One ops FTE can support 80 to 120 client accounts when processes are manual.

One ops FTE can support 80 to 120 client accounts when processes are manual. The best-in-class RIAs support 200 to 300 accounts per ops FTE.

That gap is the operating leverage question every growing RIA faces. Adding headcount to match growth is the default approach. It compounds the ops cost structure proportionally with AUM.

A firm we work with at $1.2B AUM added 60 new client relationships last quarter without adding ops headcount. Their ops team is four people. The industry average for their AUM tier is six to seven.

The math: if automation moves one FTE’s effective coverage from 120 accounts to 250 accounts, the firm delays its next ops hire until it adds 130 more clients. At $2M average AUM per account, that is $260M in growth before the next hire.

The technology decision is not whether to buy software. It is what the ops capacity model looks like at $2B AUM. At $3B. The firms answering that question now are building a structural cost advantage that compounds quietly until the firms hiring to match growth notice the gap.