Last year, we weren’t sure who would show up to our first State of the Union. This year, you didn’t need convincing. Thank you to everyone who joined live and sent in questions.
We don’t have outside shareholders or investors. We answer to our clients and our team, so think of this as our open letter to both. If you missed the live event, here’s a quick look at what we shared.
Growing Something That Lasts
The theme inside Root this year was building something that lasts.
Ask most firms about their goal and the honest answer is asset accumulation: more assets, more revenue. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not ours. If growth were the only goal, we’d be tempted to stretch service thin, lower our hiring standards, or raise outside money to buy other firms. None of that helps us do what we exist to do: help our clients get the most out of life with their money.
So our stake in the ground is talent maximization, and the question we ask isn’t “How big are we?” It’s “How strong are we?”
Where We Were a Year Ago
At this time last year, we were 55 people serving 754 households.
Today, we’re 89 people serving 1,168 households, a 55% increase. We manage more than $3.2 billion in assets (as of 9/22/26). Three years ago, we were 7.
That pace won’t continue, and it shouldn’t. Most of our advisors have been here two years or less, and we bring on new clients at a deliberate rate: a handful at a time, with a lot of care.
Growth only counts if service holds up, so we measure it. Our client Net Promoter Score was 93 last year and is 93 again this year. Financial services typically averages in the 30s and 40s. We’re not perfect, and we know where we can do better, but we won’t trade service for size.
We track our team the same way. Our employee Net Promoter Score is 91, and team engagement is 9.4 out of 10. Root is fully virtual, so we get together in person two or three times a year. Last year that added up to 27 states, 325,000 miles flown, and 457 memories.
The Sequoia Standard
At most firms, your experience depends on which advisor you get. We want every Root advisor to hold the same standard, so we built one. We call it the Sequoia Standard, and it has four domains:
- Technical planning: Tax, estate, risk, and cash flow planning.
- Investments: Evidence-based portfolio construction that fits client goals and holds up against market noise.
- Financial psychology: Understanding behavior, setting expectations, and helping clients decide well under uncertainty.
- Self-leadership: Managing time and energy so clients get our full attention.
Each domain now has a leader on our team. Our advisors are individuals with their own personalities, but the advice they give is consistent.
How We Train Advisors
This year, we put real structure behind that standard.
- Root University: Our internal training program. Each meeting in our planning process is broken down with resources, videos, and checkpoints. It’s built around how we work, and it’s been about three years in the making.
- The Garden: A 13-week program for associate advisors moving into a lead advisor role.
- Mock Sequoias: Before advisors take on clients, they present our full planning process to us. Many don’t pass on the first try, and that’s the point.
- Root Camp: Onboarding for new advisors, so training is a clear path instead of a pile of resources.
- The Greenhouse and Society of Advice: Ongoing development for our advisors.
- Root Ready: Our podcast on how to be a great advisor.
- The Sequoia Summit: Our first in-person, two-day advisor training, held in Austin.
We require every advisor to hold the CFP® designation. It’s a good bar, but we treat it as the starting line. We want working at Root to tell you something about an advisor’s training and support.
Our library of more than 2,200 videos is now searchable by transcript, so advisors can find exactly where we’ve covered a topic and answer consistently.
Where We Grew This Year
- Vista: Our private client service model, launched late last year. It covers the same areas (investments, tax, estate, and cash flow planning), but the solutions fit the needs of higher levels of wealth. Our tagline for it is “a higher standard of wealth stewardship.”
- Lower minimums: From 2023 to 2025, our minimum was $2 million. Last year we brought it down to $1 million. It was never our goal to get more exclusive as we grow.
- Retirement workshops: More ways to learn with us and ask questions.
- Creators Studio: Our goal is to be the go-to home for online financial educators. Erin Moriarty of Erin Talks Money joined Root as our first Lead Educator. Go subscribe to her channel.
- Our platform: More than 140 million views and 700,000 subscribers across our channels.
What’s Coming Next
1. Tax preparation
It’s the service clients ask about most. We won’t promise a date, and we won’t launch until the experience is good. It would surprise us if we weren’t offering it at some point.
2. A careful approach to AI
AI at Root doesn’t make trades, move money, or make decisions. We use it for time-consuming work like meeting notes, prep, compliance review of video transcripts, and the platform behind Root University. Our people still make the judgment calls.
3. Root is not for sale
Root has two shareholders today, and that won’t be the long-term structure. But we’re not building Root to sell, and we’ve turned down private equity interest. We’re interested in a model that’s 100% employee-owned. Too many clients and team members have watched a firm they loved change after an acquisition.
4. More ways to meet
Someone asked about in-person events for clients. It’s not on the short-term roadmap, but we’d love to bring one to a city near you someday.
The Road Ahead
The question we hear most is whether Root will change as we grow. Our answer is the same as last year: yes, but only for the better.
We’d rather stay a place that attracts and keeps talented, humble, driven advisors than chase a bigger number. If we get that right, service and growth follow.
Join Us
We’ve grown from 7 to 89 people in three years, and we’re still just getting started. Whether you’re a client, a future client, or thinking about joining the team, thank you for trusting us.
Root Financial Partners, LLC (“Root”) is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional information about Root, including our fees and services, is available in our Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS at adviserinfo.sec.gov.
This presentation is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice, and it is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage Root for advisory services. Any decision to work with Root should be made only after consultation with qualified professionals and a review of your own facts and circumstances. Reference to any third party does not imply an endorsement of Root by that party or an endorsement by Root of that party.
Firm statistics referenced in this presentation, including client and household counts, team size, assets, Net Promoter Score, employee Net Promoter Score, and engagement ratings, are as of the dates shown or, if no date is shown, as of September 22, 2026. Client and household growth reflects changes in the number of relationships Root serves and is not a measure of investment performance or client outcomes. Assets referenced reflect client assets advised by Root and are subject to change with market conditions and client activity.
Any views, targets, or forward-looking statements, including statements about future services, minimums, platform growth, staffing, and firm direction, reflect Root’s current expectations. They are subject to change without notice and involve known and unknown risks. Actual results may differ materially. Root undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
This presentation includes statements by current clients of Root describing their experience working with the firm, and an aggregated Net Promoter Score derived from a survey of current Root clients. Each is a testimonial under Rule 206(4)-1 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The individuals shown, and the clients surveyed, are current clients of Root. They were not paid, and received no cash or non-cash compensation, in exchange for their statements or survey responses. A material conflict of interest exists because each participant has an ongoing advisory relationship with Root and therefore has an incentive to respond favorably. The featured statements reflect each individual’s personal experience and may not be representative of the experience of other clients. The Net Promoter Score reflects responses collected from Root clients invited to participate in an internal survey during Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 and represents the responses of participating clients only, not all Root clients. Testimonials and survey results are not a guarantee of future results or of the success of any advisory relationship.