Gap emerges between advice firms’ organic growth ambitions and new client incentives

A ‘disconnect’ has emerged among large advice firms between their organic growth ambitions and the incentives they offer to advisers to bring in new clients, NextWealth has found.

Its Adviser Remuneration Benchmarking Report 2026 assessed 18 firms, representing an aggregated 1,077 financial advisers and approximately £72bn of client assets.

Firms were grouped into three cohorts: scaled consolidators, which had 50 or more advisers and were growing by acquisition; smaller acquirers, which had fewer than 50 advisers but were also growing through acquisition; and organic growers, which had not made any acquisitions in the past five years.

Seven used revenue as the main bonus metric, including six of the seven scaled consolidators, while only ‘a handful’ paid more for clients an adviser wins than for those the firm hands over.

NextWealth noted that while there was little difference in entry level pay across firms of all sizes and growth strategies, the paths to increasing salary once at a firm varied widely.

Headroom in salary progression was greatest at the scaled consolidators, with advisers able to increase their salaries by an average of four times entry level pay, compared to around double elsewhere.

However, scaled consolidators were also the most likely to link bonuses to revenue.

“If you’re a large firm you need to give advisers a reason to build their careers with you, and that takes a strong culture and the right incentives,” commented NextWealth consulting director and report author, Emma Napier.

“However it’s clear from our research that not everyone is structured to do that and reward growth.

“Only a handful of firms actually differentiate pay depending on whether the adviser has ‘inherited’ a client or brought in new business themselves, which does leave you wondering where the incentive is to win new business at the rest of the firms.”

Just over half the firms assessed set salary in bands by seniority, with firms that implemented tiering having similar-looking career paths typically made up of four bands.

“Banding by seniority is common at the majority of scaled consolidators versus elsewhere,” Napier said.

“This matches the wider salary headroom at these types of firms, where a formal ladder gives advisers room to progress without moving firm.”

NextWealth highlighted that responding firms that did not currently differentiate pay were working on a solution, especially where advisers are given clients through acquisition.

“The number of clients receiving ongoing advice is rising, but the number of people advising on retail investments isn’t keeping pace,” Napier added.

“With our research in the summer showing that seven in 10 advice professionals expected adviser headcount at their firm to rise over the next year, it looks like most firms will be hiring from the same pool.

“Organic growth is now the ambition for large advice firms yet pay is still built around the book. With most firms hiring from the same pool of advisers, how they reward growth will matter as much as how much they pay.”

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