Industry

DoubleLine Capital is starting the New Year with a pair of new hires from an old rival.

UBS financial advisor Jonathan Beukelman often works to advise his clients’ children on everything from buying a car to compound interest.

“It has been a good niche for us,” says Russ Crosson, the president and CEO of RIA Ronald Blue & Co. “Clients come to us because they want to be good stewards.”

Two questions lie at the heart of the rapidly evolving registered investment advisory space: Which of the country's 15,016 RIA firms can legitimately call themselves independent? And what, precisely, does independence mean anyway? Here are Financial Planning's top 50 fee-only RIA firms for 2012.

On Wall Street profiles the most influential personalities in the advisory industry this year.

Hirings this month include UBS luring Robert Anning, Sr., John Anning and Tollie Chavis from Merrill; and Baron C. Becker moving from Morgan Stanley to Baird.

Custodians try different strategies for growth as advisors break away to join RIA firms.

The shaping of this year's list reveals plenty about the shifting dynamics of the RIA industry.

Bank and broker-dealer affiliations help RIAs bear the technology and compliance costs of growth, but can chip away at objectivity.

With fiduciary advisors taking market share from the brokerage firms, will FINRA exact payback? Here's a glimpse of what may come.