Q2 2026  ·  Talent Movement Intelligence Report

Who moved. Where they went.
What it means for your market.

On 31 March 2026, every SEC-registered RIA with a December fiscal year filed their annual Form ADV. W-Executive pulled the bulk data release on 2 April — 48 hours later. What follows is a picture of the 2025 advisor market that did not exist a week ago, and cannot be produced by any other search firm.

49,908
Advisors mapped
6,565
Strong Fit
~800+
Team-level moves
12
Competitive flows

Data note: Movement data is derived from SEC Form ADV individual registration records (prior_firm_name field). Large advisor counts at a single destination indicate team-level or firm-level moves, not individual attrition. Filings as of 2 April 2026 — first bulk publication after the 31 March 2026 annual amendment deadline.

01 · The filing cycle
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The First Complete Picture of the 2025 Market Year

The annual Form ADV filing cycle closed on 31 March 2026. W-Executive pulled the bulk XML on April 2 — 48 hours after the deadline. Every movement, every ownership change, every AUM restatement for the full 2025 calendar year is now in the data. No equivalent analysis exists anywhere else at this point in time.

STRONG FIT
An advisor whose firm serves ultra-high-net-worth families as its primary mandate
Criteria: avg client relationship ≥$5M AND ≥50% of firm AUM held for private individuals. Both conditions must be met simultaneously. A firm can show 95% HNWI concentration but if average accounts are $800K, those are affluent families — not AlTi’s clients. Conversely, a firm with $350M average accounts but 2% HNWI is an institutional OCIO manager serving pension funds — also excluded. The dual-gate is the only reliable way to find genuine UHNW private wealth practitioners at scale.
Full-year 2025 AUM
Every firm has restated assets as of 31 December 2025. The definitive picture of who grew, who contracted, and by how much.
Q4 2025 headcount
Advisor registrations and departures through year-end. Any team that moved in H2 2025 is now visible for the first time.
Prior firm registrations
Large volumes from same source to same destination indicate a structured team or firm-level move — not individual attrition.
Ownership disclosures
PE transactions or ownership changes completed in 2025 must now be declared. Q10A flag confirms disclosure exists.
Data caveat
Movement data is inferred from prior_firm_name in the SEC individual registration record — not directly reported. AlTi Tiedemann Global appears as Tiedemann Advisors LLC (CRD 302618).
02 · UHNW advisor universe
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49,908 Advisors Mapped — Scale, Composition and Geography

The dual-gate methodology removes institutional contamination. Every advisor in the Strong Fit universe works at a firm that genuinely serves ultra-high-net-worth private clients as its primary mandate.

Advisor universe by AlTi fit tier
49,908 advisors · 2,187 firms · Hover for detail
Strong Fit (6,565)
Good Fit (18,247)
Potential (20,837)
Review (4,259)
6,565 advisors sit on platforms that genuinely serve UHNW clients

Only 13% of all mapped advisors meet both criteria simultaneously — a deliberately narrow filter calibrated to AlTi’s actual client profile. The 18,247 Good Fit advisors ($2M–$5M avg client) are the secondary pipeline: accomplished practitioners one tier below UHNW.

Strong Fit: $19.6M average client, 82.5% HNWI. These advisors manage relationships directly comparable to AlTi’s own client base.
Review Required: $28.9M avg client but only 8.3% HNWI. These are institutional OCIO managers — pension funds, endowments. Their large accounts are not private families. Correctly excluded.
Implication
The 6,565 Strong Fit advisors are the only part of this universe AlTi should recruit from directly. 18,247 Good Fit advisors are worth tracking — some will upgrade to UHNW mandates. Everything else is background noise for this mandate.
Strong Fit advisors by city · top 8 markets
Hover bars for detail
Miami dominates by volume. Boston is the highest-value market per hire.

Miami’s 668 Strong Fit advisors make it the largest UHNW talent market in the US. Boston has only 129 — but those 129 carry an average implied book of $635.9M, the highest of any market in the country.

Miami: 668 Strong Fit, $188.6M avg implied AUM/rep. High volume, high mobility. AlTi’s current deployment here is correct.
Boston: $635.9M avg implied AUM/rep. 2.4x the national average. Senior practitioners with ultra-concentrated books. Fewer targets, much larger prize.
New York: only 200 Strong Fit from 3,237 total. 6% conversion — the rest sit at wirehouses. Requires individual qualification, not firm-level targeting.
Implication
The data validates AlTi’s conviction on Miami. 668 Strong Fit advisors, 1,067 high-mobility practitioners, 471 short-tenure advisors who recently moved and will move again. The market instinct is correct. What the data adds is the competitive pressure: Corient absorbed 217 advisors from the same sources in the same city in 2025. Miami is the right market — and the window to capture it is narrowing. Boston requires a different approach entirely: targeted, senior, high-value per engagement rather than volume.
03 · Mobility intelligence
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Where Talent Is Most Likely to Move Next

Short tenure (<2 years at current firm) is the single strongest predictor of advisor movement. Combined with high career mobility (4+ firms), it produces the highest-probability proactive outreach list in the dataset.

Boston’s implied book value per advisor is in a category of its own

This measures average AUM per registered advisor pro-rata — a proxy for book size. Boston’s $635.9M is not a data anomaly. It reflects senior MFO and UHNW boutique practitioners managing $50M–$200M+ family relationships.

Boston at $635.9M — these are senior practitioners with ultra-concentrated UHNW books. The prize per hire is the highest of any US market.
Foster City CA at $258.8M — IEQ Capital’s home market. Pacific corridor UHNW talent is scarce, concentrated at very few platforms.
Implication
If AlTi does not have a structured Boston outreach programme, it is leaving the highest-yield market in the country unaddressed. This is addressable with targeted senior engagement, not high-volume outreach.
Avg implied AUM per advisor by city ($M)
Hover bars for detail
Short tenure advisors by city (<2 years at current firm)
Hover bars for detail
St Louis is the most disproportionately displaced market right now

961 short-tenure advisors in a market with only 246 Strong Fit advisors — a 3.9x displacement ratio. This is largely the Buckingham → Focus Partners migration: 106 advisors moved onto a platform they did not choose. Many are evaluating further moves right now.

St Louis: 961 short tenure, 3.9x ratio. Highest displacement rate of any market. The Buckingham migration created a pool of unsettled advisors who did not choose their current platform.
New York: 1,289 short tenure in absolute terms. Large total, smaller proportion of overall market. Still a priority for outreach volume.
Implication
The former Buckingham Strategic advisors now at Focus Partners in St Louis are the single most actionable cold-outreach cohort in the dataset. They recently moved onto a platform they did not choose, their books are real ($7B+ AUM migrated), and they are likely evaluating options right now.
04 · Wirehouse talent pipeline
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Merrill Lynch Is the Largest Exporter — JP Morgan the Highest Quality

Which institutions systematically produce talent for the UHNW independent market? Volume tells you who is moving. Conversion rate tells you where the best-quality talent is actually coming from.

All leavers vs Strong Fit destination placements · top 10 source firms
Hover bars for conversion rate detail · Strong Fit = avg client ≥$5M & HNWI% ≥50%
All leavers
Now at Strong Fit firms
Merrill Lynch produces the most UHNW-bound talent nationally

919 advisors have left Merrill and landed at firms in the Strong or Good Fit universe — 163 at Strong Fit platforms. Merrill’s culture of building client-centric relationship-led advisors continues to be the primary supplier for the boutique UHNW world.

JP Morgan: 31% Strong Fit rate. Nearly double Merrill’s rate. Private banking alumni carry UHNW client mandates when they leave.
Goldman Sachs: 27% from 91 leavers. Small volume but the highest concentration of ultra-UHNW practitioners in the market.
Merrill Lynch: 18% despite 919 leavers. Volume pipeline, lower quality conversion than JPM or Goldman.
Implication
Quality sequencing matters more than volume. Start with Goldman and JPM alumni (27–31%), then Citigroup (25%), then UBS (20%), then Merrill for volume. An outreach programme focused on Goldman and JPM alumni produces structurally better hires even at lower absolute numbers.
Strong Fit conversion rate by source firm (%)
Hover bars for detail
The conversion gap reveals which institutions train UHNW practitioners

A high conversion rate means advisors from this institution gravitate specifically to UHNW-grade boutiques when they leave — directly reflecting the client minimums and mandate type they were managing before departure.

JP Morgan (31%) and Goldman (27%) — private banking divisions with $10M–$25M client minimums. Alumni arrive pre-qualified for UHNW work.
Citigroup at 25% — often overlooked. Comparable client minimums to JPM, lower outreach competition. Undervalued talent pipeline.
Implication
Citigroup Private Bank alumni are the most underserved outreach opportunity. 25% conversion rate comparable to Goldman, but most UHNW search firms over-index on Merrill and JPM. That inefficiency is directly exploitable.
05 · Platform flow map
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Where the Market Moved: the Alluvial View

Each band represents advisors moving from a source firm (left) to a destination platform (right). Band thickness = advisor volume. Teal bands lead to Strong Fit platforms. Hover any band for detail.

The dominant flow
Buckingham Strategic → Focus Partners (106 advisors) is the thickest band by far. Not attrition — consistent with a structured acquisition. The entire Buckingham advisor base appears to have transferred to one platform intact.
Goldman concentration
Goldman Sachs → Cerity Partners is narrow but extraordinarily concentrated. 23 of 35 Goldman leavers chose the same platform. That is Cerity actively positioning itself as the Goldman successor — and winning.
Corient’s breadth
Corient receives inflows from every major source firm. No other Strong Fit platform shows this breadth. Corient is operating an aggressive, well-funded talent acquisition machine in AlTi’s primary market of Miami.
06 · Team-level movements
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The Signature Moves in the 2025 Data

These are not individual advisor moves. These are structured market events now visible in the filing data for the first time.

106
Buckingham → Focus Partners
Near-complete firm migration
23
Goldman Sachs → Cerity Partners
Concentrated, directional flow
20
Merrill Lynch → Corient
Strong Fit destination, Miami
13
JP Morgan → Cresset
UHNW to UHNW platform
Good Fit · 106 advisors
BUCKINGHAM STRATEGIC → FOCUS PARTNERS
Focus Partners · $42.8B AUM · St Louis MO · $227M avg implied AUM/rep
What happened
106 advisors sharing the same prior firm, now registered at a single destination, is not individual recruitment. Consistent with Focus Partners acquiring Buckingham Strategic Wealth or absorbing a substantial portion of its operations — essentially intact.
Why it matters
Buckingham was a $7B+ RIA. The entire advisor base transferred. One of the largest single talent pool acquisitions visible in the 2025 ADV data and a material scaling event for Focus Partners.
Strategic implication for AlTi
The Buckingham advisors at Focus Partners did not choose this platform — they were moved onto it. They now sit at a Good Fit platform in St Louis, not a UHNW boutique. Many will be evaluating a further move. These 106 advisors represent an immediate, high-probability outreach opportunity.
Strong Fit · 23 advisors
GOLDMAN SACHS WEALTH SERVICES → CERITY PARTNERS
Cerity Partners · $122.9B AUM · New York NY · $244.7M avg implied AUM/rep
What happened
23 of Goldman’s 35 tracked leavers — 66% — went to a single destination. When that proportion of advisors from one elite platform choose the same destination, it means that destination is actively recruiting them with a compelling offer.
Why it matters
Cerity has positioned itself as the culturally credible successor to Goldman Sachs Private Wealth — likely offering equity structures, team models and client minimums familiar to Goldman alumni. This is a deliberate strategy that is working.
Strategic implication for AlTi
Cerity is winning the Goldman alumni pipeline AlTi should also compete for. The Goldman practitioners at Cerity (Strong Fit, $6.2M avg client) are exactly AlTi’s profile. AlTi needs to understand Cerity’s offer — and have a credible counter-offer ready before the next wave of Goldman departures.
07 · Competitive intelligence
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The Platforms Winning the Talent Race

These are the firms absorbing the market’s best UHNW talent. Some are AlTi’s direct competitors for the same practitioners. Others are aggregators operating in a different segment entirely.

124 Priority M&A targets after institutional contamination removed

The initial model produced 680 Priority firms. After correcting for HNWI% as primary gate (which allowed pension managers through), the revised model using avg client size produced 124 rigorous Priority targets. That is the credible, defensible number.

Priority: $167.6M avg client, $868M AUM/rep. 64 show corroborated growth (AUM and clients both rising). Acquisition conversations warranted now.
1,193 Active tier at $17.9M avg client. High quality secondary pipeline approaching the UHNW threshold.
Implication
Canterbury Consulting ($1,835M implied AUM/rep), Silvercrest ($1,139M) and Summit Trail Advisors ($769M) are the top three Priority firms by economic density. These are the conversations AlTi’s M&A principal should be initiating in Q2.
M&A acquisition target tiers
Hover for firm counts
Priority (124)
Active (1,193)
Watch (2,243)
PlatformLocationAdvisors receivedAlTi fitAvg clientImplied AUM/repWhat this means for AlTi
Cerity PartnersNew York NY354Strong fit$6.2M$245MGoldman alumni destination. Direct AlTi competitor for NY UHNW practitioners. Understand their equity offer before the next wave of GS departures.
Creative PlanningOverland Park KS385Good fit$2.6M$234MBroad wirehouse absorber. $1M–$3M market. Not direct AlTi competition. Monitor for advisors who upgrade their mandate over time.
HightowerChicago IL352Good fit$2.9M$175MMulti-source wirehouse aggregator. Advisors at Hightower 2–3 years may be ready to move to a more specialised UHNW platform.
MarinerOverland Park KS288Good fit$2.3M$134MMid-market RIA aggregator. Primarily Merrill and Schwab converts. Not AlTi competition at the UHNW level.
CorientMiami FL217Strong fit$5.7M$291MDirect AlTi competitor in Miami. PE-backed (CI Financial, Q10A confirmed). Monitor Corient’s PE exit timeline — 217 Miami advisors will be in play when it happens.
CressetChicago IL67Strong fit$16.1M$431MDirect AlTi competition. JP Morgan alumni dominant source (13 advisors). Has positioned itself as the default JPM exit in Chicago — the positioning AlTi should own.
IEQ CapitalFoster City CA66Strong fit$18.0M$313MPure UHNW family office, 99% HNWI. Receiving JPM and Merrill alumni selectively. A possible acquisition target given its concentrated mandate and Pacific corridor position.
New Edge WealthStamford CT67Good fit$4.3M$134MEmerging Northeast aggregator. At $4.3M avg client approaching Strong Fit threshold. Watch for advisors who outgrow the platform and need a genuine UHNW home.
PathstoneEnglewood NJ75Strong fit$45.3M$670MUltra-UHNW MFO, $45M avg client. Operates at a higher threshold than most. Competitor in AlTi’s segment AND a potential acquisition target in the NJ/NY market.
Focus PartnersSt Louis MO188Good fit$2.9M$227MBuckingham acquisition drove 106-advisor inflow. Many did not choose this platform. Structured outreach to former Buckingham practitioners is the highest-probability cold outreach in the dataset.
Highlighted rows = Strong Fit platforms competing directly with AlTi for UHNW advisor talent
08 · Three flows warranting AlTi attention
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What the Data Is Telling You Directly

These are not market observations. These are specific, actionable intelligence signals pointing to decisions AlTi should make in Q2 2026.

01
JP Morgan alumni are forming a UHNW cluster — and AlTi is not in it
  • 75 ex-JPM advisors now at Strong Fit platforms
  • 13 at Cresset · 7 at IEQ Capital · 7 at Corient
  • 31% Strong Fit rate — highest of any source firm
What it means
JPM private banking alumni self-select into a small number of UHNW platforms. The same 5 firms keep appearing. Those firms have made themselves known, trusted and recommended by alumni already there.
Implication
AlTi has the mandate, the global platform and the cultural credibility to be in that cluster. But it is not appearing as a destination for JPM alumni. The fix is not a job posting — it is building relationships with JPM practitioners now at Cresset, IEQ and Corient who will be the referral network for the next wave.
02
Goldman → Cerity is a pipeline that AlTi is not part of
  • 23 of 35 tracked GS leavers went to one firm
  • $6.2M avg client · 64% HNWI · Strong Fit
  • Same geography, same client profile, same cultural background
What it means
Cerity has made itself the default exit option for Goldman Sachs Private Wealth practitioners. This is the result of a deliberate positioning effort — probably equity offers, partner-level conversations and a Goldman alumni presence that creates credibility.
Implication
AlTi’s global integrated model is a different and arguably more compelling offer than Cerity for the right Goldman practitioner. But AlTi is not in the consideration set. Gaining that position requires engagement with Goldman alumni who are already respected voices in that practitioner community.
03
Corient is systematically building AlTi’s Miami market from the same sources
  • 217 advisors received in 2025 — in AlTi’s primary market
  • Merrill, JPM, Schwab, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup all represented
  • $5.7M avg client · 85% HNWI · PE-backed CI Financial
What it means
Corient absorbed 217 advisors in Miami in 2025 from the same wirehouse sources AlTi targets. It has more capital, is more aggressive and operates at significant scale in AlTi’s primary market. April 2026 is the first filing where the full scale is visible.
Implication
AlTi needs to hold two positions on Corient simultaneously: compete aggressively for the same Miami advisors now, and monitor the PE exit timeline closely. CI Financial is a prolific acquirer that eventually sells. When that exit happens, Corient’s 217-advisor Miami base — with $5.7M average client and 85% HNWI — becomes the largest single talent acquisition opportunity in AlTi’s primary market. The data confirms the scale of what would be in play.
09 · AlTi Tiedemann in the data
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What the Data Confirms About AlTi’s Positioning

AlTi appears in this dataset as Tiedemann Advisors LLC (CRD 302618). The filing data independently confirms the strategy is correctly calibrated — and identifies the specific competitive dynamics that matter most in Q2 2026.

The data confirms the strategy is correctly calibrated
Strong Fit · $31.0B AUM · April 2026
  • $67.3M average client — AlTi operates at 10x Corient’s average ($5.7M) and 4x Cerity’s ($6.2M). This is not marginal differentiation. It confirms AlTi competes for a genuinely distinct practitioner population.
  • 77.7% HNWI concentration — pure private wealth mandate confirmed by independent SEC data
  • Comparable to Pathstone ($45M avg client) in mandate concentration. These are the only two platforms in the dataset operating at this threshold.
  • The advisors AlTi needs do exist — 6,565 of them. They are at firms like Cresset, IEQ Capital, Pathstone and the former Buckingham cohort. The data identifies exactly where they are.
One intelligence question the data raises
AlTi’s selective model is confirmed — and creates a specific question
  • Corient received 217 advisors. Cerity received 354. Cresset received 67. AlTi’s lower inbound volume is consistent with a quality-over-volume model — not a weakness.
  • The question the data raises is specific: when a JPM private banking practitioner or Goldman alumnus decides to move, is AlTi in their consideration set alongside Cresset and Cerity?
  • The data cannot answer that directly. But the concentration of JPM alumni at Cresset (13 advisors) and Goldman alumni at Cerity (23 advisors) suggests those platforms have built deliberate referral networks among alumni already there.
  • That is a replicable strategy. AlTi has the mandate and the client profile to attract exactly the same practitioners.
The three competitive threats most urgent for Q2
Ranked by proximity to AlTi’s mandate and markets
  • Corient (Miami) — same geography, same sources, PE-funded. Most urgent because it operates at scale in AlTi’s primary market right now.
  • Cerity Partners (New York) — has captured the Goldman alumni pipeline that AlTi should also compete for.
  • Cresset (Chicago) — captured the JP Morgan pipeline in the Midwest. $16M avg client is close to AlTi’s threshold. Strong overlap in profile.
Appendix · Methodology
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What This Data Is, What It Is Not, and How to Use It

This data was not designed to measure advisor movement. W-Executive has built a proprietary pipeline that extracts movement intelligence from SEC registration records. These notes define the boundaries of what can and cannot be concluded.

Primary data source
SEC Form ADV individual XML — IA_INDVL_Feed_04_02_2026.xml.zip
Released April 2 2026 — first release after March 31 2026 deadline
431,000+ individual registrations across 20 XML files
Filtered to 49,908 advisors at 2,187 UHNW-oriented target firms
BigQuery: w-exec-ria.ria_intelligence.sec_individuals
How movement is inferred
prior_firm_name records the most recent prior employer at registration
Not a direct record of a specific move — a snapshot at registration date
10+ advisors same source to same destination = likely structured event
Does not capture internal transfers or lateral moves within a firm
Registration date is a proxy for timing — approximate, not exact
Known limitations
Not all advisory employees are SEC-registered — MFO coverage gaps
Prior firm history covers one level only — the immediate prior firm
AUM figures are as-filed — up to 15 months lagged for some firms
PE owner names require manual ADV Schedule A review
Amendments filed after April 2 are not captured in this analysis
Language guidance
‘The data is consistent with a team-level move’ — not ‘confirms an acquisition’.  ·  ‘Statistically concentrated at one destination’ — not ‘exclusively chose’.  ·  ‘Visible in the April 2026 ADV filing’ — not ‘happened in Q1 2026’.  ·  ‘Implies an average book of approximately $Xm’ — not ‘manages $Xm’.