RIAs face a next-gen problem. What can they do about it?

City Wire RIA | Alec Rich | September 9th, 2025

Citywire spoke with RIA advisors and executives across a range of firms to gauge how they approach the training and retention of next-gen talent.

A survey published by M&A consultancy DeVoe & Company last week indicated that the RIA industry is backsliding in its efforts to both properly prepare and keep next-gen professionals. The reasons for that were vast, ranging from opaque career paths and incentive compensation plans to poor training and declines in performance reviews.

But at smaller firms that may not have the resources or manpower of their larger RIA counterparts, managing and retaining next-gen talent becomes an even more difficult task. Sam Huszczo is the founder of $454m Detroit-area RIA SGH Wealth Management, where he leads a 13-person team with an average employee age of 27 years old.

Despite the challenges that can come with leading a younger team by industry standards, Huszczo said expectation management and being adaptable have become key to bringing in and retaining more next-gen staff.

‘Pretty much every two years I’ve had to redefine my performance reviews and my career paths because we’ve been growing so fast that my expectations of these roles shift as time goes on,’ Huszczo said. ‘So if you’re staying the same, you’re probably not creating enough opportunities to justify hiring young people.’