From "sellers calling" to "buyers pricing": The value reconstruction and breakthrough of China's securities consulting industry.

At the intersection of profound adjustments in residents' wealth structure and the capital market moving towards high-quality development, the securities investment consulting industry that was once swept away by flow and trapped in homogenized competition is undergoing a deep transformation driven by regulatory reshaping, demand upgrading, and model transformation. 2026 is considered a key point for the beginning of the "15th Five-Year Plan" for the investment advisory industry, and the industry is standing at a crossroads of breaking with the old and establishing the new--the old model is unsustainable, and new blue oceans urgently need to be explored. Just as the U.S. investment advisory industry completed a buyer-oriented transformation from 1990 to 2000, the Chinese investment advisory market, at the starting point of trillions of dollars races, is undergoing labor pains to be reborn, reshaping value with professionalism. A Song of Ice and Fire: Structural Contraction under Industry Shakeup Industry data reflects a picture of reality intertwined with ice and fire. Choice data shows that the total number of securities practitioners decreased from 352,100 at the end of 2023 to 331,400 at the end of 2025, a decrease of 20,700 over two years, a decrease of 5.88%. In sharp contrast, the number of investment advisors increased to 89,400 at the mid-year of 2025, an increase of 22,000 from 2023. This "one decrease, one increase" gap reveals the underlying logic of the industry's transition from "quantity tactics" to "high quality and efficiency". Looking closely, the deep-rooted contradiction stems from institutional constraints. Currently, the business scope of securities investment consulting licenses is strictly limited to stock investment advice, making it difficult to conduct full discretionary account management. This "dancing with shackles" situation has led many institutions to fall into the trap of recommending stock software sales, push short-term strategies, and other homogenized competition. More serious is the fundamental conflict between the marketing-driven model and the principle of investor suitability--some institutions recommend high-risk products to investors with low risk tolerance to pursue short-term performance, fostering phenomena such as exaggeration and excessive marketing. The credibility crisis intensifies under the catalysis of multiple factors. On one hand, the "proxy rights" black industry systematically extorts compliant institutions by inciting investors to make unreasonable complaints, forge evidence, etc.; on the other hand, self-media use short video platforms to spread "stock recommendation myths," putting monetizing traffic before investor interests. According to regulatory reports, in the third quarter of 2025, 110 securities companies received customer complaints, an increase of 28.2% year-on-year, and the industry's reputation is facing severe tests under the impact of false information. This industry shake-up, seemingly shrinking, is actually a structural clearing to "eliminate virtual fires and strengthen bones". As the CICC report pointed out, the U.S. investment advisory industry has also experienced a similar stage of fat-tail competition and eventually nurtured leading institutions such as Vanguard, Betterment, Wealthfront through standardized operations--the throes of the Chinese market are the prelude to the return of value. Spring River Warmed: Trending towards Good under the Triple Drive of Demand, Policy, and Technology The dawn has appeared on the horizon. On the policy front, Wu Qing, Chairman of the CSRC, clearly emphasized at the 2025 Securities Industry Association Conference the need to "strengthen the link with investor interests" and promote brokerage services to evolve into wealth management; the implementation measures of the Securities and Futures Market Supervision Management Measures released at the end of the same year further clarified the regulatory bottom line. This combination of "strict supervision + clear direction" provides an institutional soil for the buyer-side advisory model. Demand-side transformation is more fundamental. With the acceleration of pension funds entering the market and the convergence of residents' financial asset allocation ratio from the current 20% to the level of 40% in developed countries, professional asset allocation services are transitioning from "exclusive to high net worth" to "mass demand". This demand upgrade is highly similar to the mutual fund boom period in the United States in the 1980s--when the tax incentives in IRA accounts promoted by investment advisors ushered in a golden decade. Technology restructures the service radius. Hybrid models of robo-advisors and human services (such as Vanguard Digital Advisor) are breaking through service bottlenecks: algorithms handle standardized allocations, humans focus on emotional companionship, resulting in a decrease in the cost of investment advisory services from the traditional 1% to below 0.3%. It is worth noting that this "human-machine collaboration" is not simply a replacement, but a deep service through digital tools to correct investment behaviors, harvest tax losses, and other services. According to the consultancy statista, the global robo-advisory assets under management are expected to reach $2.38 trillion by the end of 2029, with an estimated user base of 34.05 million. The turning point lies in the fundamental transformation of business models. Referring to the mature experience of the U.S. investment advisory industry where more than 90% of fees are generated from the buyer-side, Chinese institutions are shifting from "sales commissions" to "fee-based on AUM". Behind this shift is the reshaping of the value logic--when revenue is tied to the growth of client assets rather than the frequency of transactions, investment advisors can truly stand on the side of the investors. Direction for Breakthrough: Building a Professional Moat with Equal Focus on "Investment" and "Advisory" The path to breakthrough lies in reconstructing the capability blueprint. Excellent investment advisors need to possess seven major professional dimensions: information screening, knowledge empowerment, behavior correction, customization strategies, shaping concepts, risk control, and emotional companionship. This dual-drive of "investment" and "advice" requires institutions to shift from individual stock research to asset allocation, from short-term predictions to full-cycle support. Innovative models are the key to breakthrough. Although licensing restrictions still exist, leading institutions have broken through with two paths: one is to leverage the managed account model of Morgan Stanley cooperates with mutual funds to launch customized portfolios; the other is to explore comprehensive service solutions such as "investment advisor + insurance + trust", like UBS's family office model. Both are achieved through aligning interests through account management--where decision-making power is matched with responsibility, forming the cornerstone of trust. Diversification in fee models is also necessary, moving away from traditional commission-based models to fee structures based on assets under management (AUM) or performance-based fees, binding interests deeply with clients. Utilizing financial technology for automated compliance processes reduces operational risks, and establishing a core assessment system based on customer retention rates and satisfaction, replacing previous short-term sales objectives. Only in this way can a true "community of interest" and "community of trust" be established with clients. Technology and compliance are becoming invisible barriers. By using AI for automatic portfolio rebalancing, and automation for compliance checks, leading institutions have reduced operating costs by over 30% or more; meanwhile, establishing a core assessment system based on customer satisfaction and investment returns, replacing the old sales targets. Vanguard's practice shows that when 40% of the investment advisory team's time is spent on investor education, the average portfolio return for clients increases by 2.3 percentage points--professional value ultimately reflects in account performance. Third-Party Forces: Rise of Independent Investment Advisors In the tide of industry transformation, third-party independent investment advisory institutions, with differentiated advantages of flexible mechanisms, professional focus, and closeness to the masses have broken free from the mutual constraints of brokerage-based investment advisory and brokerage businesses within the securities system, becoming a torchbearer for the industry's transformation. The practice of Toread Holdings Group, JF SMARTINVEST (09636), a Hong Kong-listed company's subsidiary Nine Fang Intelligent Investment, provides a fresh example for the industry. The core advantage of independent investment advisors lies in their focus and flexibility. Unlike brokerage-based investment advisory constrained by brokerage businesses, product sales, etc., third-party institutions can focus on their core business, delve deep into the segmented needs of clients, fill the gaps left by traditional brokerage services with precise market positioning and lightweight service models. The lesson from the U.S. platform-based investment advisory is about synergy. For example, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management integrates 13,000 independent investment advisors through the "Advisor Source" platform, effectively solving the customer acquisition challenges faced by independent firms while maintaining their professional independence. As a leading third-party investment advisor, the transformation practice of Nine Fang Intelligent Investment holds significant demonstration value. The development path reflects the industry's evolution: from early focus on technical analysis courses to launching a mixed service of "robo-advising + human advising," and more recently towards upgrading to a provider of investment and financial solutions. Specifically, Nine Fang Intelligent Investment focuses on the mass affluent client segment, building a service system of "robo-advisory tools + human deep companionship," providing basic services such as market analysis and strategy through independently developed intelligent investment research tools, while equipped with professional human advisory services offering personalized investment advice, investment companionship, risk alerts, effectively solving the trust challenge at the "last mile" of investment advisory services. In the future, independent investment advisors and brokerage-based investment advisors are not in a zero-sum game but will move from competition to coexistence. Brokerages focus on high net worth clients with channel and financial advantages, while third-party institutions rely on flexibility and specialized services to serve the mass market, complementing each other and working together to build an open, diversified securities investment ecosystem, promoting the high-quality development of the entire investment advisory industry. Conclusion When the regulatory heavyweight fell with the revocation of Beijing Zhongfang Xin Fu's license, and when the transformation of Nine Fang Intelligent Investment bears fruit in deepening "buyer-side investment advisory", the trajectory of industry rebirth is clear. The essence of this transformation is not about technology replacing human labor, not about intelligence overturning tradition, but about the fundamental reset of practitioners' mindset--from chasing short-term traffic to cultivating long-term trust, from selling products to safeguarding wealth. The U.S. investment advisory industry took thirty years to transition from a commission-based model to a buyer-side model, ultimately nurturing a market worth trillions of dollars; the Chinese market is re-walking this path at a faster pace. Institutions that build capabilities that focus on both "investment" and "advisory" and uphold investor interests above all are bound to usher in a blue ocean of high-quality development after the market is cleared. As Warren Buffett said, "You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out," and for the securities investment advisory industry, after the tide goes out, the true navigators are just beginning to emerge.