts it plainly: succession is becoming a search for the next generation, someone seasoned enough to hold a book and young enough to still be there for the next chapter of it, rather than another senior advisor to buy in. For many firms the leadership hire and the successor search are planned together. See RIA succession planning.
Frequently Asked Questions About Advisor Hiring
When does an RIA need its first COO?
When running the firm is taking the founder away from clients and growth: operations, people, technology and compliance decisions that no one else owns. Our guide to when a leadership hire needs executive search sets out the signs.
Should a leadership hire be a retained search?
Usually. A COO or other leader is a small, guarded pool and a wrong hire touches the whole firm, so a mapped market and a senior partner on the search are worth the fee.
How long does an RIA leadership search take?
It depends on the scope. The fastest search in the first half 2026 Talent Report record filled a COO seat in under a week; our median across all searches is 48 days from signed search to accepted offer.
How We Measured
- Leadership search: a search for a chief executive, chief operating officer, head of advice or head of growth, as the report defines it. Shares are of The Well's total search volume at the start and end of the trailing year to the first half of 2026.
- Advisor age, retirement plans and new-CFP age are licensed industry tenure benchmarks cited in the report, not The Well's record.
- Sources: The RIA Talent Report, chapters 8 and 9 (pages 22 to 25); COO placements from paid placement records; the finance executive case from our case studies.
Use This Data
Cite it freely with attribution: The Well Recruiting Solutions, The RIA Talent Report, First Half 2026, with a link to this page (https://thewell.solutions/benchmarks/ria-leadership-hiring). The figures are free to quote and link; they are not licensed for AI training. Download the numbers as a CSV file, or get the full 28-page report on the Talent Report page.
About The Well and This Data
The Well Recruiting Solutions recruits for wealth management firms of every model, independent RIAs, hybrid firms, insurance-based advisory firms and broker-dealers, and has served 154+ of them since November 2023. Our founder, Steve Perry, joined New York Life as an advisor in 2006, spent 17 years there and led a 125-person firm as Managing Partner. WealthManagement.com covered The RIA Talent Report in August 2026. Client firms include Merit Financial Advisors, SEIA, Mission Wealth, Focus Financial and Coldstream Wealth Management.
“We really appreciated The Well's deep knowledge of the financial services space and what we needed.” David Peck, Focus Financial.