RIAs

Five years ago, only about 15% of new clients came in over the transom, says the chief executive of one leading RIA. Today, that number has grown to 25% to 35% -- with many of those prospects specifically looking for independent advice.

In the RIA space, rapid consolidation is driving firms to merge, acquire and seek larger partners. In 10 to 20 years, many predict a series of giant $100 billion-AUM firms will emerge to dominate the market. So what does the future hold for smaller firms?

Brinton Eaton, a Madison, N.J., based wealth manager with $700 million in assets under management, has joined Chicago-based Mariner Wealth Advisors, bringing the latter’s AUM to $6.3 billion.

Upon completion of the addition of two West Coast advisories by the end of 2012, hybrid RIA Washington Wealth Management will reach over $1 billion in recruited assets under management, representing a 900% increase since December 2011.

With RIA balance sheets healthier, banks once again are taking an interest in RIAs, which are growing as much as 50% more rapidly than wirehouses.

“[A] segment of wealth managers appear to live in denial, clinging to investment methodologies that have patently failed twice over the past decade and are likely to fall short again,” the authors of a white paper accompanying the survey results wrote.

“We always have an opinion,” said James Odorczuk. “That’s what clients want. You can’t just ‘set it and forget it.’ A lot of clients are unhappy with a passive investment style.”

The New York City based wealth advisory firm appointed Lyle LaMothe as Non-Executive Chairman of the board and Greg Franks as a managing partner and president. Chris Lappas joined the firm as the chief operating officer.

Gathering the information needed to make a career move and hiding that research from a current firm can be enough to make some advisors decide to forget it. That’s just where The Advisor Center, an anonymous online recruiting community that launches Monday, comes into play.

“What we ... know is that there are a lot of advisors who think their entire value is wrapped around they’re delivering advice to clients and telling them how it’s going to work out,," Joe Duran, the CEO of United Capital said. "But the reality is that we don’t believe that’s the future."