Many advisors spend decades growing a practice worth millions and have never modeled what that practice could be worth to them under direct ownership. There's a different structure worth understanding. This page explains it.
Every practice model in this industry involves trade-offs. The advisors we talk with rarely regret asking these questions early; the answers live in your own agreement, your own comp plan, and your own client list. Only you can answer them, and they compound every year.
For each of the questions above, the Kathmere Enhanced Growth Partnership has a direct, specific answer; across the dimensions that matter most for a serious practice.
| Dimension | The Question | Kathmere Capital |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | What is your practice worth to you at retirement? | Real equity stake with enterprise value you can monetize |
| Growth Partnership | What would a minority sale on your terms look like? | Incremental liquidity now at capital gains treatment for a minority, non-controlling stake; keep the majority and full control |
| Platform | Who selects and approves your investment shelf? | Open architecture: public, private, custom indexing, full access |
| Fiduciary | Which standard applies to which of your accounts? | SEC-registered RIA; fiduciary standard, always |
| Custodian | Who chooses where your clients' assets are held? | Charles Schwab; independent, advisor-friendly |
| Succession | Who sets your transition terms and timeline? | Built into partnership structure; your terms, your timeline |
| Capital Partner | Who shares the upside you create? | Merchant Wealth Partners; ~$340B ecosystem (as of 4/27/2026) and a long-term enterprise value path |
A transition to Kathmere is not a disruption; it's a structured handoff, planned months in advance, executed over days. Every transition starts with your own agreement and your firm's current Broker Protocol status, verified with independent transition counsel. Our onboarding team, legal partners, and the Schwab Advisor Transition Team work in parallel so your clients experience continuity from Day 1.
Talk to Nick Directly →Kathmere Capital Management is an SEC-registered, fee-only RIA headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, with over $5.1 billion in client advisement. We are not a rollup. We are not a PE-backed aggregator chasing headcount. We are a boutique firm of 20+ professionals, built around a model we call The Efficient Family Office™, with five principals who are majority owners and active advisors themselves.
In 2023, Merchant Wealth Partners joined as a non-controlling strategic capital partner, bringing a ~$340B ecosystem, 130+ partner firms, and 5,000+ advisors and staff (as of 4/27/2026), led by veterans of Goldman Sachs, Apollo, and GPS Investment Partners. That partnership opens a long-term enterprise value path; enterprise RIAs have historically commanded 15–20x EBITDA, versus roughly 1.75–3x revenue for individual practices. The principals who built Kathmere still own the majority. Every advisor who joins through the Enhanced Growth Partnership participates in that trajectory.
The most sophisticated families in your market, those with $5M, $25M, or $100M in investable assets, want a team that understands their business interests, their estate design, their tax position, and their investment architecture simultaneously. Kathmere is built for exactly that client. Advisors who join find that prospects they could never quite close become reachable for the first time, because they now have the team behind them to compete.
"Everything you need, nothing you don't."
Kathmere built a model that solves the fragmentation problem wealthy families face, coordinating investments, planning, and risk protection under one integrated structure. That same model is the reason Kathmere advisors grow the way they do: when clients receive institutional-grade, comprehensive service, they stay, they deepen, and they refer.
Kathmere's principal advisors have compounded their practices at rates that put them among the fastest-growing in the industry, and every dollar is organic. No acquisitions. No book purchases. No mergers. Just advisors empowered by a model that actually works.
The Efficient Family Office™ is why. When clients receive a fully integrated team of CFP® planners, a CFA investment officer, and advanced planning experts, all working together under one roof, revenue follows. The model creates depth, retention, and referrals that a solo or siloed practice can't replicate.
This isn't a pitch. It's a conversation between peers about what's possible for a practice like yours. Nick Olesen is a Co-founder of Kathmere, not a recruiter, not a sales rep. Someone who built what you'd be joining.
All information is held in strict confidence. We will never contact your current employer or share your information with any third party.