Brian Hamburger is an entrepreneur, attorney, strategic advisor, speaker, and industry commentator who has spent more than 26 years helping shape the business, strategic, and regulatory landscape of the wealth management profession.
Brian is the founder and CEO of MarketCounsel, a strategic business and regulatory consulting firm serving many of the industry’s most successful entrepreneurial RIAs. He is also the founder and chief counsel of The Hamburger Law Firm, a boutique law firm focused on regulatory matters, business transactions, advisor recruiting and employment issues, industry disputes, and complex legal matters affecting wealth management firms and their service providers.
Widely regarded as one of the architects of the modern independent advice movement, Brian has advised thousands of advisory firms throughout their lifecycles—from launch and growth to advisor recruiting, innovative business models, mergers and acquisitions, succession planning, and many of the industry’s most significant advisor transitions, business sales, and founder exits. His work has helped shape many of the legal, strategic, and operational frameworks that define today’s RIA profession.
Today, Brian counsels many of the wealth management profession’s leading firms and executives on their most consequential strategic decisions, including growth strategy, advisor recruiting, innovative business models, enterprise risk, mergers and acquisitions, succession planning, governance, and crisis management. He is frequently called upon when the stakes are highest and the path forward is anything but ordinary.
Beyond his professional practice, Brian is deeply committed to advancing the wealth management profession and the communities it serves. As Clerk, a member of the Executive Committee, and Chair of the Audit Committee of the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation, he helps guide the Foundation’s mission of celebrating, amplifying, and inspiring the charitable work of financial professionals. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the FinServ Foundation and chairs the MarketCounsel Foundation.
A sought-after keynote speaker, moderator, and featured guest, Brian has appeared at leading industry conferences throughout North America. He also founded and hosted the award-winning MarketCounsel Summit for 16 years, an invitation-only gathering widely recognized as one of the profession’s premier forums for candid dialogue among industry leaders.
As an industry commentator, Brian is regularly quoted by leading business and financial media, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron’s, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Dow Jones, as well as virtually every major wealth management publication.