With major custodians adjusting their programs—like Schwab’s recent announcement raising SAN minimums from $500k to $2m in 2026—many advisors are rethinking their growth strategies. These shifts aren’t necessarily negative; they reflect the industry’s movement toward serving increasingly complex client needs.

But they do create a practical challenge: How do you maintain consistent growth when custodial referral programs (CRPs) narrow their scope? More importantly, how do you ensure the potential clients who need your expertise and who will no longer qualify for certain programs, can still find you?

This blog covers:

• How the evolving referral landscape creates opportunities for strategic growth

• How successful advisors build diversified lead generation channels

• Where the industry is heading: exclusivity, precision targeting and geographic expansion

Let’s dive in.

The Opportunity in Evolution

As the industry evolves, it’s creating new opportunities alongside new challenges. While custodial referral programs remain valuable, especially for ultra-high-net-worth referrals, we all recognize it’s getting harder and harder to rely on one single channel for growth. The $500K–$2M investor group remains one of the most dynamic and rewarding to serve, offering real opportunities to create long-term impact. Many are actually in their peak earning years with increasingly sophisticated financial needs. They need quality guidance just as much as ever.

Here’s the thing about change—it pushes us to get creative. Advisors today should treat growth like they treat portfolios: diversified, balanced and built for the long term. They’re not abandoning trusted relationships, they’re adding new channels that complement what’s already working. Think of it as building resilience into your practice growth, the same way you build resilience into client portfolios.

The Modern Growth Reality

However, we all know the statistics—client referrals now drive only about 29% of new advisor relationships, a significant shift from previous decades. Most successful practices have already adapted by diversifying their growth channels. Yet, when a reliable source like CRPs shifts their parameters, it’s natural to reassess your strategy.

Successful advisors test channels systematically, focus on real outcomes over surface metrics, and align growth with their ideal client, building sustainable, diversified engines instead of chasing silver bullets.

Building Your Sustainable Growth Strategy

Success in this evolving landscape requires a thoughtful approach:

• Maintain valuable custodian relationships while diversifying beyond them

• Test multiple channels systematically, tracking real metrics not promises

• Focus on alignment between your expertise and client needs

• Use technology strategically to identify opportunities others miss

• Optimize economics based on actual outcomes that have been tested

Where the Industry Is Heading

These industry changes are creating fresh opportunities for advisors ready to explore new approaches to growth. Here are three strategies that are becoming increasingly popular.

The Rise of Channel Diversification

The most successful advisors today are working with multiple vendors, tracking performance metrics frequently, and asking critical questions: Which channels deliver ideal clients? What’s the true cost per acquisition when you factor in time spent? Where’s the highest ROI after accounting for conversion rates and lifetime value?

This multi-channel approach isn’t about hedging bets, it’s about understanding that different channels serve different purposes; and developing a pipeline based on data-driven insights. CRPs might still deliver your best ultra-high-net-worth clients. Digital marketing might be your pathway to business owners. Geographic expansion might unlock underserved markets. The key is building a data-driven understanding of what works for your specific practice.

Precision Over Volume

The days of casting wide nets are ending. As competition increases and client expectations rise, the ability to precisely target your ideal client is becoming more and more critical. Modern lead generation is moving toward hyper-targeting—setting more focused parameters for assets, life stages, financial situations and even behavioral indicators.

Why does this matter? Because when prospects arrive already aligned with your expertise, everything changes. They’ve researched their specific situation, know their needs and sought out someone with your exact skillset. These aren’t cold leads—they’re warm connections waiting to happen.

The Exclusivity Advantage

We launched Datalign to solve a fundamental challenge created by multi-sold leads: the exhausting speed-to-lead race for advisors and decision fatigue for consumers. The data is clear—78% of prospects buy from the first person who contacts them after their request. When the customer and advisor experience is put first, everyone wins.

Exclusive lead connections transform this dynamic entirely. When you’re the only advisor a prospect engages with, there’s no sprint to be first or pressure to out-pitch competitors. Just thoughtful conversations between aligned parties, no rush to outmaneuver anyone and no defending your fee structure. Instead, there’s space for genuine conversation about their needs and your ability to serve them.

This 1:1 approach is becoming increasingly popular because it solves the attention problem. Instead of racing to be first, you can be thoughtful. Instead of competing on response time, you compete on value. It respects everyone’s time and creates dramatically better outcomes for both advisors and clients.

Sustainable Growth Through Industry Changes

The narrowing of custodial referral programs isn’t a crisis—it’s a catalyst for growth. At Datalign, we’ve built our entire platform around where we see the industry heading: precision targeting, exclusive connections and strategic alignment between advisors and the clients who need them most.

Our approach is simple: 1:1 matching ensures every consumer connects with just one advisor, eliminating contests and creating space for real conversations. Hyper-targeted delivery means you set specific criteria—assets, life stages, specific situations—and every lead profile matches. Our second-price auction system ensures fair economics regardless of firm size, and our team works with you to optimize your investment based on real conversion data. Our experience at Datalign allows the advisor to reach the exact consumer it wants, and the consumer can know that they are getting the advisor that values them the highest as evidenced by their willingness to seek their business.

This is perfectly aligned finance: the right advisor connecting with the right client at the right time, without the waste and frustration of traditional lead generation. Change is inevitable. Growth through change is a choice. We’re here to support advisors who choose to grow strategically and sustainably with the clients who need them most.

From our workspace to yours, 

the datalign team @ one kendall square