After four long years, the FIFA World Cup is finally back, and fans from all over the world will be flooding stadiums across the country for the upcoming tournament. However, since many stadiums have strict policies regarding what you can and can’t bring inside, clear bags are a great security-approved accessory. Below, I get into everything you should know about bag policies before your next stadium visit, including the best bag options for the World Cup, summertime concerts, games and festivals.

Want more from NBC Select? Sign up for our newsletter, The Selection, and shop smarter.

The best clear stadium bags of 2026

Below I’ve rounded up the best (and most stylish) clear stadium bags for your next big stadium event, including purses, belt bags and backpacks from top-rated retailers, along with recommendations from NBC Select shopping experts.

Best overall

The Bogg Bag is known for its space and durability (which is why it’s one of our favorite beach bags), and the brand’s clear Stadium Bag is no different. It has the same sturdy, EVA plastic bottom as the original Bogg Bag, and a transparent top that’s ideal for quick and easy security checks, according to the brand. It can be worn around your waist as a belt bag or as a crossbody, and comes in ten shades so you can match your bag to your favorite team’s colors.

Best for the World Cup

It doesn’t get more World Cup-ready than this bag by Adidas, which displays the official FIFA World Cup emblem on the front. It’s made from durable thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), and has a top zipper closure and a front zippered pocket for your smaller accessories, according to the brand. To add to the World Cup hype, you can also shop the bag in team colors for Mexico, Argentina and Germany on the Adidas website.

Best belt bag

This belt bag, made from water-resistant thermoplastic, can also be worn as a crossbody, according to the brand. It has an adjustable strap for added comfort and a zippered main pocket that keeps your belongings secure, making it great for navigating through large crowds. The bag also has a sporty feel that pairs great with athleisure or sportswear (including your favorite jersey), and is available in versions with black or white accents.

Best crossbody

This adjustable crossbody is accented with a stylish vegan leather logo on the strap. The zippered pocket is deep enough to easily hold your phone, wallet, keys, sunglasses and more, and is made from a durable plastic that’s designed to be long-lasting. It also comes in eight colors.

Best lightweight

Baggallini’s Clear Crossbody is a lightweight, crossbody option with a zippered closure and an adjustable strap. It also has a back pocket for quick access to your phone, and it uses a magnetized button closure to keep your valuables secure. It’s made from 100% PVC and is also water-resistant, according to the brand.

Best clutch

When I attended Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour in Kansas City, I bought a nearly identical version of this bag as a last-minute addition to my outfit. The square, hard-shell acrylic design added a unique touch to my look, and the interior pocket is big enough to fit a phone, lip gloss, essential cards, a compact and more. Although the chain isn’t adjustable, I like that it’s long enough for me to wear comfortably as a crossbody (it can also be removed, so the bag can switch into a clutch). I was skeptical of the durability at first, but after a few years, the bag I bought is still very much intact.

Best mini purse

I love to pop out with my Telfar bag on a night out, and this clear version is ideal for your next concert. It has a chic, rounded and tubular design, and is made from a water-resistant PVC, according to the brand. It’s also available in seven colors, including pink, neon green, clear brown, and more, and comes in medium and large sizes.

Best for game day

Each of these crossbody bags comes with an officially licensed logo of the sports team of your choice, according to the brand. The logo is heat-sealed for lasting durability, and you can choose from teams across sports and leagues, including football, basketball and baseball. It has a detachable gold chain shoulder strap, and a clear main compartment lined with faux leather, according to the brand.

Best backpack

Backpacks are always a comfortable option for longer events, like tournaments or festivals, and this clear backpack has enough space to hold everything you need and more. It has a large top pocket, along with a front pocket for easy access to your smaller accessories. The side of the bag has a mesh bottle holder, and the adjustable straps have a padded design for max comfort while wearing, according to the brand.

Best luxury

This stadium-friendly bag, inspired by vintage Coach designs, is made from a clear PVC material with smooth leather accents, according to the brand. The bag has a zip-top closure and detachable handle, as well as a detachable strap that you can clip on for crossbody wear. The bag is also available in four versions with colored leather accents, including white, blue, red and black.

Best tote

If you’re someone who prefers to travel with a heavier load, this Maytree tote may be just what you need. It has a larger main pocket than some of the other options, along with stretchy side pockets for water bottles and adjustable straps with double stitching for added durability, according to the brand. The bag also has a front pocket for your smaller essentials, and top handles for versatile carrying.

Best budget

This bag is ideal for minimalists — it has a simple design, with a clear main pocket and a shoulder and wrist strap. The straps are detachable, so it can be worn as a wristlet or purse, and the bag is made from water- and cold-resistant polyvinylchloride (PVC), according to the brand. You can also choose from 11 colors for the bag’s lining, including blue, green, red and more.

How I picked the best clear stadium bags

With the NFL’s clear bag policy in mind, I chose bags that satisfy the sizing requirements for most stadiums (since World Cup matches are taking place in NFL stadiums, the same stadium rules apply). I also included a variety of bag styles for different occasions.

• The sizing of clear stadium bags is the most important factor. According to the bag policy, you are allowed to carry clear bags that don’t exceed 12 inches x 6 inches x 12 inches in size.
• I also included a variety of bag styles. For example, if you’re attending a festival, you may want a higher-capacity bag, like a backpack, but if you’re going to a concert, you may prefer a clutch or crossbody.

Why trust NBC Select?

I’m an associate SEO reporter with over two years of experience covering travel accessories and apparel, and an avid sports and music fan who’s been to countless stadium concerts and games over the years. To write this story, I researched the best clear stadium bags from top-rated retailers, along with common stadium bag policies you should know before purchasing.

Catch up on NBC Select’s in-depth coverage of tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to stay up to date.

Bonnie Treichel is the Founder and Chief Solutions Officer of Endeavor Retirement, a consulting firm dedicated to solving problems for plan sponsors, advisors and service providers in the retirement plan industry. Her unique experience as an ERISA attorney and advisor helps her bring governance solutions for day-to-day issues that are an inevitable part of running a successful retirement plan. Bonnie is also a Partner at Endeavor Law, a firm dedicated to supporting the ecosystem of financial services with their retirement plan-related decisions, documentation, compliance, regulation and litigation.

 

As a thought leader on retirement plan governance issues, Bonnie is the author of Your Retirement Sketchbookand has been quoted in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, InvestmentNews, 401(k) Specialist, Ignites, PlanAdviser, NAPA Net Daily, and Journal of Pension Benefits. She is an active member of the American Retirement Association and has served in various leadership roles as well as the American Bar Association’s Tax Division where she is on the Lifetime Income Committee. She was awarded InvestmentNews 40 Under 40 in 2023, the ABA’s On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers Award in 2022, and NAPA Top Influencers for 2024 and 2025. She is also a member of the Women in Pensions Network, the State Bar of California, the State Bar of Kansas, current advisory board member of RISA, LLC and board member for the FinServ Foundation. Bonnie is the co-author of Your Retirement Sketchbook alongside Jamie P. Hopkins.

 

When she isn’t working on retirement plan issues, Bonnie enjoys traveling, spending time with her golden retrievers, Sadie and Sunny, running, riding her bike and volunteering for Make a Wish.  

Private placement life insurance (PPLI) seems to be all the rage these days in wealth planning conversations.¹ As estate-planning advisors, we’re regularly called on to advise on both life insurance strategies and, increasingly, income tax planning. It should come as no surprise, then, that more clients are asking about PPLI, which sits squarely at the intersection of those two disciplines. Too often, however, clients approach us having heard only about the potential income tax advantages of investing through PPLI policies, without a clear understanding of how those benefits are realized and the relevant trade-offs to obtain them. In practice, these conversations most often begin with a client presenting a PPLI proposal and asking whethe…

Edward Jones is facing a class action lawsuit from six Black advisors and former employees for the firm, claiming company policies put them in a position where they received “less compensation, fewer promotions and are terminated more frequently than their white peers.”

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Missouri by former Edward Jones employees Roland Martin, Elwis Johnson, Trevor Edwards, Shawna Knutson, Santoria Texidor and Alonzo Hinton, who are based throughout the country. According to the suit, the alleged discrimination they detail in the suit isn’t a “disparate impact case,” claiming that “Edward Jones knows that Black (financial advisors) are compensated less than their white peers, but has done little to correct this discrimination.”

The plaintiffs claim discrimination in the firm’s client transfer policy, which most often occurs upon an advisor’s retirement or when a senior advisor offloads client assets to a junior advisor to grant them a leg up in building a book of business (while advisors can request to make a specific transfer, the firm leadership oversees and approves the transfers).

Related:Raymond James Recruits $2.8B Team From Commonwealth

According to the suit, advisors can, on average, receive “tens of millions of dollars’ worth of client accounts” when starting at Edward Jones, and senior advisors can choose which junior advisors receive their transferred assets (under the firm’s “GoodKnight” policy). The plaintiff claims this results in a reality where a “predominantly white (financial advisor) workforce transfers their client accounts” to other white advisors with the blessing of a “predominantly white Edward Jones Home Office, which tracks and approves” transfers.

The situation is made worse by Edward Jones hiring policies that the plaintiffs claim” explicitly encourage nepotism.” The result, they argue, is that Black advisors receive fewer assets, or none at all and the quality of those assets tends to be poorer. 

“These disparities compound over time, with Black (financial advisors) receiving less compensation and fewer career advancement opportunities than their white peers,” the complaint read. “Their core story is common to Black (financial advisors) across the country.”

Edward Jones faced a similar lawsuit in 2022, in which several advisors claimed the firm’s “GoodKnight” program led to opportunities being disproportionately offered to white male advisors at the expense of other employees. Six years later, the suit remains ongoing.

In the latest case, the six plaintiffs each detail their challenges in building books of business within Edward Jones (all eventually left the firm), but some detail specific alleged instances of racism. In one case, Roland Martin detailed a meeting with the firm’s compliance director, regional leader and three members of the management team regarding his performance.

Related:LPL Attracts $1B Florida Team From Ameriprise

“After going through his existing book of business comprised of primarily Black households, the compliance director stated, ‘maybe the type of clients that you’re getting aren’t ideal for Edward Jones,’” the complaint read. “Plaintiff Martin understood this comment to be racial. Plaintiff Martin resigned from Edward Jones in September 2022 to start his own practice, where his ‘type of clients’ would be appreciated.”

An Edward Jones spokesperson said the firm strongly denies the allegations, “which do not reflect our values or how we operate as a firm.”

“Edward Jones takes its responsibility to promote fairness, respect and inclusion seriously and does not tolerate discrimination or bias in any form,” they said. “We intend to defend the matter and remain focused on supporting our associates, serving our clients, and acting in accordance with our purpose and values.”

US inflation increased at its fastest pace in three years in April, driven by higher energy prices amid the war with Iran, and cementing economists’ views that the Federal Reserve could hold interest rates unchanged well into next year.

Surging price pressures are eroding household income and could restrain consumer spending and economic growth this quarter. Income at the disposal of households after adjusting for inflation dropped for a third straight month in April, other data showed on Thursday. Given the soaring cost of living, Americans are growing frustrated with Donald Trump’s handling of the economy. A Reuters/Ipsos survey last week showed the president’s approval rating fell to nearly its lowest level since he returned to the White House, hit by a drop in support among Republicans. Trump won the 2024 presidential election in large part because of his promise to lower inflation.

The government on Thursday also revised down the growth pace in consumer spending in the first quarter to 1.4% from the previously reported 1.6% annualized rate. Overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth was slashed to a 1.6% rate from the 2.0% pace estimated last month.

Inflation threatens his Republican party’s congressional majority in the November midterm elections.

“The inflation picture is becoming increasingly uncomfortable for the Fed,” said Olu Sonola, head of US economics at Fitch Ratings. “Price pressures are likely to persist over the next few months, and while the Fed cannot fix a supply shock, it cannot ignore one that is feeding into underlying inflation.“

The personal consumption expenditures price index jumped 3.8% in the 12 months through April, the largest rise since May 2023, the commerce department’s bureau of economic analysis said. PCE inflation advanced by an unrevised 3.5% in March.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast PCE inflation increasing 3.8% year-on-year. The PCE price index rose 0.4% month-on-month in April after shooting up 0.7% in March.

The Middle East conflict has disrupted shipping in the strait of Hormuz, boosting energy prices, as well as straining global supply chains and causing shortages of a wide range of goods, including fertilizers, aluminum and consumer products. The national average retail gasoline price shot up 12.3% in April, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed.

Gasoline prices have increased more than 50% since the war started at the end of February. Away from the pain at the pump, consumers are also paying higher prices for other goods and services. Inflation was already elevated before the war, largely because of Trump’s sweeping import duties.

Goods prices increased 0.7% last month, with gasoline and other energy products rising 5.5%. Food prices rebounded 0.5%.

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the PCE price index increased 3.3% year-on-year in April after rising 3.2% in March. The so-called core PCE inflation gained 0.2% in April on a monthly basis after advancing 0.3% in March. The US central bank tracks the PCE inflation measures for its 2% target. Financial markets expect the Fed will keep its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50% to 3.75% range into 2027. Minutes of the Fed’s 28 April and 29 April meetings published last week showed a growing number of policymakers open to the possibility that they may need to hike rates.

Interest rate hikes are likely to come under intense scrutiny from the White House, which has continued to pressure the Fed to lower rates. Kevin Warsh, who was sworn in as Fed chair last week, previously indicated that he also believed the Fed should be lowering rates, but it is unclear whether he will be able to give Trump his rate cuts. Though Warsh has the bully pulpit of the Fed, he is one of 12 voting members who set rates.

During his swearing in ceremony last week, Warsh said that he aspires to lead a “reform-oriented Federal Reserve”.

“Inflation can be lower, growth stronger, real take-home pay higher, and America can be more prosperous, and no less important,” he said.

But rising prices continue to pose a threat to that vision. Services prices increased 0.3% in April for the third straight month. The cost of housing and utilities rose 0.6% while prices for transportation services climbed 0.4%. Food services and accommodations prices increased 0.5%. Surging prices are flattering the dollar amount of spending. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity, increased 0.5% last month after surging 1.0% in March. Hefty tax refunds have provided a cushion for consumers, especially lower-income households.

Consumers are also tapping into savings, with the saving rate dropping to 2.6% last month. That was the lowest level since June 2022 and was down from 3.2% in March. Income was unchanged. After adjusting for inflation, income at the disposal of households fell 0.5%.

With inflation outpacing wage gains and the tax filing season over, consumers are likely to pull back. Economists also expect that consumers will at some point want to start rebuilding their savings, especially in the face of uncertainty wrought by the war. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending edged up 0.1% in April after increasing 0.3% in March.

Reuters contributed reporting

It’s been just over two years since the SEC approved the first spot crypto ETFs. Today there are more than three dozen such funds on the market with nearly $120 billion in assets under management. Advisor use of crypto ETFs has steadily risen in that time. However, they are not the only tools available for crypto allocations. 

While crypto ETFs are an easy way to gain some crypto exposure, for other clients, more sophisticated products might be a better option. Those include SMAs, model portfolios, options-based crypto ETFs. 

The latest significant development came last week when Prometheum Inc., a crypto platform designed to comply with SEC regulations and FINRA rules, through its subsidiary Prometheum Capital, launched Digital Brokerage Solutions. The product is a suite of correspondent clearing, custody and trading services that enable broker/dealers to offer clients access to crypto assets—including digitally-native securities, tokenized securities and select crypto tokens—through traditional brokerage accounts. Initial correspondent clearing clients included Arete Wealth Management, Network 1 Financial Securities and a clearing broker/dealer.

Related:10 Investment Must Reads for This Week (May 5,2026)

Through the tool, b/ds and their clients can interact with crypto assets through brokerage workflows and existing account structures. Prometheum Capital offers correspondent clearing services to both introducing and clearing broker/dealers, on a fully disclosed and omnibus basis.

“As products move on the chain, you need the infrastructure to empower that,” said Aaron Kaplan, founder and co-CEO of Prometheum. “The crypto industry was built at the expense of the brokerage industry that wasn’t able to participate in the digital space because of gold regulatory handcuffs. With this, advisors and b/ds can compete with crypto platforms. … The way I see it, you should be somewhere in the 5% to 10% range for allocations into crypto. Historically, b/ds and RIAs have not been able to do that. Once it’s integrated, they can offer these assets to users and allocate as they think is appropriate.”

In connection with the launch, Prometheum cleared and settled what it said was the first ETH transaction directly in a U.S. brokerage account. 

“It’s working with the underlying token. It’s a really big deal,” Kaplan said. “It’s a major step forward for everyone.” 

Prometheum was licensed as a digital custodian in 2023. In late 2025, it received correspondent clearing authority.

Arete Wealth entered into a fully disclosed correspondent clearing agreement with Prometheum Capital, enabling its advisor network to offer crypto and digital assets directly to client brokerage accounts through Arete’s existing wealth management platform. (Arete Wealth currently has about $7 billion in assets under advisement across more than 60 offices and 260 registered reps.)

Related:Stablecoins, Trust Banks and World Liberty Financial International

“Adding digital and crypto assets through Prometheum Capital’s fully disclosed clearing means our advisors can manage clients’ investments and exposure to ETH and digital securities,” Arete Wealth CEO David Levine said in a statement. “Advising and managing clients’ exposure to digital assets will enable our advisor network to succeed as crypto assets become mainstream.”

In addition, Network 1, a full-service FINRA member b/d serving high-net-worth individuals, institutional investors, managed pension funds and hedge funds, also entered into an agreement with Prometheum Capital enabling it to extend ETH access directly to its clients’ brokerage accounts.

“We’ve seen significant interest. The b/d and advisor channels have been handcuffed,” Kaplan said. “They have lost clients. They have lost assets. For the first time, they can compete here.” 

Nitrogen Adds Bitwise Model Portfolios

In separate news, this week, Bitwise Asset Management, a global crypto asset manager with $11 billion in client assets, and Nitrogen, an AI-powered suite of products for financial advisors, made Bitwise’s crypto model portfolios available on Nitrogen’s platform. 

Related:Bron Brings Succession Planning to Crypto

Bitwise launched the model portfolios earlier this year. The portfolios, tailored to serve different investor risk preferences, allow financial advisors to give their clients access to digital assets through ETFs, including spot crypto ETFs, crypto index ETFs, thematic ETFs and crypto equity ETFs.

“Partnering with Bitwise gives advisors a research-driven framework to put that into practice in the crypto space, and do it with confidence,” Justin Boatman, chief marketing officer and head of product strategy at Nitrogen, said in a statement. “Bitwise brings the kind of specialist expertise this space demands, and we’re proud to be the platform that puts it in front of tens of thousands of advisors.”

Crypto SMAs

Another firm offering a more sophisticated product is Eaglebrook Advisors, a digital asset platform that allows advisors to invest directly in crypto through tax-optimized separately managed accounts, including Bitcoin and Ethereum SMAs, custom SMAs and strategies managed by third-party investment managers.

The firm is now working with 105 wealth management firms that manage $2 trillion in assets overall, according to Chris King, CEO and founder of Eaglebrook. 

The crypto SMAs offer several advantages over ETF exposure, including the ability to deliver tax alpha and help address concentrated positions by allowing investors to diversify into other crypto assets without triggering a taxable event. 

“It’s a solution if you have, say, $10 million in Ethereum, or $500,000 in Solana,” King said. “It’s a seamless compliance solution that integrates into estate plans or can be put into a trust and integrated into reporting. That’s a big thing we’re doing. It adds AUM for advisors and revenue to their businesses.” 

It is also direct ownership of underlying assets, unlike crypto ETFs.

“ETFs are easier to access, but you can’t generate tax alpha or own it directly. And there can be tracking error,” King said. “All you can do is sell into cash.”  

Crypto ETFs Evolve

Within crypto ETFs themselves, the market has evolved in a few directions since the first round of launches. 

While the initial batch of spot ETFs focused only on bitcoin, the SEC subsequently approved ones using other tokens, including Ethereum and Solana, as well as funds that offer baskets of different currencies or invest in crypto companies rather than crypto tokens. 

Another major innovation has been the emergence of options-based ETFs, including protected Bitcoin ETFs, an area where asset manager Calamos has led the way. It currently offers a variety of funds (including laddered versions) with 100%, 90%, and 80% protection levels. (Investors give up some upside in exchange for protection on the downside.) The products could be particularly attractive for clients with large crypto holdings already, who want to protect their principal. The firm launched the products last October, and the ETFs performed as designed amid a sharp crypto selloff that occurred earlier this year. The ETFs hold $150 million in assets.

There’s also the NEOS Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI), an actively managed options income Bitcoin strategy with a $1.3 billion AUM, the largest Bitcoin options premium income ETF in the market. It distributes monthly income generated by writing call options on Bitcoin Futures ETFs. (BlackRock and Goldman Sachs have filed to launch similar strategies.)

Overall, according to FUSE Research, one-quarter of the financial advisors it has surveyed allocate to crypto, with RIAs and wirehouses doing so more than IBDs. As of November, an additional 15% of the advisors FUSE surveyed planned to use crypto within the next two years.

Analysis of 13-F filings also sheds light on RIA usage of crypto ETFs. Analysis from AdvizorPro found that only 4% of practicing RIAs hold any crypto ETFs. (That does not account for exposures to crypto outside of ETFs, however. More sophisticated clients often own crypto directly through crypto custodians or private vehicles. Those allocations do not show up in 13-F filings.)

A similar analysis of RIAs’ 13-Fs from Discovery Data found that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) is the most popular crypto ETF in the space. In fact, it accounts for just more than half ($22.7 billion) of the roughly $40 billion allocated to crypto ETFs by RIAs. iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) is the second-most-popular ETF ($4.6 billion). 

Anyone who has followed my work over the years knows I don’t trade in spin.

For more than 30 years in this industry, I’ve been known for one thing above all others: telling the truth about what is actually happening, calling balls and strikes the way I see them, and refusing to let comfortable narratives go unchallenged. That stance doesn’t always make me popular. I’m okay with that. This industry doesn’t need more polite consensus. It needs more honest perspective from people who have actually done the work, watched the trends from the inside for decades, and are willing to say out loud what others won’t.

So when it was first reported that Ameriprise raised its recruiter bounty to 16%, a new high-water mark in the industry, and the conversation immediately devolved into the predictable half-truths about “recruiters cashing in,” I had something to say about it.

This isn’t an article about defending a fee. This isn’t an article responding to whatever a few recruiters told the press. This is my unfiltered take on why the fees the best firms are paying have continued to rise, why that trend is going to accelerate and why anyone reading the 16% headline as “recruiters got greedy” is missing the actual story of where this industry is heading.

Related:The Old Recruiting Playbook Is Losing to Culture, Optionality and Ownership

The headline read like a story about recruiters cashing in. It isn’t. It’s a story about what advisor assets are worth in 2026, what it actually takes to get those assets to the right home and why the best firms in this industry—AMPF, Raymond James, LPL and a handful of others—have finally decided to price this work for what it is rather than what the market used to assume it was.

I’ll say plainly what most people in this business won’t: The firms paying at the top of the market are not overpaying. They are paying correctly, for the first time in a long time, and the rest of the industry is going to have to catch up to that reality.

Here’s the bigger story.

1. Advisor assets have never been more strategically valuable than they are right now.

Organic growth has slowed across the entire industry. Every major firm: wirehouse, regional, independent broker/dealer, RIA aggregator, hybrid, is fighting for the same finite pool of high-quality, growth-oriented advisors. Ameriprise’s most recent results tell the story plainly: average revenue per advisor north of $1 million, and advice and wealth management revenue up 16% year-over-year. That growth doesn’t come from waiting for advisors to walk in the door. It comes from winning the recruiting war and winning it with the right people.

Related:The Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors: Annual Report on Recruiting, Deals, and Transitions

When a quality advisor brings $300,000 to $2 million-plus of trailing GDC and seven, eight, or nine figures in client assets — and stays for 15 years—the math on a one-time placement fee is not a cost. It is one of the highest-ROI investments any firm makes. The firms paying at the top of the market understand this. The firms still trying to do this on the cheap don’t, and they’re losing the war for talent because of it.

And here’s the part of the math nobody is willing to put on the page. Valuation multiples for advisor practices have climbed sharply over the past decade. Quality wealth management practices regularly trade at 8x to 12x EBITDA, and the best practices command meaningfully more. The firms recruiting these advisors capture the full compounding upside—ongoing revenue, asset growth, enterprise value appreciation, and the strategic optionality those assets unlock over a 15- to 20-year horizon. The transition and business consultants who deliver those practices to the right home capture a one-time fee on a fraction of year-one production. Even at 16%, the firms paying at the top of the market are capturing a small share of the long-term value being transferred. If you ran the math honestly, the case can be made—and, frankly, should be made—that the best transition and business consultants are still underpaid relative to the practices they deliver.

Related:Advisor Movement Soared 16% in 2025

2. The choice landscape didn’t just expand. It exploded.

Twenty years ago, an advisor evaluating a move had four or five real options. Today, between W-2 firms, independent broker/dealers, hybrid platforms, supported independence channels, RIA aggregators, custodial RIAs and tuck-in opportunities, an advisor has hundreds of viable destinations to consider—each with its own economics, payout grid, deal structure, technology stack, compliance framework, succession path, deferred compensation design, non-compete language and cultural fit.

Layer on seven-to-12-year deferred comp packages, AMPF stock vesting schedules, forgivable note math, garden leave provisions, ADV implications and the protocol-vs-non-protocol question, and an advisor isn’t making a recruiting decision anymore. They’re making a multi-year financial, legal, operational and family decision that will define the next chapter of their career—and done wrong, could undo everything they’ve built.

This is exactly where the work of a real transition and business consultant becomes irreplaceable.

3. Our job is to make a complex process simpler and protect the advisor’s most expensive assets: their time, their bandwidth, their judgment and their confidentiality.

When an advisor tries to navigate this market alone, three things happen, none of them good. They burn months of time talking to dozens of firms that were never the right fit—time that should have been spent growing their practice and serving their clients. They lose mental bandwidth filtering noise, which costs them real revenue inside their existing book. And they accumulate stress trying to evaluate offers, deal structures and platform fit at a level of detail nobody outside the inner circle of this industry has.

That’s the cost of getting this wrong. Wasted time is wasted money. Wasted bandwidth is wasted growth. And a wrong move—at this scale, with this much deferred compensation, with this much client and family disruption on the line—is something some advisors never fully recover from.

This is also the right place to call out something nobody in this industry is willing to talk about, but every senior advisor who has ever been shopped without their permission already knows. The “name-blasters”, what we at Elite call them, sales recruiters, who email an advisor’s information to a list of firms hoping somebody closes them, are not solving this problem. They are creating two of them.

First, they don’t do the work. They don’t understand the firms. They don’t know the advisor. They make introductions without context and pretend volume is a strategy.

Second, and this is the part the industry has been far too polite to address, they routinely put an advisor’s confidentiality at risk. They spread an advisor’s name across multiple firms, often without that advisor’s explicit permission, hoping enough interest will be generated for someone to close a deal. That is professionally negligent. In any other industry, it would be disqualifying. An advisor’s name, their book, their intent to move — those are confidential assets that belong to the advisor, not to a sales recruiter to spray across the market for their own benefit. The reputational risk, the political risk inside the advisor’s current firm, the risk to client relationships if the move becomes public prematurely — none of that is taken seriously by people whose business model depends on volume of names rather than quality of placements.

And—let me say this clearly, because somebody in this industry has to—a job board doesn’t solve this either. Neither does ChatGPT, Claude or any AI tool.

AI can summarize the headline grid at LPL. AI can describe the AMPF franchisee model. What AI cannot do is the part that actually matters: match an advisor’s personality, vision, goals, family priorities and emotional readiness to the firm, leadership and culture where they will thrive.

The right move is never the one with the best deal sheet on paper. It’s the one where the advisor, their team, and their clients fit—where the firm’s leadership style matches the advisor’s temperament, where the platform supports the advisor’s long-term vision, where the day-to-day operating environment lines up with how the advisor actually wants to live and work for the next 10 years.

That match cannot be made by a database. It cannot be made by a summary. It cannot be made by an AI prompt. It is made by a consultant who knows the advisor as a person—their drivers, their fears, their goals, what they’re running toward and what they’re running from—and who knows the firms as cultures, not as logos.

A job board is a list. An AI is a summary. A sales recruiter is a name-blaster. Real consulting is judgment, relationship, discretion and human understanding. And those only come from experience.

4. The best firms pay the most because they understand they’re paying for retention, not placement.

When firms like AMPF, Raymond James and LPL write checks at the top of the market, anywhere from 12% to 16% of an advisor’s annual production, they are not paying for an introduction. They are paying for:

Cheap recruiting produces churn. Churn is the single most expensive thing in this industry. And the firms paying at the top of the market have figured out that paying a premium to the Consultants doing this work the right way is dramatically cheaper than paying to replace advisors who never should have been placed in the first place.

5. This is exactly how quality advisory practices price themselves, and nobody apologizes for it.

A great advisor charging 1% on a $5 million household doesn’t discount because somebody else will do it for half. They charge what their fiduciary judgment, expertise and outcomes are worth. The client who values that is the right client. The client looking for the cheapest option was never going to be a long-term fit anyway.

The exact same principle applies on our side of the table. Elite Consulting Partners has spent years building the infrastructure, data, legal expertise, financial modeling capability, deferred comp benchmarking and depth of relationships across every platform in this industry. We are not commoditized recruiters. We are not sales recruiters. We are transition and business consultants operating at an institutional level, and the firms writing checks at the top of the grid understand the difference, even if the rest of the market is still catching up.

And here’s the part that matters most and the part our advisors know better than anyone else: our advisor-first approach is not driven by our fee.

In any given year, Elite moves close to 200 unique advisors. A meaningful share of these moves go to firms that are not at the top end of our pay range, and some go to firms well below it. We make those moves because that firm was the right fit for that advisor, their team, their clients and their family. We make the move that’s right for the advisor every time, regardless of what it pays us.

That is the same standard a great advisor holds themselves to with their own clients. A real fiduciary doesn’t pick an investment because it pays a higher commission. They pick it because it’s the right investment for the client. We operate the exact same way. The advisors who have worked with us know it. The firms that have worked with us long enough know it. And the data—across hundreds of placements every year—proves it.

6. The real impact of this work is something no fee schedule will ever capture.

When this work is done right, an advisor lands at the firm that fits their practice, their clients, their family and the next 10 years of their career. Their book grows. Their clients are better served. Their team is more stable. Their enterprise value compounds. Their life gets simpler, not more complicated. Their reputation is protected. Their confidentiality is protected.

That outcome—across an advisor’s career, across their clients’ financial lives, across their family’s future—is priceless.

The fee is not the story. The outcome is the story.

At Elite Consulting Partners, we will continue to be paid at the top of the market by the firms paying at the top of the market. Not because we ask for it. Because the work we do, the rigor we apply, the relationships we’ve built over decades, and the results we deliver justify it. We will also continue to place advisors at firms that pay us less when those firms are the right fit, because that is the entire point of doing this work the right way.

The best firms in this industry have figured that out. The advisors who have worked with us have figured that out. And the data—placement quality, retention rates, advisor satisfaction, post-transition growth—keeps proving it.

The 16% high-water mark isn’t a story about recruiters cashing in. It’s a story about the most sophisticated firms in this industry recognizing that the best transition and business consultants protect everyone in the transaction—the firm, the advisor, the clients, the staff and the entire ecosystem on which this industry depends.

We’re publishing a full white paper on this in the coming weeks: The Economics of Advisor Transition — Why Quality Costs More, and Why the Best Firms Are Right to Pay for It.

If you’re an advisor evaluating a move, or a firm rethinking how you recruit, that paper is for you.

All estate-planning attorneys and wealth advisors with clients who live in a state with a state estate tax should be aware of the state-only qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) election. When reviewing existing estate plans or helping clients in these states implement a new one, practitioners should understand whether and to what extent language permitting this election is included to manage or prevent state estate tax from being due at the first spouse’s death. The decoupling of state estate taxes from the federal estate tax regime has introduced a host of planning challenges and opportunities for married couples. The state-only QTIP election is one of the most important and nuanced tools to address the challenge. I’ll examine…