Some firms are growing so quickly that even the lists that name the fastest growing firms can’t keep up. AE Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor based in Topeka, Kan., fits that bill.

Ranked as the second-fastest-growing firm in the Financial Advisor magazine RIA Ranking and Survey 2018, AE Wealth reported it had more than $2.7 billion in regulatory assets under management through this past February. When combined with assets under administration that are not part of its continuous investment management services, it had total platform assets of nearly $3.4 billion. By June, it reached the $4 billion mark in total platform assets, including $3.2 billion in assets under management. Those numbers recently hit $4.5 billion in total platform assets and $4 billion in AUM, according to company president Chris Radford.

The firm forecasts adding another $1.5 billion in total platform assets this year and expects more growth in 2019, Radford says. In addition to its more than 200 advisors, AE Wealth acts as a subadvisor for more than 250 advisors who maintain their own RIA.

AE Wealth’s growth has been accomplished organically by attracting new advisors, clients and assets without using outside capital or acquiring other firms. Its growth rate was second only to the much smaller Cabana Asset Management based in Fayetteville, Ark., which logged a 926% growth rate in 2017, according to the Financial Advisor ranking.

The firm attributes its rapid expansion to taking on advisors who are at the beginning or in the prime of their business life and are set on growing their own book of business. It prides itself on the array of services offered to advisors and the entrepreneurial mind set of the advisors it recruits.

“The success of AE Wealth Management is due to the strength of our advisor partners and our dedicated wealth team,” says Radford.

The firm offers an open-architecture platform of investment solutions and practice management resources to help advisors grow their practices. One example is its recently launched InvestmentHQ mobile app, which enables clients to view all of their investments on a single screen from any smartphone. It also can help advisors strengthen client relationships and facilitate practice expansion by, among other things, providing investors with snapshots of position, transaction and account data from their investment portfolios, as well as indexed annuities from 10 top insurance carriers.

AE Wealth also drives its growth through a series of investor education and advisor training and coaching seminars.

“We do radio shows for more than 100 advisors each week and we have top advisors running informational seminars for clients each week and we have everything they need to execute these,” Radford said.

First « 1 2 » Next