RIAs

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.

This year was a “slower year than many expected,” in terms of financial advisors departing major firms for other pastures, according to Chip Roame, the managing partner at Tiburon Strategic Advisors. “I believe 2013 may be slower, too,” he says.

Industry experts and thought leaders make their predictions about what is to come for advisors and investing in 2013.

Celebrating its two-year anniversary with an announcement of its 11-figure status, New York-based Dynasty Financial Partners aims to separate itself from the myriad of firms offering services to registered investment advisors.