Bob Fragasso was 50 years old in 1996, when he walked away from a six-figure deferred-compensation plan at Smith Barney and founded an independent firm. But could he muster the energy to break away today, at age 68? "Absolutely," says Fragasso.

In truth, however, few advisors move from wirehouses to independence after they hit 60. But then, few fit Fragasso's profile. He's an ex-Marine who has written books on small business and runs a firm with $920 million under management. "I don't expect to die at 70; I expect to die at 100," says Fragasso, whose Pittsburgh-based firm, Fragasso Financial Advisors, is affiliated with LPL Financial. "Age doesn't mean a person can't reconfigure their current situation to accommodate how they want to live."

Though experts agree age isn't the main thing keeping older wirehouse advisors from going independent, industry estimates suggest that the prime age range for breakaways is between 40 and 50. That's the age by which many advisors combine a strong client base with a desire to run a business they can sell and a sense of frustration with corporate overlords. A 2013 study by Fidelity Investments says the average breakaway advisor is 44, has at least 10 years of experience and manages over $100 million.

This said, breakaway advisors in their early fifties are still part of the picture, says Tim Oden, head of business development for Schwab's RIA-custody unit. In rarer cases where wirehouse team leaders in their early sixties also make the leap, it's often part of a transition of power to younger partners at the new firm.

As for profitability, breakaways return to the black within one to two years, according to Brian Hamburger of MarketCounsel, a company that helps RIAs sort through business challenges. In his view, no wirehouse advisor with a healthy book of business should "stay captive" out of fear it will take too long to make serious money.

David Christian
David Christian

Yet fear, however vague, holds wirehouse advisors back all the same, says David Christian. The 39-year-old left Merrill Lynch last month with two partners who are 51 and 57. They managed over $700 million before founding Cable Hill Partners in Portland, Ore., and expect to retain the vast majority of their clients.

"The fear of the unknown was the biggest thing," Christian says. "What does it look like out there when you take the leap?" That's why he and his partners spent two years studying how to make the move as smooth as possible. Christian, who competes in triathlons, says age wasn't on his mind. Rather, he says, he thought of his 16 years at Merrill Lynch, how he wanted to do more for his clients in the coming years — and that this was the time in his life when he knew he had the drive to go for it.

But that's not a warning for older advisors to stay put. If anything, Christian believes advisors with less experience than he has might have a harder time coping with the pressures of independence than advisors a few decades his senior.

Winnie Sun was 37 and her business partner Brandon Chang was 35 when they left Morgan Stanley to go independent in 2011. They had each been advisors for about a decade before starting Sun Group Wealth Partners in Irvine, Calif., an LPL affiliate managing $130 million.

Reluctant Clients

Sun made the move because she wanted to drive her own career. She was pregnant when she left the wirehouse, and liked the idea of building a business for her children to see — and perhaps to one day take over.

As she sees it, time is firmly on her side — and that's a luxury breakaway advisors over 60 may lack, especially ones without successors. "A lot of advisors will work into their eighties, but most clients will be retiring at 65 or so," Sun says. "They might think you will do the same," As a result, she adds, some longtime clients may refuse to follow advisors of a certain age — even ones they like and trust — to new firms.