The people behind you
- Russ Bigham, Founder & Lead Advisor
- Chris Tucker, Director of AI & Systems. Builds and governs the firm's AI tools.
- Donna Davis, Director of Operations
- Steve Crites Jr., Insurance Strategy and Placement
For licensed advisors and producers who are good at selling
Keep your clients. Keep 70%. We built everything else.
At Bigham Wealth Advisory, the clients you bring in are yours. From your first one, you keep 70% of the advisory fee and 75% of insurance commissions. The sales system, the AI coach, and the back office are already running.
- Your clients are yours, and they stay yours.
- A five-stage sales system, so you always know your next move.
- An AI coach that preps you before every call and reviews it after.
- Processors who take the paperwork the moment a client says yes.
1099 role. Work from anywhere in the United States. Short application, then a 30-minute call.
The problem
If you are good at selling, your ability is not what is holding your numbers down.
Everything you have to do besides sell is. See if this is your week.
You find a prospect, and you are on your own to work out what to say.
A deal that felt certain ends in "let me think about it." Between 40% and 60% of deals end that way, stalled in no decision.
You close one, and you become the paperwork department.
You have a strong year, and your firm raises the bar. Morgan Stanley has raised its payout thresholds about 10% roughly every three years since at least 2014.
And the clients you spent years winning belong to the firm. Leave, and you start over.
Every one of those comes from the same place: a firm that hands you a pay scale and leaves the rest to you.
A salesperson's job is to sell. Everything else should already be built.
How a deal works here
Here is one deal at Bigham, start to finish. Count the things you do not have to build.
01
You open with a question they cannot answer
You ask a successful family one thing: who coordinates your advisor, your CPA, your insurance agent, and your attorney? They cannot name anyone, and that gap is costing them money every year. You never run down their advisors and you never pitch a product. You teach them something about their own money, and the sale starts there.
Why it works: in a study of what top salespeople do differently, the ones who teach made up nearly 40% of top performers. Relationship builders made up 7%.
02
Your AI coach preps the call
Before each conversation it tells you where this prospect stands, the one thing this call has to accomplish, and what to ask.
03
You put their problem in dollars
Discovery here has a method. You ask questions that show you know where to look, you turn vague answers into numbers, and the family names the gap in their own words. After that, the conversation is about their number.
Why it works: people change only when the gap between where they are and where they want to be is worth the cost of crossing it.
04
You make one recommendation
One recommendation, in 20 minutes, never a menu of options. Behind it stands a process the firm has already built: a written audit that puts a dollar cost on every gap, an income diagnosis, and one written recommendation for each decision.
05
They say "I want to move forward," and you stop selling
This is where deals die. One study covered more than 2.5 million sales calls. Once a buyer had said they wanted to buy, salespeople who kept re-arguing why they should change hurt the outcome 84% of the time. Our system changes gears at that moment. You take the fear out of deciding, you give your recommendation, and you ask for the decision plainly. No pressure. No invented deadlines. The close is the family's own conclusion.
06
The back office takes it from there
Our processors and operations team take the paperwork. When a plan calls for insurance, you have placement support on the case. You go back to selling.
07
Your AI coach reviews the call
Give it your call notes or transcript. It tells you what worked, what you missed, and what the next conversation has to do. When a deal goes quiet, it helps you find out why.
08
You get paid
70% of the advisory fee. 75% of insurance commissions, renewals and trails included. Paid monthly. The same percentage on your first client as on your hundredth, and the same 70% when the firm brought you the client.
What you keep
You keep 70%. You keep your clients.
Most producers have to pick one.
At a big firm, the firm owns your clients, and the pay scale tops out at 55.5% at Morgan Stanley and 51% at Merrill.
On your own, you own your clients and keep a higher percentage. You also build everything yourself: the office, the staff, the marketing, and most of the client-finding.
Here you get both halves. Your clients are yours. You keep 70%. And the system, the coaching, and the back office are already built.
- 70% of the advisory fee on your clients.
- 75% of insurance commissions, renewals and trails included.
- No tiers and no production hurdles.
- 12 months' written notice before any change to your split.
- Your split on your existing accounts is never lowered while you are contracted.
You build your own pipeline, and the firm adds the leads it generates. You keep the same 70% either way.
Why us
Nobody should have to build the whole machine alone. So we built it.
Bigham Wealth Advisory coordinates a family's investments, insurance, taxes, and estate plan as one plan. It is called the Engineered Income Process. It is what you sell, and it is already defined and in writing.
The firm works the way it asks you to sell.
"If I cannot defend a single recommended path, I have no business making the recommendation in the first place."
"We have refused to write business that would have meaningfully improved our compensation. We will continue to."
Check us
- Registered investment advisor in the state of Tennessee. CRD #310958.
- Client assets custodied at Charles Schwab.
- Fiduciary on the advisory side. Best-interest standard on the insurance side.
The plan
Three steps to find out if this fits.
01
Apply
A short application: your contact details, your licenses, and one question.
02
Talk
One phone call, 30 minutes. You ask your questions. We ask ours.
03
Decide
If we both want to go forward: more conversations, reference checks, and then the agreement in writing.
The straight answers
What a good producer asks before saying yes.
What does it cost me?
A platform fee of $200 a month for your first three months, then $500 a month, deducted from your payout. That fee is what puts the sales training, the AI tools, the processors, and the insurance placement support behind you. You also carry your own E&O insurance.
Is this a W-2 job?
No. It is a 1099 role with no salary and no draw. You are paid monthly on the fees the firm collected on your clients.
Who owns the client?
You do. The clients you bring in are yours. If you ever leave, we will not stop you from taking them with you.
Could I get a higher percentage somewhere else?
Yes. Independent broker-dealers pay more. LPL's average payout was 87.44% in 2025. There you build the machine yourself: the office, the staff, the marketing, and most of the client-finding. Here you keep your clients and sell with all of it already running.
Who are the clients?
Families with $500,000 or more to manage: founders approaching a sale, executives with stock and deferred compensation, multi-generational families, and business owners. They keep their own CPA and attorney, and the firm coordinates with them.
What licenses do I need?
This seat is for securities-licensed producers. A separate seat for insurance-only producers is coming.
Is any income guaranteed?
No. You are paid a share of the fees the firm collects on your clients. What is set in writing is your percentage.
Apply
Take the question with you, whether or not you apply.
Ask your next prospect who coordinates their advisor, their CPA, their insurance agent, and their attorney. Watch what happens to the conversation. That is the first of five stages.
The other four come with the seat. So do a coach on every call and somebody else doing the paperwork.
Keep your clients. Keep 70%. We built everything else.
Short application. Then a 30-minute call. Applying commits neither of us to anything.