The Best and Worst of 2012: Who's Up?
Published December 19, 2012 3:30 PM
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Updated April 26, 2016 9:30 AM
1 Min Read
The Best and Worst of 2012: Who's Up?
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. Heres a look at some of the people, organizations and ideas that ended the year in a sweeter position than they began it.
Check out The Best and Worst of 2012: Who's Down?
Check out The Best and Worst of 2012: Who's Down?
RIAs
RIAs and independent business models continue to win big. As a group, RIAs far outpaced the growth rate of the rest of the financial services industry, expanding at 13% versus 1.3%, according to Cerulli & Associates.
Social Media
Despite compliance concerns, social media became a bigger priority for planners. Industry leaders like LPL Financial have introduced new programs to encourage its planners to build links to new and existing clients using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other online media.
Mark Sear & David Ho
Last time we ran the numbers for the top RIA firms, Luminous Capital was in 13th place, with $3.86 billion in assets under management; by the end of the year, Luminous had jumped a few spots and had $5.34 billion in AUM. Then news hit that co-founders Mark Sear & David Ho had reaped a cash windfall by selling their large RIA to First Republic Bank in Los Angeles.
Texas Tech Universitys Financial Planning Department
The well-established financial planning program at Texas Tech University was elevated to departmental status by the university. The move marked only the second time in the history of the profession that a planning program has joined other department-level fields such as psychology and physics. (The first was at University of Missouri.)
Flickr photo courtesy of Give2Tech
Flickr photo courtesy of Give2Tech
PIETech & Wealthcare Capital Management
Competing planning software producers PIETech, the maker of MoneyGuidePro, and Wealthcare Capital Management are both winners for settling their intellectual property dispute, without bleeding each other out in court. The win also will be good for consumers, keeping competition humming in this rapidly changing market.
Check out The Best and Worst of 2012: Who's Down?
Check out The Best and Worst of 2012: Who's Down?
