We're often asked, in one form or another, whether it's normal to reconsider an advisory relationship or whether sticking with the same advisor for decades is simply how it's supposed to work. The data suggests the wealth management industry has a real loyalty problem, and it's more pronounced among high-net-worth households than the general investing public. In this report, we look at how often HNW investors actually switch or add advisory relationships, why they say they leave, how the looming generational wealth transfer supercharges the issue, and how switching patterns differ by wealth tier.
Note on sourcing and methodology: This is a topic where estimates vary enormously depending on the survey population, the year, and how “switching” is defined (a full move versus simply adding a second advisor). Rather than pick one number, we present multiple studies side by side so you can see the range and the trend. See numbered references at the end of this article, and see our disclosures for important information about how this material should (and shouldn't) be used.
| Key Finding Roughly 4 in 10 high-net-worth investors say they've switched or added a wealth relationship in the past three years, and nearly half plan to do so in the next one to two years. The number climbs sharply around the transfer of wealth between generations: depending on the study, somewhere between 43% and over 90% of heirs fire their parents' advisor after an inheritance, with the most recent research suggesting the true figure has settled closer to the 70%–80% range for heirs without an existing relationship to the advisor. |
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In This Report
1. How Often HNW Investors Switch or Add Advisors
2. Why HNW Investors Switch
3. Advisor Switching and the Great Wealth Transfer
4. Switching Patterns by Wealth Tier and Relationship Type
1. How Often HNW Investors Switch or Add Advisors
We think it's worth separating two related but distinct behaviors: fully switching primary advisors, and simply adding a second or third relationship alongside an existing one. Both show up in the research, and both point in the same direction. HNW households treat advisory relationships as considerably more fluid than the industry has traditionally assumed.
Reported Rate of Advisor Switching or Relationship Change Among HNW Investors (2026)
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Switched or added a wealth relationship in the past 3 years | 39% | Cerulli |
| Plan to change or add a wealth relationship in the next 12–24 months | 46% | Cerulli |
| Plan to switch primary wealth management provider within 3 years | 29% | EY Global Wealth Research, 2025 |
| $500K+ AUM clients who switched advisors since the onset of the pandemic | 28.7% | YCharts, 2023 survey |
Sources: 1, 2
Switching intent also rises and falls with market conditions, which we think is an important nuance. The “baseline” switching rate above understates what happens during a genuine downturn.
Switching Intent Around Market Volatility
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Advisory clients who switched or seriously considered switching during 2022–23 volatility | 75% (54% actually switched) | YCharts, 2023 survey |
| Investors citing market volatility as the primary reason to reevaluate their provider | 17% | EY Global Wealth Research |
| Increase in switching intent following the 2022 bear market vs. the prior year | 45% planned to switch/move providers within 3 years, up ~24% year over year | EY Global Wealth Research |
Sources: 2, 3
2. Why HNW Investors Switch
When we look across the available research, trust and communication come up far more often than investment performance as the reason clients actually leave. That's a meaningful distinction for advisors and clients alike. It suggests that switching is often a relationship failure rather than a results failure.
Top Reasons HNW Investors Give for Switching Advisors
| Reason | Share Citing | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lack of trust in the assigned advisor | 42% globally; 60% in the U.S. (highest of any market surveyed) | Avaloq Wealth Insights, 2025 |
| Lack of transparency (fees, process, decision-making) | 37% globally | Avaloq Wealth Insights, 2025 |
| Would switch if calls weren't returned promptly | 61% of HNW clients | EY |
| Cited advisor “not communicating as expected” as main frustration | 62% | Spectrem Group |
Sources: 4, 3
Communication isn't just the top complaint. It's also one of the few factors clients say is actually within an advisor's control, which is part of why we think it deserves more attention than it typically gets in these conversations.
Communication and Responsiveness as Retention Factors
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Clients who'd have more confidence in their plan with more frequent, personalized contact | ~60% (3 in 5) | Industry client survey, via Empaxis |
| Clients who factor in communication style/frequency when deciding whether to stay | 85% | Industry client survey, via Empaxis |
| Advisors who report losing business due to outdated technology/tools | 65% (of surveyed advisors) | Industry advisor survey, via Empaxis |
Sources: 5
3. Advisor Switching and the Great Wealth Transfer
This is the area where the numbers vary the most, and where we think the variance itself is informative. Depending on the year, the survey population, and how the question was asked, the reported share of heirs who fire their parents' advisor ranges from under half to nearly all of them. We've laid out several major studies side by side below rather than collapse them into one number, because the trend across time matters as much as any single data point.
Advisor Switching Tied to Wealth Transfer, Selected Studies
| Study / Year | Population | Share Who Fired or Plan to Fire Advisor |
|---|---|---|
| Rothstein Kass, 2009 | Heirs with family offices | 86% |
| Campden Research, 2012 | HNW heirs | 62% |
| Forbes / Prince & Associates, 2016 | Heirs inheriting $2M+ | 96.5% |
| Cerulli, 2021 | HNW heirs generally | 70%+ |
| Morgan Stanley / Campden, ~2018 | UHNW under 40, $25M+ family wealth | ~51% (49% said likely to keep advisor) |
| Harris Poll / Cerulli data, 2025 | Americans poised to inherit significant wealth | 43% |
| Cerulli, 2025 | Investors with $250K+ (future and realized beneficiaries) | 73% – 80% |
| Natixis, 2026 | Global investors | ~55% (45% plan to keep benefactor's advisor) |
Sources: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
The headline percentages above obscure an important detail: retention depends enormously on who is inheriting and whether they already had a relationship with the advisor in question.
What Actually Drives Heir Retention or Departure
| Factor | Data |
|---|---|
| When a spouse inherits, the advisor retains the assets | ~72% of the time |
| Top reason heirs give for leaving: they already have their own advisor | ~50% – 75%, depending on study |
| Second most-cited reason: no relationship with the benefactor's advisor | 28% – 37%, depending on study |
| Share of U.S. investors who'd switch specifically because the advisor managed money poorly | ~6% |
Sources: 10, 11, 6
4. Switching Patterns by Wealth Tier and Relationship Type
We also think it's worth looking at how HNW investors structure their advisory relationships in the first place, since that shapes how “switching” even shows up in the data. A large share of HNW households don't use an advisor as their primary relationship at all, which changes what a “switch” looks like for them versus for a fully advised client.
Advisor Reliance Among HNW Investors, Overall (2026)
| Metric | Share |
|---|---|
| Self-manage their own portfolio | 57% |
| Use a financial advisor in some capacity | 43% |
| Have an advisor managing most or all of their assets | 14% |
Sources: 13
It's also worth noting that switching isn't always client-initiated. When an advisor changes firms, a meaningful share of assets simply don't follow, which functions as a kind of involuntary switching for the client, whether or not they were looking to make a change.
Asset Retention When the Advisor (Not the Client) Switches Firms
| Advisor Move Type | Typical Asset Retention Loss |
|---|---|
| Broker/dealer to broker/dealer | ~22% of assets lost |
| Broker/dealer to independent firm | ~18% of assets lost |
| Independent firm to independent firm | ~11% of assets lost |
Sources: 14
Closing Thoughts
We think the throughline across all of this data is that advisory relationships are far less “set it and forget it” than either clients or advisors often assume. Some of that fluidity is healthy. Households should feel free to leave a relationship that isn't serving them, but a lot of it appears to be preventable, driven by communication gaps and a failure to build a relationship with the next generation before it's needed. Whether you're the one holding the relationship today or the one who will eventually inherit it, we think it's worth asking, before a change is forced on you, whether your current advisory relationship is one you'd actively choose again.
| Wondering Whether Your Advisory Relationship Still Fits? Whether you're evaluating your own relationship or thinking ahead to how your family will handle an inheritance, we believe those conversations are best had before they become urgent. Contact Journey Advisory Group to talk through what a strong, lasting advisory relationship should look like for your family. |
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Disclosures
Journey Advisory Group is a fiduciary registered investment adviser. This material is provided for general educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. The statistics in this report are drawn from third-party industry surveys and research reports conducted by various firms between 2009 and 2026; methodologies, survey populations, and definitions of “switching” differ across these sources and are not directly comparable, which is why figures are presented individually rather than averaged. Past survey findings are not a guarantee of future investor behavior. Nothing in this report should be construed as a recommendation regarding any specific advisor, firm, or advisory relationship. Please consult with a qualified financial, tax, or legal professional regarding your individual circumstances before making decisions based on this information.
References
1. AssetMark, “Capitalize on High Net Worth Client Migration,” citing The Cerulli Report: U.S. High-Net-Worth and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Markets 2024 and the PwC High Net Worth Investor Survey, December 2022.
2. Jump.ai, “How to Improve the Client Experience in Wealth Management,” citing the 2025 EY Global Wealth Research Report and the YCharts 2023 Advisor-Client Communication Survey.
3. ReferralCoach, “Why Many Clients Switch Advisors During Market Volatility,” citing YCharts (2023), EY Global Wealth Research, and Spectrem Group.
4. WealthBriefing, “Clients Aren't As Loyal As They Used To Be,” citing the Avaloq Wealth Insights 2025 report.
5. Empaxis, “5 Reasons Clients Fire Wealth Managers.”
6. Forbes, “Why Inheritors Fire Their Parents' Financial Advisors,” citing a Prince & Associates survey of 144 heirs.
7. Cerulli Associates, “Aging Boomers Bring Intergenerational Planning to the Forefront” (press release).
8. WealthManagement.com, “The Children of the Wealthy Fire Their Parents' Advisors—Most of the Time.”
9. WealthManagement.com, “Half of HNW NextGen Investors Keep Parents' Advisors,” citing a Morgan Stanley/Campden Research survey.
10. CNBC, “Few heirs keep their parents' wealth advisors — most wealthy benefactors don't mind,” citing Cerulli survey data, October 2025.
11. Amplified Advisors, “Why Heirs Fire Their Parents' Advisor,” citing Natixis, 2026.
12. Wealthtender, “Should You Fire Your Parents' Financial Advisor When They're Gone?” citing a Harris Poll and Cerulli Associates data.
13. Long Angle, “High-Net-Worth Asset Allocation: 2026 Benchmark Report.”
14. Cerulli Associates / 55ip, “New Wealth Management Research Finds Transition Support Services Critical to Retaining Assets During Advisor Moves.”