Client Referrals, Hiring Lead RIA Priority List in 2026

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Client referrals and recruiting are the top two priorities for registered investment advisors custodied with Charles Schwab, according to the firm’s annual RIA survey of clients.

When asked to name their top three priorities, firms with over $250 million in assets under management most frequently identified client acquisition through new referrals as their No. 1 focus for 2026. That priority shows the continued struggle for RIAs to generate organic growth, which some industry experts have tagged at less than 2% across RIAs and indepdendent broker/dealers. That tracks with Schwab’s surveys, which have ranked client referrals as the highest priority since 2023.

“Organic growth is a perennial top focus area for firms,” said Lisa Salvi, managing director of business consulting and education at Schwab Advisor Services. “This is a thriving growth-oriented industry, and we see this reflected in the top priorities year after year.”

The results, which come from 1,236 RIAs, also showed the importance of having a set client referral program to garner results. According to Schwab, firms with existing client referral plans generated 1.6x more new client assets than those without a set program.

However, less than half (44%) of firms with over $250 million in assets have referral plans for existing clients, and only 30% of have a documented one for centers of influence. The top performers, while more likely to have plans, were still just at 52% for client referrals and 36% for centers of influence.

“We believe organic growth is an imperative, and it helps create a very important cycle of opportunity within an advisory firm,” Salvi said.

Schwab’s survey also highlighted the competitive market for advisor talent in the RIA, even as the sector continues to poach from the wirehouses and independent broker/dealer space. After client referrals, the second-most cited priority was recruiting staff to “increase the firm’s skill set/capacity.”

According to the survey, 75% of firms hired in 2025 at a median rate of two new staffers. The sources of that staffing were mixed, with Schwab RIAs finding new employees by percentage through professional and personal networks (56%); colleges and universities (36%); other RIAs (28%); and non-financial professional services firms (19%).

RIAs expect even more hiring this year, with the median firm planning to add four new roles in 2026 and another 75% planning to hire before the year is out.

In the hunt for talent, creating a documented path to equity is still an outlier. According to the survey, only one in three RIAs has a documented path to an equity stake for employees.

For those that do offer equity, 49% said the primary reason is to retain key talent. Another 30% said it is to support a succession strategy, and 11% said sharing company ownership is to help with management continuity.

The survey also turned up some new priority areas: many RIAs noted improving productivity through the use of AI and integrating AI into their business strategy. Those landed as the sixth- and seventh-most marked priority areas, respectively, in the survey.

As Wealth Management recently reported, many large RIAs have been ramping up investment in AI tools and business integration for both existing advisors and those they are seeking to recruit.