“We didn’t have a marketing department, so we decided to hire a marketing director. Now we want to see how other firms allocate their marketing resources,” he explained.

Apriem Advisors, an RIA based in Irvine, Calif., with $750 million in AUM, wanted to use the information to learn what structure firms adopt as they grow.

Rhonda Ducote, president and CEO of Apriem, said she was most interested in operational structure and compensation paid by similarly sized firms in her area. The firm has 15 employees serving 500 individuals and families.

“I like to see what is changing in the industry,” Ducote said. “We also want to know what clients expect. We’ve built the firm over the last 21 years and we now have four departments: operations, financial planning, wealth management and an investment team.”

Ducote said she uses the benchmarking study to see how the industry has evolved over the years, how Apriem fits in the industry, and how new employees fit into the Apriem structure.

“We also look at the services other firms provide, such as the number of firms that provide tax services” so we can stay competitive, she explained.

First « 1 2 » Next