The promise: “We’ll take care of everything.” Tax planning. Estate work. Insurance. Philanthropy. The full family office experience.
The reality: most RIAs serve 200 to 400 families with a team of 5 to 15 people. They do not have a CPA on staff. They do not have an estate attorney down the hall. When a client needs tax work, the advisor makes a phone call and hopes for the best.
The largest firms solve this by hiring internally. It works, but it costs millions and compresses margins. Industry research shows that more than a third of HNW practices now charge separately for concierge services, and that number is accelerating. The demand is real. The delivery model is broken for everyone but the largest firms.
The Agora is the fix for the other 90 percent.
Instead of hiring specialists, the anchor RIA invites them into the building. An estate attorney. A CPA. An insurance advisor. A tax strategist. Each one is independently vetted, serves the same families, and practices from shared space on the same floor.
The result: the family experiences one building where every financial need is handled. The advisor upstairs coordinates. The specialists downstairs deliver. Referrals happen naturally, over coffee, in the hallway, at the quarterly event, because proximity creates trust that no email introduction ever will.
A client family needs estate planning. Their wealth advisor walks them downstairs and introduces them to the consortium’s estate attorney, who already knows the family’s financial picture because she and the advisor discussed it last week. The engagement starts the same day.
A corporate attorney joins the consortium. Within thirty days, she has met fifteen families through the anchor practice’s quarterly dinner. Three have M&A needs related to their operating businesses. By month three, she has two active engagements, clients she would never have reached through her own marketing.
During market hours, the upper floor operates as a regulated wealth management practice. After the close at 3:00 pm Central, the lake level activates for consortium events, associate training, and business development sessions. Client records, partner offices, and all regulated materials are secured in full compliance with financial industry regulations. The two operations share a building but not a compliance boundary.
The model is designed to replicate. Each location needs an anchor RIA with an established client base, a building with the right configuration, and a local consortium of specialists. The Agora provides the brand, the operating model, the associate program, and the national network. The anchor RIA provides the families.
If you run an RIA serving 200 or more families and want to explore anchoring a consortium in your market, get in touch.