The financial advice industry brims with private equity-financed aggregators snapping up registered investment advisors and making it tough for smaller firms to compete.

Strategic Retirement Partners, which works with almost 1,100 retirement plans and $17 billion in client assets, attacks that problem through an emphasis on training financial advisors and acquiring talent by using the firm’s equity.

“Challenges? The biggest is money,” said Jeff Cullen, CEO and managing partner. “The organizations we compete with have very deep pockets. We launched — unofficially — in 2014 and now produce $20 million in annual revenue.”

Cullen added that the firm has “never taken a dime from outside investors. Nearly one-third of advisors and employees have an ownership stake.

“The other aggregators say to an RIA, ‘Sell it all, the entire business, to us,’” he said. “Our conversation is different: We say, ‘You’re a good producer and fit the culture, sell us 25% or more of your firm, and get some of our equity.’ We both want to be successful.”

Strategic Retirement Partners has also focused on developing junior financial advisors and plan consultants, with almost a dozen successfully completing its internal talent development program.

— Bruce Kelly