In its July issue, Financial Advisor
magazine unveiled its first annual ranking of independent advisory
firms that offer financial planning and related services along with
investment management. The survey revealed that the independent
Registered Investment Advisor business enjoyed brisk growth in 2005
that outpaced most of the financial services business by a wide margin
despite tepid market conditions.
More than 400
firms participated in the survey. Eligible advisory firms had at least
$25 million in assets under management. The magazine's goal was to
identify the fastest-growing independent advisory firms in the country
and to spotlight the characteristics and practices that have made them
successful.
"What we were
attempting to do was provide our readers with a portrait of the
competitive playing field they operate in," said Evan Simonoff,
Editor-in-Chief of Financial Advisor. "Our research has indicated that
this sort of competitive intelligence is very useful to advisors, given
the sprawling and fragmented nature of the profession."
Some pertinent facts include:
Assets of
participating RIAs climbed 18.70 percent in 2005, compared with a gain
of just 4.91 percent for the S&P 500 index.
The largest
independent firms, those reporting $1 billion or more in assets,
expanded by 18.79 percent, while those with less than $100 million
showed a gain of 24.27 percent.
Eight of the 21
firms in the largest category, $1 billion and over, are based on the
East Coast. Of all metropolitan areas, Chicago had the highest
representation in this category, with four firms based in or near the
city.
Robert Casey,
formerly the editor of Bloomberg Wealth Manager, was retained as a
project consultant to help Financial Advisor develop the survey and
analyze the results. Discovery, a database firm in Red Bank, N.J.,
compiled the results.
Financial Advisor is a monthly magazine serving over 70,000 independent reps and RIAs. FA
ranked first among the most widely read publications for independent
reps and RIAs in separate, comprehensive studies by Tiburon Strategic
Advisors, AdvisorBenchmarking and Aptura Research Focus on Financial
Media. FA also publishes FAnews, Nick Murray Interactive, the Journal of Indexes,
ETFR and Risk-Controlled Investing, and co-produces the Financial
Advisor Las Vegas and Chicago Symposiums FAconnection.com, an investor
education Web site, and FinancialAdvisorMatch.com, an exclusive
referral service for investors and advisors (via a strategic alliance
with Discovery). For more information, call 732-450-8866, ext. 11 or
visit www.fa-mag.com.