Ensemble Practice Setup
An ensemble practice is a multiple advisor, team-based firm with shared values, ideas, branding, operations, and often times shared overhead expenses. The typical ensemble firm is built with the idea that faster growth can be experienced when talented and knowledgable professionals join forces, share their expertise, ideas, resources and staffing, in order to grow together as a larger firm.
| Solo Advisor Typical Attributes | Ensemble Practice Typical Attributes | |
|---|---|---|
| Staffing | Typically 1-2 people in the office which consists of the advisor and perhaps an admin. | An ensemble means at least two practices have partnered together, under the same brand, so staffing would include multiple staff members in a variety of different positions. |
| Revenue | Advisor keeps a large percentage of revenues with little overhead costs. | Revenue is split between the producing advisor and the firm to cover overhead and operational costs. |
| Costs | All costs (including staffing, overhead, marketing) are a direct cut in revenues for the solo advisor. | Costs are often split among the various advisors. Economies of scale is a benefit to ensembles. For example, an advertising campaign creates leads, exposure and engagement for the firm as a whole, which is often far more cost effective than a solo advisor having to do his / her own branding and advertising. |
| Number of Clients | Solo advisors typically reach capacity around 100-150 clients. | Through the infrastructure in place with ensemble practices, and through the hiring and training of associate advisors to help service clients, in theory there is no set number to the amount of clients the advisor could work with. |