The AmeriFlex Group, a Las Vegas-based hybrid RIA with more than $13 billion in client assets among its advisors, has developed an AI-driven program called Scout to identify advisors nearing retirement to approach about acquiring their practices or joining an advisor team in the AmeriFlex network.
AmeriFlex founder and CEO Thomas Goodson said the tool can mine advisors of all types—wirehouse, broker/dealers, and independents—to score them on a 100-point scale in terms of how close or far they might be from retirement. The program, built with Anthropic’s Claude AI, is currently being tested in five markets by AmeriFlex and will be rolled out nationally next year. Goodson said he and COO Jesse Kurrasch came up with the idea on the heels of launching a succession-planning platform for advisors, which they called SuccessionFully.
“We developed a succession program that took people from A to Z,” Goodson said. “But how were we going to reach these advisors?”
With Scout, AmeriFlex can mine public data, including Form ADVs and websites, to identify how long an advisor has been in practice and how far they may be from retirement, Goodson said. As an example, he said Scout found 221 independent financial advisors in their home city of Las Vegas. Of those, about 17 came up as potential for near-term retirement.
“Then we have a proprietary connection to those advisors to alert them that we will be calling,” Goodson said.
Goodson said AmeriFlex has three dedicated succession specialists for the effort, which is now in five markets and will be rolled out nationally later this year. The CEO said that if there’s mutual interest, the firm will take an “X-ray” of an advisor’s practice and then decide whether to make an offer to acquire the firm or to offer it to another advisor team in the network. In some cases, AmeriFlex may acquire part of a client base in the Midwest, while a network advisor in Texas might take on the rest of the retiring advisor’s book.
“At the last mile, it usually all ends up at a diner over a cup of coffee,” Goodson said, noting the very human interaction when a practice is actually transferred. “This is not like buying a car; the advisor is handing over something that they have curated and looked after for years.”
According to the most recent survey from consultancy Cerulli Associates, about 35% of financial advisors plan to retire within the next 10 years, and more than one-quarter of those are uncertain about their succession plans. As this near-retirement core represents about 40% of all industry assets, according to Cerulli, it could potentially put 10% of client assets in play for firms willing to take on retiring advisors’ books.
AmeriFlex expects the tool to help it land about 100 more advisors in the next 24 months. Goodson said the target aligns with their growth goal of 315 “permanent pillar” advisor partners.
The hybrid RIA has already been recruiting at a fast pace, having added 18 advisors representing more than $1.7 billion in client assets in the first half of 2026.
Although AmeriFlex is majority-owned by its advisors, it secured a minority investment from Cambridge Investment Research in January. The firm was already affiliated with Cambridge as an office of supervisory jurisdiction.
