In its July 2007 issue, Financial Advisor
magazine published its second 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 (RIA) business enjoyed
brisk growth in 2006, with the average firm
realizing a 25 percent rise in revenues,
which outpaced most of the financial services
business by a wide margin despite tepid
market conditions.
More than 450 firms pa
rticipated in the survey. Eligible advisory
firms had at least $50 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 found confirms that the independent
advisory business remains the fastest-growing
segment in the delivery of personal financial
services," said Evan Simonoff,
editor-in-chief of Financial Advisor.
"This growth was very evenly distributed
across firms of all sizes with only a 3
percent gap between the mean and median
firms."
Some pertinent facts include:
· Assets of the average participating RIA firm climbed 25 percent in 2006, compared with a gain of just 15.7 percent for the S&P 500 index and an increase in assets of 16 percent for the mutual fund industry. The median firm in the survey saw revenues increase 22.1 percent.
· The largest independent firms, those reporting $1 billion or more in assets, expanded by 23.9 percent, while those with $500 million to $1 billion showed a gain of 26.58 percent.
· Fourteen of the 47 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, former editor of Bloomberg Wealth Manager magazine, developed the survey and analyzed the results for the second straight year. "We are privileged to have someone of Bob's caliber working with us," Simonoff said. "Discovery, a database firm and our partner located in Red Bank, N.J., compiled the results."
Financial Advisor, published by privately owned Charter Financial Publishing Network (CFPN), is a monthly magazine serving over 80,000 independent reps and RIAs. FA ranked amongst the top 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. Charter Financial Publishing Network also publishes Private Wealth, a recently launched, bi-monthly magazine targeting advisors to the "super affluent," FAnews, Nick Murray Interactive, the Journal of Indexes, ETFR, 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. 10, or visit www.fa-mag.com.