The revenue base everything else in this calculator scales from.
This choice cascades default assumptions through the rest of the calculator — current payout, cost structure, expected client loss, and growth — all editable from there.
Headline payout rate isn't take-home — back out whatever it actually costs you to run today, so the comparison to the destination firm is apples-to-apples.
W-2 employees typically carry minimal business expenses — the firm absorbs most overhead, which is why the default here is zero — but small amounts (licensing, incidental technology, memberships) can still be factored in if they apply to you.
New payout and cost structure at the destination, the upfront transition package, the client/revenue attrition that typically comes with a move, and the growth lift from reinvesting the package into the business.
Modeled as a single, all-upfront amount received at the moment of the switch — not vested or amortized — to keep the break-even math legible, and added directly into Year 1's net income below (expect a big first-year lift that then drops off). Ranges span typical independent (IBD) packages and may be higher or lower than actually modeled.
Some clients don't make the move. Modeled as a one-time haircut to production in Year 1, after which the destination's (higher) growth rate takes over.
Part of the transition package is assumed to get deployed back into the business — marketing, staff, technology, an acquisition — rather than simply banked. The source doesn't matter for this model; what matters is that the transition money becomes a fund that finances faster growth than the book would achieve organically. That's why the Go path is assumed to grow faster than the Stay path: this slider is the incremental growth rate that extra capital is assumed to buy, added on top of the Historical Growth Rate from Step 2.
The headline number below is your cumulative break-even — running total, transition package included. The annual ongoing income break-even underneath it is narrower on purpose: it strips the one-time package out and asks when your regular paycheck alone, net of client attrition and the payout change, catches up to staying. The package can make Year 1 look like an immediate win even when the paycheck itself takes longer to catch up — worth knowing both.
Year-by-year net income — production after payout, not gross production — side by side. This is where the Year 1 up-front-money spike and the following drop-off actually show up. The dashed marker is the annual income break-even year, from the box above.
| Year | Stay – Net Income |
Go – Net Income |
+ Up Front Money |
= Go Total |
Cum. Gap |
|---|
Cash flow isn't the whole story — each path also leaves you holding something sellable (or not) at the end. This estimates that terminal value from each path's Year 10 revenue and adds it on top of the cash-flow gap above — it does not change the year-by-year break-even math.
A W-2 employee typically has no sellable practice equity, but many firms offer a retirement "sunset" program instead. Modeled here assuming an overwhelmingly fee-based, well-tenured advisor, to arrive at an approximate sunset multiple applied to Year 10 production — a gross, pre-tax, undiscounted award value.
Once independent, you own the business, not just a payout. Modeled as an assumed EBITDA margin against Year 10 Go-path revenue — reflecting a future-state practice that's almost entirely fee-based, recurring revenue — × an EBITDA multiple assigned by that year's revenue size, using Bridgemark's internal market-pricing guide (see Disclosures below).
This calculator provides a rough, directional break-even estimate for planning purposes only. It is not a formal financial plan, offer analysis, or guarantee of any outcome, and should not be the sole basis for a transition decision. Actual deal terms, payout structures, and cost structures vary significantly by firm, channel, licensing, and individually negotiated terms.
The default payout, expense, attrition, and growth assumptions are illustrative starting points informed by ranges published in Bridgemark Strategies' Recruiting Deal Economics white paper (wirehouse grids of roughly 35–55%, IBD headline payouts of roughly 80–95%+, and IBD platform/business costs of roughly 15–25% of production combined) — not a specific firm's actual grid, fee schedule, or offer. The transition package slider (0–250% of T12) spans typical IBD packages (roughly 30–125%) through larger offers extended to advisors leaving significant wirehouse deferred compensation behind. Every figure here is meant to be replaced with your own real numbers.
The transition package is modeled as a single, all-upfront amount for simplicity. In practice, recruiting packages are frequently structured as forgivable promissory notes paid out and forgiven over several years (commonly 5–10 years at IBDs, longer at wirehouses), which creates taxable income as it's forgiven and is often contingent on production and asset-transfer thresholds — none of which is modeled here. This tool also does not account for the income tax owed on the package itself, deferred compensation forfeited at your current firm, or the up-front cash cost of building out a new office, team, or technology stack.
Revenue attrition is modeled as a one-time Year 1 haircut with growth resuming immediately after at the destination's (typically higher) growth rate, rather than a gradual client-by-client transfer curve. The "Post-Move Growth Premium" is an illustrative, generalized assumption about how deploying transition capital into the business — whatever form that takes, whether marketing, hiring, technology, or acquisitions — affects future growth; it is not derived from empirical data, and actual results vary widely by advisor and market.
Terminal value is a simplified, pre-tax, single-point estimate, not a full valuation or sunset-plan calculation. The Stay-path W-2 sunset figure uses fixed default assumptions (20 years tenure, 85% fee-based mix, and the same base/large-book award-rate schedule as the W2 Advisor Sunset Program Calculator) rather than your actual tenure or mix, and shows the gross award only — before the payout term, discounting, or after-tax treatment that calculator applies. For a 1099-origin Stay path and for the Go path, practice enterprise value is valued identically: EBITDA is estimated as a flat assumed margin against that year's revenue — modeling a practice that, by the time it's sellable, is almost entirely fee-based, recurring revenue — rather than backing EBITDA out of this calculator's own payout/expense inputs. Both paths then apply an EBITDA multiple selected by the size of that year's revenue, using Bridgemark's internal market-pricing guide — a snapshot of current pricing for practices of a given size today, not a forecast of where multiples themselves will be by Year 10; it is simply applied against the projected Year 10 revenue figure. None of this reflects actual operating expenses, add-backs, buyer type, deal structure (cash vs. earn-out vs. seller note), or negotiated deal terms. All terminal value figures are computed once, at the selected horizon's final year, and added to the cumulative cash-flow gap — they are not part of the year-by-year break-even calculation above.
Bridgemark Strategies is not a broker-dealer, RIA, law firm, or accounting firm, and this tool does not constitute investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Please consult your own compliance, tax, and legal professionals, and contact Bridgemark Strategies directly for a comprehensive, personalized review of your transition options.