IBD Elite 2026

Some midsize firms joined three giants of the industry in surpassing their peers among independent brokerages, in terms of the percentage increase in their average payouts per financial advisor last year.

The largest firm in the independent brokerage channel is also the fastest growing. But the industry's rapid expansion alongside rising equity values over the past three years may be hiding some firms' vulnerabilities.

More than half of the independent brokerages participating in this year's IBD Elite study declined to disclose the share of women among financial advisors at their firms. Those that did provide data have done more to advance women than many of their rivals in the independent brokerage channel of wealth management.

Over the past decade, the annual revenue gap between LPL and any other independent brokerage has soared to more than 100% from less than 1%. But that doesn't mean that the No. 1 firm can rest on those laurels.

Executives from some of the largest firms in the channel — Ameriprise, Kestra Financial, Cetera, LPL Financial and Osaic — discuss how clearing and custody fits into their approaches to recruiting and retaining financial advisors.

In a constantly changing industry, clearing and custody fees defy generalizations. The largest independent broker-dealers present financial advisors with the choice of working with a "self-clearing" firm or one that outsources those essential services.

View the exclusive research from Financial Planning's latest annual study of brokerages whose financial advisors aren't employees of the firms — and sort and compare data across the past 15 years.

The printable PDF includes rankings based on the firms' 2025 revenue as well as the number of financial advisors, compensation, total client account assets and more.