This year's list represents top independent registered investment advisories that primarily do retail fee-only financial planning, as ranked by assets. As in past years, we screened the SEC's Form ADV database (provided to us by FINRA) for RIAs who declared that at least half of their business was managing the portfolios and investments of retail clients, both mass affluent and high-net-worth. All advisors on this list provide financial planning services, portfolio management for individuals and ongoing financial planning advice. To make the cut, they had to be fee-based only, and not accept commissions. In addition, we removed fund managers and their subsidiaries. And to keep the list as tightly focused as possible, we screened out RIAs that also do business as broker/dealers. But we did allow RIAs with registered reps — as long as they acted in a fee-only capacity within the firm. The data was collected on June 1, 2010.
Download a pdf of the Top 100 Financial Planner RIAs list below:
