RIAs

Advisors continue to flock to the RIA business model, making it the fastest-growing corner of the financial services industry. However, even as they do, more than ever are hanging onto commission income, despite the risks it poses to acting as full fiduciaries.

Securities America has completed its second broker-dealer transition in the past 30 days and added 30 advisors in Washington, Iowa.

For RIAs who want to ensure clients that their firm will endure to serve their children and grandchildren, a robust internal succession plan is critical. One way to do that is to eliminate outside ownership conflicts, argues the founder and CEO of one leading RIA firm.

Focus Financial has snapped up a big Seattle wealth management firm.

Independent Financial Partners, a Tampa, Fla., based registered investment advisory firm, has launched IFP Insurance Group.

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.

“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.

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

Advisors naively believe that only 17% of their clients hold a direct account when in fact 74% do, according to a new report from Boston-based research firm Cerulli Associates.