FA Magazine July/August 2022 | Page 56

399 Fi3 Financial Advisors Indianapolis , Ind . 606.19 79.96 % 3.89 134.18 % -23.15 % 400 Frazier Financial Advisors Upper Arlington , Ohio 595.00 16.67 % 1.32 3.70 % 12.50 % 401 Carolina Wealth Management Greenvile , N . C . 589.48 32.69 % 1.21 27.81 % 3.82 % 402 Birchwood Financial Partners Edina , Minn . 583.81 30.82 % 1.46 28.85 % 1.53 % 403 Grand Wealth Management Grand Rapids , Mich . 582.33 19.45 % 3.45 8.85 % 9.74 % 404 Net Worth Advisory Group Sandy , Utah 581.69 16.60 % 0.88 6.69 % 9.29 % 405 The High Net Worth Advisory Group Naples , Fla . 581.00 44.04 % 1.79 -0.28 % 44.44 % 406 Excalibur Management Corp . Newton Lower Falls , Mass . 571.99 10.21 % 1.90 7.65 % 2.38 % 407 Marotta Wealth Management Charlottesville , Va . 569.58 21.00 % 1.59 37.56 % -12.04 % 408 Peavine Capital Reno , Nev . 569.00 5.76 % 21.07 5.76 % 0.00 % 409 Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group Athens , Ga . 558.46 33.13 % 1.12 7.68 % 23.63 % 410 Level Financial Advisors Amherst , N . Y . 545.20 14.35 % 0.89 15.84 % -1.29 % 411 Financial Insights Wealth Management Tacoma , Wash . 533.63 25.21 % 1.07 18.95 % 5.26 % 412 Hopwood Financial Services Reston , Va . 531.77 17.68 % 1.93 6.98 % 10.00 % 413 Jentner Wealth Management Akron , Ohio 529.60 17.07 % 1.74 12.08 % 4.45 % 414 NBC Capital Advisors Beaverton , Ore . 515.00 31.04 % 1.17 13.17 % 15.79 % 415 J . W . Coons Advisors Columbus , Ohio 514.55 12.85 % 3.55 17.52 % -3.97 % 416 Gradient Capital Advisors San Diego , Calif . 512.65 21.80 % 1.20 20.94 % 0.71 % 417 Woodward Financial Advisors Chapel Hill , N . C . 511.25 29.55 % 2.84 22.35 % 5.88 % 418 Sikich Capital Management Springfield , Ill . 504.18 14.47 % 0.67 5.30 % 8.71 % 419 Morling Financial Advisors Fremont , Calif . 501.41 39.46 % 1.76 26.74 % 10.04 %

* Discretionary and nondiscretionary AUM can be found in FA ’ s online version and Form ADV . ** Average assets per client relationship . † Firm started in 2021 . †† AUM is for JFG Wealth Management and Johnson Financial Group . JFG Wealth Management is owned 100 % by Johnson Financial Group and Johnson Financial Group employees . ‡ AUM is for NorthCoast Asset Management , a dba of , and investment advisory services offered through , Connectus Wealth . ‡‡ Pan Global Advisers is a wholly owned RIA by Tax Efficient Asset Management Solution (“ TEAMS ”), and is the sub-adviser to TEAMS .

To see fIRms wITh uNdeR $ 500 mIllIoN ThAT pARTIcIpATed IN The suRvey , vIsIT www . fa-mag . com / research / ria-survey .

continued from page 40 tells you this is not just about scale . Scale is only one piece of it . This is a relationship-driven business .”

Brent Brodeski , the founder and CEO of Savant Wealth Management in Rockford , Ill ., also took on institutional help this year for a cash infusion : a minority stake from Kelso & Company , which bought a 20 % piece of Savant . Brodeski says Savant is going to use $ 15 million and invest it in the business this year now that there ’ s more capital to play around with .

One of the firm ’ s big buys was a fintech firm : Savant spent $ 3 million for a stake in Lumiant , an Australian fintech company whose software focuses on things like client values and goals first . It is designed to engage those client family members not as directly absorbed with the technical aspects of portfolio management or taxes . Advisors have to be able to scale business off these softer planning problems , like clients ’ concerns about their health , Brodeski says , before bringing in ETFs and tax planning and estate planning documents . He says most advisor portals “ suck ” and he wanted to do something about it .

Creative Planning ’ s Mallouk embarked on the acquisition trail several years ago and believes many firms remain open to a transaction . “ We ourselves bought about a dozen firms in the fourth quarter , which was crazy .” He said the activity slowed down in the beginning of the year , but he ’ s still seen a lot of people continuing to sell . “ I think what they ’ re finding is that the markets are shaky . ‘ I ’ m not going to take anything for granted . The capital gains rate is still low . Valuations seem to be holding .’ There ’ s more RIAs today than there were a year ago because there are so many RIAs opening up . So you still have an incredibly highly fragmented space . So we ’ re seeing more for sale all the time . So it ’ s a lot of opportunity for a buyer who knows what they ’ re doing .”

The number of huge firms means there ’ s now a race underway to be the dominant national player in the space , he says . But he agrees many sellers have a problem that many custodians have recognized for years — most of them are not growing .

“ The market has hidden their sins ,” he says . “ What if the market goes the other way for three years ?”

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