Executive summary
Truist is re-pricing your book.
Truist has sold Truist Insurance Holdings and Sterling Capital Management, run a $750 million cost-reduction, and now moves to close the revenue gap with a forced re-pricing across advisory business. It is the next structural lever after the merger, and it lands hardest on the practices least able to absorb it: relationship-priced books built at legacy SunTrust and BB&T.
For elite producers, this corporate mandate forces an uncomfortable compromise. You are being pushed to implement standardized, rigid pricing structures or justify margin compression to your high-net-worth clients, all while grappling with reduced branch support, pooled Client Service Associates, and an increasingly complex corporate bureaucracy.
Spartan Advisory is an independent transition consulting and advisor advocacy firm led by Pete Secret and a team with over a century of high-level wealth management experience. We are not a competitor looking to recruit you, nor are we a broker-dealer or custodian. We are unbiased, specialized consultants.
This white paper outlines how Spartan Advisory serves as your Plan B: helping you confidentially read the landscape, map your exit options, evaluate economic transition packages, and run the process alongside you.
Section 01 · The friction matrix
Why re-pricing changes the practice, not just the price.
When top-tier advisors built their books at legacy institutions like SunTrust or BB&T, they operated within a relationship-first, highly localized ecosystem. Post-merger standardization has replaced that autonomy with the Integrated Relationship Model, a system that often treats wealth advisors as cross-selling agents for bank lending products rather than true fiduciaries. The forced re-pricing on advisory business amplifies this friction in three ways.
- 01
Erosion of pricing sovereignty
Advisors lose the flexibility to design fee structures suited to complex, multi-generational HNW portfolios.
- 02
The value-to-cost disconnect
Clients are asked to absorb re-priced fees precisely when Truist has cut branch-level administrative support, leaving teams systematically understaffed.
- 03
The compliance red-tape tax
Instead of focusing on portfolio management, veteran advisors navigate rigid internal compliance frameworks built to protect the mega-bank’s liabilities rather than foster entrepreneurial growth.
The numbers behind the friction.
- A $750M cost-cutting initiative
- Eliminated dedicated support staff and pooled CSAs across multiple advisor teams.
- A botched platform migration
- The move to a new unified digital platform triggered locked accounts and service freezes, and advisors spent months on client damage control.
- Cross-sell pressure
- The IRM pressures advisors to cross-sell bank loans, mortgages, and credit cards rather than focus on pure wealth management.
- A capped succession
- Truist’s internal succession model limits what a retiring advisor can sell a book for; independent platforms pay significantly more.
- Executive departures
- Following the sale of Truist Insurance Holdings, Vice Chair and COO Hugh S. “Beau” Cummins III resigned, triggering a secondary wave of advisor departures.
Exhibit 01 · At an RIA you keep nearly double the Truist grid
The grid is only part of it. At a modern RIA you keep roughly 80 cents on the dollar and own the practice, so the exit becomes a sale of your own asset rather than a deferred-comp schedule.
Section 02 · The market
The market is the second problem.
When staying starts to compromise the practice, the next problem is the market itself. Fourteen affiliation models, four hundred firms, and a recruiting pitch in your inbox most weeks, nearly all of it from a firm competing for your move. Spartan is not one of those firms. Our only job is to run the analysis of your practice and lay out the real options.
- 01
Transitional economic comps
We model your current Truist grid (40–50% typical take-home) against independent structures where payouts range from 60% to 95%, alongside transition bonuses.
- 02
Platform and custody fit
We vet which platforms, from Goldman Sachs and LPL Financial to Raymond James and specialized RIA custodians, offer the CRM and portfolio software the practice needs.
- 03
Practice equity and succession
For advisors facing Truist’s restrictive internal sunsetting programs, we model how to monetize a life’s work at much higher open-market valuations.
Section 03 · Your Plan B
The move runs while the practice runs.
Transitioning a book while running a full-time practice requires a dedicated, external quarterback.
The recruiter across the table has run this move a hundred times. You are running it once, in spare hours, while protecting a live practice. Closing that asymmetry is the whole job.Pete Secret · Founder, Spartan Advisory
- 01
Discovery and alignment
We deep-dive into your metrics: the portability of your current book, your investment philosophy, and your ideal firm structure.
- 02
Filter and narrow
We act as a buffer, presenting only the opportunities that match your criteria for support staff, technology, and culture.
- 03
Contract and economic negotiation
We use our network to secure the highest transition multiples, strong expense policies, and protective contract terms.
- 04
Transition execution
From legal counsel to the operational compliance of moving assets, we guide you through the entire process.
Section 04 · The departure record
The exodus is already underway.
The stream of high-profile departures underlines a critical reality: the talent drain is accelerating, and it spans every size tier. Truist remains a Broker Protocol signatory, letting you take basic client contact information and move without a crippling non-compete, but that safety net is entirely at corporate’s discretion.
Exhibit 02 · Selected 2024–2025 moves, by assets under management and destination
The departures run from $163M solo practices to $4.8B teams. When the exits span every tier at once, the driver is the firm, not the advisor.
Pete Secret
Do not let corporate mandates dictate your value.
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