Most RIA firm owners we talk to genuinely want to develop their newer planners. They talk about mentorship, career paths, and “growing the next generation.” Yet many of those same firms unknowingly create a ceiling that new planners can’t break through—no matter how motivated or capable they are.

The Hidden Bottleneck in Growing RIAs

In the early years of a new business, owner involvement in everything makes sense. You’re the rainmaker, the lead advisor, the investment decision-maker, and often the compliance and operations backstop. Clients expect you, your systems aren't fully automated so you still have to be involved in everything, and delegating can seem scary.  Yet as the firm grows, what once made you effective becomes a constraint. 

Training and Delegation Is Not About Workload—It’s About Development

When owners train and delegate only administrative or technical tasks—data entry, meeting prep, form completion—they may reduce their own workload, but they don’t necessarily expand the planner’s capability. 

Instead, consider training on and delegating thinking work, not just doing work. Such as:

• Without selling any investments or using the client’s emergency fund, how can we raise the cash to exercise and hold ISOs?
• John D., our valued team member, is going on paternity leave for 6 months. How do we fill the gap so our client service doesn't drop?
• How are we going to communicate that we are adding private credit as an asset class to some of our client portfolios?
• The Smiths are asking for a downward fee adjustment this year. How should we handle?

The Tasks Owners Hold Onto Too Long

Eventually, with enough reps and your coaching, your new planner should be able to run with things without you having to review everything. Admittedly, it is hard to let things go. Everyone struggles with this, including yours truly! Here are the things we see being held onto for too long, the most often. 

• Client Communication Decisions
  Owners/Senior planners allow planners to draft emails but not decide what should be communicated or when. This keeps planners dependent and hesitant. Decision-making muscles don’t develop without reps. 
• Relationship Management

Just because you have worked with certain clients for however long does not mean that no one else can work with them. Once other people have demonstrated they are capable of managing the relationships, step out of the way. 

• Meeting Leadership
  Sitting in on meetings is not the same as running them. Many planners attend client meetings for years without ever owning the agenda, pacing, or flow. When the owner always leads, planners never learn how to manage real-time client dynamics.
• Recommendation Framing
  Owners frequently ask planners to “run the numbers,” but then personally translate those numbers into advice. This is one of the most critical growth errors. Framing recommendations—explaining tradeoffs, anticipating objections, and linking advice to client goals—is a core skill for success as a financial planner. 
• Post-Meeting Judgment Calls
  Follow-ups, prioritization, and next steps are often dictated by the owner. Planners execute rather than assess. Over time, this trains compliance rather than confidence.

Why Owners Struggle to Let Go

‘…if I do that, they will mess it up and we lose trust…’, said to me by hundreds of firm owners over the last twenty years. My response is usually that the owners haven't trained them appropriately, or the owners might have truly hired poorly.  I have found that it is rarely about ego, but more about risk perception, especially if firm owners have been burned in the past by turnover, departing professionals trying to take clients, etc. 

All valid concerns—but short-term protection often creates long-term issues. Firms that don’t intentionally develop judgment end up overly dependent on a few senior people and become top-heavy, limiting options as the firm grows or the owner(s) want to sell. 

How to Break the Training and Delegation Ceiling

Here are some ideas on how to combat training and delegation challenges. 

1. Train and Delegate decisions, not just tasks.
   Instead of giving instructions, ask planners to propose solutions. Review their thinking, not just the output. And you could take it a step further and have them see if all the way through, especially if a client item.  ‘Okay, you came up with the solution. Great. How are you going to communicate that to the Wilsons?’
2. Create “owner-level reps” in controlled settings.
   Let planners lead parts of meetings, manage select client relationships, or own discrete recommendation areas with oversight. Some firms have brand new college graduates with no prior experience presenting components (usually cash flow, college planning, etc.) of the agenda in client meetings, so if they can do it, your person can too. 
3. Allow safe mistakes.
   Growth requires room for imperfection. The goal is not error elimination—it’s judgment formation. While I am not suggesting this, earlier in my career, I had a senior leader tell me they didn't want to work with a few legacy clients, and they turned them over to me and told me to run with it and just be careful not get the firm sued! That might be swinging a little too far the other way, but I was free to take some swings with these clients even though I could have missed. 
4. Make training and delegation explicit and intentional.
   Tell planners when a task is theirs to own versus support. Ambiguity creates hesitation. Be very clear to let them know your expectations because we do hear frequently from firm owners that younger planners won’t own something, and a lot of times it wasn’t made clear whether the new planner was supposed to support or was even permitted to take complete lead and ownership. 

The Payoff: Scalable Growth and Retention

When planners are trusted with meaningful responsibility, they develop faster, stay longer, and the firm becomes less owner-dependent. Firms that are less owner-dependent can generally serve more clients, grow faster, and sell for higher multiples.  

Stay tuned for next month’s article on Letting Your New Planner Fail. 

Contact us at info@newplannerrecruiting.com if you have any questions or would like us to help with your next financial planner hire.  

 

Caleb and the New Planner Recruiting Team*

*AI assisted