When you start an RIA with no clients, the first ones come from five places: people who already know you, online directories, your own website and search, CPAs and estate attorneys, and paid solicitors if you’re willing to share fees. The two channels established firms rely on most, client referrals and custodian referral programs, aren’t open to you yet. Expect a slow first year. In XYPN’s data on firms that started from scratch, most earned about $5,000 in year one and reached $100,000 to $130,000 by year three.
What the first three years look like
XYPN tracks members who joined with no clients and reports their revenue by year in business. Michael Kitces summarized the pattern on XYPN’s 2025 benchmarking podcast:
Year one is about $5,000 for most firms; $10,000 to $15,000 in the better years
Source: XY Planning Network 2025 benchmarking study, as described on XYPN's podcast, Oct 8, 2025
Data
| Year in business | Typical range | |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $5,000 to $15,000 | |
| Year 2 | $35,000 to $55,000 | |
| Year 3 | $100,000 to $130,000 |
Year three often adds as much revenue as the first two combined. Kitces’ explanation is trust: early on, a few friends sign up, and most of your circle waits to see whether the firm lasts before moving their savings.
XYPN’s caveats apply. The chart comes from members who stayed, so firms that closed don’t drag the averages down, and the figures are read off a podcast discussion of charts rather than a published table.
Plan the runway first
XYPN co-founder Alan Moore’s advice: start a firm “when you have the capacity for it to take three to five years.” The runway can be savings, a partner’s income or part-time work.
Marketing is cheap in dollars and expensive in time at this stage. Kitces found startup-stage practices spent about 21% of revenue on marketing, about $7,850 a year once the advisor’s time is valued, and the typical firm under $250,000 of revenue spent about $5,000 a year in actual dollars. The real cost is hours: Kitces estimates 10 to 20 or more hours per prospect when advisors first start out.
One advisor who launched from scratch put it this way: “You need a solid lead generation and marketing plan in place day 1” (thread). That’s one advisor’s experience, and it matches the data.
What isn’t open to you yet
- Client referrals. Kitces’ 2026 research lists them as a poor fit for practices under three years old or under $250,000 of revenue. You need clients before clients can refer. The 12% of firms that don’t use client referrals are disproportionately startups with too few clients to generate them, or mature firms that don’t want more.
- Custodian referral programs. These programs, most often Schwab’s and Fidelity’s, set strict requirements such as minimum assets, growth and compliance history, and often limit how many firms join in one area. Kitces calls them unrealistic for less established practices.
- A book from your old firm. If you’re starting fresh rather than breaking away, there’s nothing to transition. Everything below assumes zero.
Where the first clients come from
1. Your own network
The first handful come from people who already trust you with money questions: friends, family, former colleagues, members of groups you belong to. Tell them exactly who you help and what you charge, and ask them to pass your name on. Don’t discount to win them. XYPN found almost every member raised fees in the first three years, and repricing friends is the hardest kind.
2. Directories
For a firm with no clients, directories are the best-value channel in the data. Kitces measured online directories at $0.28 per $1 of new revenue, the lowest of any tactic, and called them ideal for startup practices with high growth ambitions. A typical listing costs about $500 a year, and once it’s set up it works while you do other things. Firms under $250,000 of revenue used listings at a higher rate (30%) than firms over $5 million (18%).
Pick directories that verify fee-only status, since that’s what the person searching wants to know. See Do financial advisor directories work?.
3. Your website and search
SEO came in at $0.45 per $1 of new revenue. Your site doesn’t need much at launch, but it needs the facts a prospect checks: who you serve, your fees in plain text, your credentials and how to book. Small flat-fee firms in Kitces’ study spent a median $247 per new client, largely through directories and search. See How to get your firm recommended by AI for how the same facts reach AI assistants.
4. CPAs and estate attorneys
Centers of influence can refer before you have clients. Among firms using them, 89% get referrals from CPAs and 79% from estate attorneys, and the channel cost $0.72 per $1 of revenue. Start with professionals who serve the niche you’ve chosen. Expect them to check you carefully first: see How CPAs and estate attorneys vet advisors.
5. Paid solicitors, if you accept the terms
Kitces’ 2026 report says solicitors other than custodians are “ideal for start-up practices without a client base or COI relationships.” These are services that refer prospects for a share of the fees they pay you, such as Zoe, Wealthramp and Harness Wealth. The trade is that the share runs for years:
- Wealthramp’s standard terms are 25% of the first year’s fees and up to 15% after that.
- Zoe’s disclosure lists 15% to 35% of advisory fees, for the life of an asset-management client or the first five years of a flat-fee planning client.
Kitces found about 3% of firms used these services, and warns that its one-year cost figures understate what they cost over a client’s lifetime. Run the ten-year math before signing: see Should you buy financial advisor leads?.
What about cold outreach?
Cold calling and cold email are used by 9% to 10% of practices under five years old, against 3% to 5% of older ones. They cost little in dollars and lean on time you have now. Advisors rated them among the least satisfying tactics, and about half of those using digital cold outreach won no clients from it in the past year.
A launch plan, in order
- Before you open: choose a niche you can name in one sentence, set fees you won’t need to raise in six months, and write a one-page site with those fees.
- Month one: list in two or three directories that verify fee-only status. Tell your network, specifically.
- Months one to six: meet five CPAs or attorneys who serve your niche. Publish answers to the three questions your ideal client asks most.
- Every month: count inquiries, the share that fit (Kitces’ benchmark is 75% or more) and the share of qualified prospects who become clients (50% to 80%).
- Once you know your close rate: decide whether any paid channel is worth it.
At 25 clients the playbook changes. See How new fee-only advisors get their first 25 clients for what comes next, and Client acquisition cost by channel for every channel’s numbers.
Where Wellspent fits
A new RIA needs to be found by people who are already choosing, without a per-lead bill or a share of fees it can’t afford. Wellspent members get a verified record in the public graph at find.wellspent.co, which search engines and AI assistants read, and prospects who find you write to you directly. There are no lead fees and no share of client fees. Membership also includes a monthly report on who AI assistants recommend and quarterly press placement with media partners, for $89 a month. See How it works.