By Frank Smith, CEO

As we wrap up 2025 at Private Advisor Group, we have so much to celebrate. Beyond the milestones, we’re reflecting on the lessons, habits, and decisions that moved our community forward. Whether you’re part of our advisor community or simply looking for ideas to strengthen your own business, this year offered clear reminders of what steady, sustainable progress really looks like.

How Financial Advisors Achieve Steady Growth

Across our community, advisors saw meaningful growth this year—and not because of dramatic pivots or sweeping reinventions. Instead, the strongest results came from disciplined, incremental choices: refining service models, documenting processes, deepening client communication, and aligning teams around the work that truly moves the needle.

Our own AUM milestone this year, crossing $41B, reflects that philosophy. It wasn’t the result of a single initiative, but of years of advisors doing the right things for their clients, over and over again.

Advisor Leadership: Why Clarity Drives Better Results

One of our most successful internal shifts this year was sharpening how we communicate—both with advisors and across our own teams. Refining our framework, setting clearer expectations, and enhancing a support model realigned by advisor affiliation strengthened our expertise and increased engagement.

Bimonthly All Advisor calls, our direct engagement leader updates, and our enhanced affiliation-aligned support model reinforced that leadership isn’t just about sharing direction, it’s communicating the right message consistently to right audience at the right time.

Advisor Technology That Improves Efficiency and Client Experience

Greenhouse, our advisor technology platform, saw significant improvements this year and was named by InvestmentNews as an excellent and innovative use of wealth tech*. While we’re proud of the improvements—better regulatory reporting and workflows, community features—the real win came from how advisors integrated these tools into their daily behaviors to increased efficiency and connection.

Organizations move faster when their tools are easy, intuitive, and tailored to how people actually work.

Building an Advisor Community for Success

Events like our Annual Conference, Elite Retreat, and Streamline reminded us that when people with shared values come together—virtually or in person—something powerful happens. Ideas spark. Best practices spread. Innovation accelerates.

This year, we saw advisors strengthening succession plans, sharing hard-earned insights, and encouraging one another through major milestones. That culture is one of our greatest assets. Independence doesn’t have to mean being alone.

Advisor Well-Being: A Key to Business Performance

Our work with the Fit to Serve Foundation is centered on one truth: you can’t support others well if you’re not supported yourself. We’re building mental, physical and financial wellbeing initiatives for and alongside financial advisors. From developing the foundation to assembling the board, this effort reminded us that well-being is a strategic imperative—not a side note.

Takeaways For Any Business:

• Big outcomes rarely require big moves. They require consistent, thoughtful decisions made over long periods of time. Progress compounds quietly—and then all at once.
• People don’t need more information; they need the right information at the right time. Clarity builds trust, accelerates decisions, and strengthens culture.
• Technology only creates value when it reduces friction, lifts the quality of human work, or helps you focus on the highest-impact tasks. Adoption matters more than features.
• Community isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s a competitive advantage. The more connected your people are, the more resilient, informed, and future-ready your organization becomes.
• Your team’s resilience, mental health, and sense of belonging directly affect performance. Investing in well-being isn’t soft, it’s smart.

Looking Ahead

We’re entering the new year with clear priorities: elevating service experiences, deepening advisor support, strengthening Greenhouse, and providing more opportunities for the community to connect and learn together. Following LPL’s minority investment alongside Merchant, we see a trifecta of opportunity ahead.

To our advisors: thank you for your trust, feedback, partnership, and thoughtful leadership. To those reading from outside our community, we hope the lessons from our year spark ideas for you.

Here’s to alignment, purpose, and momentum as we look ahead!

*Private Advisor Group was awarded InvestmentNews’ “Most Innovative Use of WealthTech” on June 24, 2025. The award was based on an independent review of technology innovation during the previous year, following a self-nomination submission. No fees were paid to be considered for the award nor promotion of the award. View the full list of InvestmentNews awards finalists here.