RIA Leaders 2020: Top 15 firms ranked by AUM

What’s the biggest RIA in the business? Well, it depends on your definition.

For Financial Planning’s 7th RIA Leaders ranking, the answer came down to three main factors: whether the firms receive commissions, maintain broker-dealer or insurance company affiliations and have client bases that are at least 50% individuals or high-net-worth individuals. To make this list, firms had to be a “no” on the first two points and a “yes” on the third.

In addition, RIAs had to answer “no” to the question on the SEC’s Form ADV asking whether they serve as the adviser or subadviser to an investment company. From there, Financial Planning and compliance consulting firm RIA in a Box compiled a list of the top 15 RIAs based on assets under management, which has some household names that will be familiar to many in the industry.

The group represents a range of firms, from an asset manager with no listed investment adviser representatives to a family office group with 25 IARs, a trust company that has 33 and an RIA aggregator firm with 265. They share in common a focus on fee-only planning for individual clients to the tune of billions of dollars in AUM.

Scroll down to see which firms made the list. For the group of top-ranked firms on the last RIA Leaders list in 2017, follow this link. To see this year’s RIA Leaders cover story, entitled, “High touch, high tech,” click here.

Very important note: Rankings are based on discretionary and nondiscretionary assets under management listed on SEC Form ADV as of May 1, 2020. RIA in a Box gathered the data from the SEC’s public database.

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15. EP Wealth Advisors

Headquarters: Torrance, California

AUM: $6,930,000,000

Client accounts: 13,238

Advisors: 62

Employees: 160
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14. IRA Group

Headquarters: Atlanta

AUM: $7,044,547,844

Client accounts: 464

Advisors: 7

Employees: 10
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13. Arnerich Massena

Headquarters: Portland, Oregon

AUM: $7,177,256,931

Client accounts: 328

Advisors: 7

Employees: 50
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12. Ballentine Partners

Headquarters: Waltham, Massachusetts

AUM: $7,927,996,955

Client accounts: 4,374

Advisors: 56

Employees: 79
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11. WE Family Offices

Headquarters: Miami

AUM: $8,537,565,208

Client accounts: 78

Advisors: 25

Employees: 47
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10. Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors

Headquarters: Boston

AUM: $9,016,820,065

Client accounts: 2,902

Advisors: 11

Employees: 95
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9. Pathstone

Headquarters: Englewood, New Jersey

AUM: $10,251,421,807

Client accounts: 5,660

Advisors: 31

Employees: 113
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8. Guided Choice Asset Management

Headquarters: San Diego

AUM: $11,910,338,194

Client accounts: 170,472

Advisors: 0

Employees: 16
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7. Advanced Research Investment Solutions

Headquarters: Los Angeles

AUM: $12,072,556,000

Client accounts: 88

Advisors: 3

Employees: 7
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6. Personal Capital Advisors Corporation

Headquarters: San Francisco

AUM: $12,240,728,055

Client accounts: 62,594

Advisors: 164

Employees: 247

*Empower Retirement acquired Personal Capital in August.
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5. Oxford Financial Group

Headquarters: Carmel, Indiana

AUM: $13,097,233,891

Client accounts: 9.273

Advisors: 31

Employees: 113
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4. Capital Strategies Investment Group

Headquarters: Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois

AUM: $15,713,794,825

Client accounts: 1,194

Advisors: 4

Employees: 20
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3. Mercer Global Advisors

Headquarters: Denver

AUM: 15,848,965,584

Client accounts: 32,709

Advisors: 265

Employees: 403
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2. Moneta Group Investment Advisors

Headquarters: St. Louis

AUM: $20,257,468,937

Client accounts: 25,379

Advisors: 120

Employees: 300
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1. Chevy Chase Trust Company

Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland

AUM: $33,997,884,407

Client accounts: 4,055

Advisors: 33

Employees: 90
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