RIAs

Web Exclusive: The nation’s third-largest RIA now has more than $10 billion in assets under management due in large part to its comprehensive approach to managing and maximizing clients’ investments with the taxman in mind.

There is strength in numbers, and practices across the country are banking on size to position themselves for success.

Raymond James has added four firms with total assets of $410 million to its RIA division, said Mike DiGirolamo, senior vice president and managing director of the Investment Advisors Division of Raymond James Financial Services.

Here’s one way RIA firms can measure their firms’ success: they can see everything from where their revenue is coming from to total assets under management — benchmarked to other firms — the same way you’d look at dials on a car dashboard.

Washington Wealth Management, a breakaway RIA founded last December, continued its explosive growth by acquiring its third breakaway advisor in just the past three weeks, bringing it ever closer to $1 billion in AUM.

According to the survey, 70% of RIAs cited market volatility as the top concern among their clients, while 99% said it was among clients’ top three concerns. Only 6% of RIAs said wealth accumulation was a top client concern.

Trust and customer service are the most important reasons why clients opt to work with registered investment advisors, according to TD Ameritrade’s latest RIA survey.

Schwab Advisor Services is launching a multi-million dollar marketing and education campaign aimed at promoting the registered investment advisor (RIA) sector in an effort to differentiate the channel from other, more traditional models in the eyes of affluent investors.

Last week’s deal between The Colony Group and Focus Financial Partners is just the latest in what’s turned out to be a very busy merger and acquisition period for registered independent advisor firms. Here's a look at this year's five-largest deals:

While it’s still unclear as to whether The Colony Group and Focus Financial Partners union announced last week is the largest merger by assets under management completed in the RIA space so far this year, one thing is certain: the deal is sophisticated and accomplishes strategic and financial goals for both firms at the same time.