TOP 300 RIA OF 13,000 RIAS NATIONWIDE
This inclusion recognizes and rewards our leadership and commitment to providing the highest level of service and support for our affiliated advisors and their clients. Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organizations, recognized internationally for authority, integrity, and accuracy. It is part of Nikkei Inc., which provides a broad range of information, news, and services for the global business community.
TOP 300 RIA OF 13,000 RIAS NATIONWIDE
This seventh edition of the FT 300 assesses registered investment advisers based on desirable traits for investors. We present the FT 300 as an elite group, not a competitive ranking of one to 300. This is the fairest way to identify the industry’s elite advisers while accounting for the companies’ different approaches and specializations.
To ensure a list of established companies with substantial expertise, we examine the database of RIAs registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and select those with more than $300m in assets under management (AUM).
The Financial Times and Ignites Research, the FT’s sister company, invited qualifying RIA companies — more than 2,000 — to complete a lengthy application that gave us more information about them. We added this to our own research into their practices, including data from regulatory filings. Some 760 RIA companies applied and 300 made the final list.
The formula the FT uses to grade advisers is based on six broad factors and calculates a numeric score for each adviser. Areas of consideration include AUM, asset growth, the company’s age, industry certifications of key employees, SEC compliance record and online accessibility. The reasons these were chosen are as follows:
- AUM signals experience managing money and client trust.
- AUM growth rate can be a proxy for performance, as well as for asset retention and the ability to generate new business. We assessed companies on three-year growth rates.
- Companies’ years in existence indicates reliability and experience of managing assets through different market environments.
- Compliance record provides evidence of past client disputes; a string of complaints can signal potential problems.
- Industry certifications (CFA, CFP, etc) shows the company’s staff has industry knowledge and a professional commitment to investment skills.
- Online accessibility shows a desire to provide easy access and transparent contact information.
Among the top factors in our scoring, AUM accounted for an average of 72 per cent of each adviser’s score. Their growth rate accounted for an average of 15 per cent. The FT places a cap on the number of advisers from any one state, corresponding to the distribution of millionaires across the US. The research was conducted on behalf of the Financial Times by Ignites Research, a Financial Times sister publication.
RFG Advisory did not pay a fee to participate or be considered
Read More