Financial Times Announces Top 300 Independent RIA Firms

MANHATTAN, N.Y. - June 26, 2014 - PRLog -- Today the Financial Times launches its inaugural Financial Times 300 list, recognizing the top registered investment adviser (RIA) firms across the US. The FT 300 was developed in collaboration with Money-Media, a subsidiary of the FT that provides specialized content on asset management and corporate governance. The FT and Money-Media collaborated similarly on the FT 400, an annual listing of top broker-dealer advisers in the US.

The FT 300 firms hail from 38 states and Washington, DC.  The “average” adviser firm on the list has been in existence for 24 years and manages $2.8 billion.

This elite group embodies some of the leading trends in the investment management industry: more than 88% of the FT 300 work in teams, an expanding part of the business; 70% of the firms use Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), the increasingly popular vehicles akin to index-tracking funds; and nearly two-thirds of the assets managed by the FT 300 firms are in “discretionary” accounts, a fast-growing model in which the advisers have full control of how the assets are managed.

A minimum standard for qualifying RIA firms was set at $300 million in assets under management (AUM). Qualified advisors were then invited to fill out lengthy applications, the data from which was augmented by Money-Media’s own research. RIA firms were scored on six attributes: AUM, AUM growth rate, compliance record, firm’s years in existence, advisers with industry certifications, and online accessibility. Assets figures were checked against regulatory filings where available.

“The growth of the RIA sector and its fee-for-advice structure has transformed the investing landscape, even forcing traditional brokerages to evolve. That is why we decided it was time to offer a new way to look at top RIAs,” said Loren Fox, director of research at Money-Media and head of the FT 300 project. “This inaugural edition of the FT 300 provides a snapshot of the very best RIAs to be found across the US.”

Some other findings from the FT 300:

70% of the FT 300 firms manage $1 billion in assets or more
This group of elite RIAs saw their total assets rise by a robust 23% in 2013
73% of the FT 300’s assets belong to wealthy and ultra-wealthy individuals

The full list of 300 registered investment advisor firms is published on FT.com and appears in a special section of the FT newspaper’s US edition on Thursday, June 26.