For Independent RIA Leaders
The Next Chapter of Your Advisory Business
You’ve built a strong fee-only, fiduciary firm with loyal clients, a capable team, and real momentum. As your clients’ financial lives become more complex, the demands on your business increase with them. The right next step should help your clients and team thrive while giving you broader support, deeper capabilities, and a long-term home for what you’ve built.
AUM managed by Modera Wealth Management as of December 31, 2025
More than 20 integrations
completed as of June 2026
Current employees who joined Modera through integrations as of June 1, 2026
One integrated firm, built around shared values
Operating-model labels are useful, but they do not tell the whole story. Some firms preserve more local independence across brands, systems, and processes. Others bring teams into one unified organization with shared infrastructure, shared standards, and a consistent client experience. The right fit depends on what you want for your clients, your team, and the future of the business you built.
Modera is a full integrator. Firms that join Modera become part of one brand, one culture, one operating model, and shared standards. But integration is not about erasing what made your firm strong. It is about bringing your people into a larger organization with broader resources, shared standards, and a consistent client experience while still valuing what your team, advisors, and client relationships contribute to Modera’s future.
Fee-only since 1983. Majority employee-owned and employee-controlled.
Why firms consider Modera
Firms that are a strong fit often come to Modera with more than one goal. Some want operational support. Some want broader capabilities for clients. Some are thinking about succession or continuity. Others want stronger long-term opportunities for next-generation advisors. Many want to keep growing without continuing to build every capability alone. For most firms, these priorities overlap.
Operational support
You built the firm, but you may not want to keep wearing every operational hat. Modera gives teams access to shared infrastructure and dedicated support across compliance, technology, cybersecurity, AI-assisted data initiatives, HR, operations, marketing, accounting, and other core business functions.
- Gain support across key business functions
- Spend more time on client relationships, planning, and leadership
- Enhance operational support with dedicated compliance, technology, cybersecurity and operations teams
Enhanced service offerings for clients
As client needs become more complex, it can be difficult for smaller firms to keep building every capability alone. Modera gives advisors access to a broader suite of services and specialists to help support more complex client needs.
Growth and marketing support
You may be ready to keep growing, but marketing, business development, and client acquisition are hard to scale alone.
Next-generation career opportunities
For many firm leaders, the decision is not only about their own future. It is also about what comes next for junior advisors, future leaders, and the team that helped build the firm.
Explore M&A Matchmaking with Modera
Life at Modera
Joining a firm is a professional decision, but what does it actually look like after you join?
You have room to contribute.
Modera looks for leaders and teams that can help shape the larger organization, not simply fit into it.
You have a team.
You no longer have to carry every operational responsibility on your own. At Modera, advisors and teams are supported by a 230+ person firm with a deep bench of experience across financial planning, investments, tax, marketing, operations, compliance, technology, and other key areas of the business.
Your clients gain access to broader capabilities.
Modera offers financial planning, investment management, in-house tax support from CPA professionals, estate and trust planning, and business retirement services, so you can continue serving increasingly complex client needs within one firm.
Your team has a future.
Defined career paths, professional development, and an established, growing organization can help give junior advisors and team members a clearer trajectory than many smaller firms can provide.
The culture matters.
“One Modera” is how we maintain a unified client experience, consistent planning philosophy, and collaborative team environment across offices and integrations. Firms that join Modera become part of one operating model, but the goal is not blind conformity. The goal is shared standards, meaningful alignment, and room for strong teams to contribute to the larger organization.
Hear from Adam Leone on what it means to build an enduring firm designed to last beyond any one person.
We don’t believe we have all the answers. We actually enjoy partnering with and bringing in firms or teams that have a point of view.
One Modera. One Culture.
One Standard of Excellence.
Our unified culture is not a tagline. It is how Modera brings teams together across offices, integrations, and shared standards while maintaining a consistent planning philosophy and client experience.
Employee-controlled, with a minority equity partner
One of the country’s early fee-only advisory firms
Financial planning is our core offering, not an add-on
Specialists across key areas of
the business
As of August 1, 2026
Serving clients across the country
As of August 1, 2026
Highly credentialed, experienced financial planners
As of June 1, 2026
Designed as a Long-Term Home for Advisors and Teams
We believe the most important part of your business is the people: the ones you serve and the ones who helped build the firm. When evaluating any firm, ownership structure, governance, and time horizon are three important factors in how your people will be supported over time.
Modera is majority employee-owned and employee-controlled, with a minority equity partner. Equity participation is not required in every transaction, but Modera prefers it because it signals alignment.
Read this before deciding what comes next for your firm
Early in the process, even before speaking with us, it helps to know what questions to ask so you can evaluate whether a potential firm can support your growth, your team, and your clients.
Inside you’ll learn:
- How the four operating models can affect your brand, governance, operations, and day-to-day reality after the close
- How ownership structure and governance can influence decision-making and long-term continuity
- How to evaluate alignment once full integration is on the table
- The questions that surface misalignment early, before you are too far into a process to walk away
- Mistakes advisors may make when evaluating their options, and how to avoid them
Your Firm’s Future
Common Questions About Joining Modera
What does it mean to join an integrated RIA firm?
Labels vary across the industry, so the more important question is what changes after a transaction. At Modera, firms join one unified organization with shared culture, resources, operating standards, and a consistent client experience. The practical difference shows up in what your clients, team, and business experience after joining. Alignment still matters, but it is not a separate category. It is how we evaluate whether full integration is likely to work well for both sides.
Will I have to give up my investment philosophy or my firm’s culture?
We are looking for firms that already operate like us: fee-only, fiduciary, planning-focused, and evidence-based in their approach. If that describes your firm, the transition should feel like a natural extension of what you’ve already built, not a departure from it. Culture fit matters more to us than AUM. We would rather walk away from a transaction than compromise the client-first culture that holds our firm together.
What happens to my team?
How disruptive is the integration process?
Integration is a real transition, and Modera treats it that way. Modera’s integration process is led by dedicated integration leadership and informed by 20+ completed integrations. The team begins working with your firm before the close. Every major workstream has a named owner and a milestone-tracked plan, from client communications and technology to operations, reporting, and onboarding.
“We have the team in place to help you integrate your clients and staff on Day One. Transitions are not new to us; we apply lessons learned to minimize disruption to your service, while generating a positive experience for your team and clients.”
Jeanne Owens, Director of Integrations, Principal
Is Modera backed by private equity?
What size firms does Modera typically look for?
What kind of growth support does Modera provide?
How many people at Modera came from integrated firms?
Let’s Find Out If We’re a Good Fit
No pressure. A conversation about your firm, your goals, and whether Modera could be the right long-term home for your clients, your team, and what you’ve built.
