Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

As an increasing number of fee-based advisors leave wirehouses to go independent, some custodians are experiencing some of the strongest growth in the financial industry. Here are the top 15 custodians as ranked by RIA assets.

As the RIA industry grows and reshapes itself, advisors need to keep an eye on the shifting competitive landscape. In our annual RIA Leaders report, in addition to identifying the top 50 firms by AUM and by growth, Financial Planning ran the numbers to find 50 emerging fee-only RIA firms to watch.

The RIA sector drastically outpaced the growth rate of the rest of the financial services industry in the past year, growing at 13% versus 1.3%, according to research from Cerulli & Associates. For our annual RIA Leaders report, Financial Planning ran the numbers to look at the 50 fastest-growing fee-only RIA firms for 2012.

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.

With 2012 coming to an end and 2013 just on the horizon, many advisors are doing what they can to prepare their business for the New Year.

When doing their Christmas shopping this year, advisors didn't forget their clients. And some are coming up with unique ways of rewarding the loyalty of their closest accounts. It starts with a card and gets more involved (and more pricey) from there. See what some clients are finding under their tree this season.

From veteran advisors battling to keep clients away from financial danger, to some of the top schools grooming the next generation of advisors, 2012 has been a year of both growth and opportunity for the financial advisory sector.

After a round of changes this year in the financial advice industry, some big players found themselves in diminished circumstances by year’s end. Here’s a look at some of the people, organizations and ideas that ended the year in a downturn.

With the financial advice industry going through a period of change, we took a look at the past year to see how the players shook out. Here’s a look at some of the people, organizations and ideas that ended the year in a sweeter position than they began it.

Regardless of gender, advisors are always looking for ways to find new clients, manage their pratice, improve their technology, meet special sets of client needs, and more. On Monday, more than 100 advisors descended on the Women Advisors Forum in Boston Monday to hear speakers from throughout the profession offer important advice. Check out six smart things we heard.