Welcome to the 2008 Wealth Manager Ranking
Below are the full instructions. At bottom is a link to the survey itself and contact information if you have questions. Please read the instructions before starting the survey.
Filling out the form does not guarantee a place on this list, which is limited to the top 500 firms. As in past years, the ranking is determined by dividing the total assets by the number of clients. The questionnaire provides more details on determining these numbers.
After two deadline extensions, the survey is now closed. We are accepting no more entries.
Eligibility
To be considered, a firm must
1. be a registered investment advisor with its own IARD/CRD number.
2. have minimum assets under advisement of $50 million.
3. have individuals or high-net-worth individuals (as defined by the SEC) as more than half of its client base.
4. offer financial planning services.
The following are not eligible to participate:
1. Banks
2. Broker-dealers
3. Trust companies
4. Branches of independent broker-dealers
5. Subsidiaries of larger companies, unless they meet all other requirements and file their own ADV
Filling out the Form
1. It is recommended you print out the survey before you actually take it (see below), so you can make sure all the information you need is handy.
2. Follow instructions carefully. Some questions have detailed explanations.
3. Failure to answer relevant questions may result in disqualification.
4. Be careful. Once you complete the survey, you cannot access it again. This is a safety feature to prevent other firms from accidentally registering with the wrong IARD/CRD number and erasing your data.
5. This online form is the only way to participate in the survey. Forms sent to us by regular mail, email, fax, or any other system will not be entered in the survey.
6. All numbers on the form should be as of December 31, 2007.
7. At the end of the questionnaire, you can click on the "Review Results" button to see your responses and print them out. This is your ONLY chance to get a copy of your results. Afterward, you may click "summary" to take your back to the confirmation page or "logout" to exit the survey system and return to the Wealth Manager website.
Other Information
1. We do not confirm a firm’s place in the ranking in advance. You have to wait until the magazine comes out in July.
2. A full range of reprints will be available from PARS International, our exclusive reprints agent. Call them at 212-221-9595 with any questions about products and pricing.
Important Note
Every year several firms find that because of typographic errors on their part they are incorrectly ranked. Common errors include commas and decimal points switched, or placed incorrectly. Although we will query you if we notice an egregious error, we do not formally proofread entries. We suggest you have more than one person at the firm check the entries. Although it is awkward, we can make corrections even after submission if necessary. But after the survey closes, we start crunching the numbers, and it may be impossible to make changes at that time.
Problems and Queries
Contact Richard Koreto at rkoreto@highlinemedia.com. Since many firms have similar names, please include your IARD/CRD number with any query.
Survey Questions
This is a slightly abbreviated version of the questions you will see once you click on the survey link at the bottom of this page. It is intended only to help you gather the necessary information before filling out the questionnaire. To participate in the survey, you must click on the link and fill out the questionnaire online.
1. Firm Name & IARD/CRD Number
2. Mailing Address
3. City or Town
4. State
5. Zip Code (five digits only)
6. Name of Person Filling Out This Form
7. Title of Person Filling Out This Form
8. Telephone Number of Person Filling Out This Form
9. Email of Person Filling Out This Form
10. Firm Website
11. Name of President, CEO, or Managing Partner
12. Title of Person in #11
13. Year Firm Started in Business
14. Number of Professionals in Firm
15. Number of Support Personnel in Firm
16. Minimum Annual Fee for Clients
17. Minimum AUM for Clients
18. Discretionary and Nondiscretionary Assets Under Management on 12/31/07, per ADV guidelines
19. Client assets NOT reported as AUM on ADV and NOT listed in previous question, but for which your firm receives a management or advisement fee.
Do NOT include in this total any of the following: Commissioned products such as A, B, or C class mutual funds or deferred annuities; brokerage account assets for which you receive fee compensation under the expanded B-D exemption (i.e., the old Merrill Lynch rule); any assets for which you receive a trail commission or ongoing service commission.
20. How many client relationships did your firm have at the end of 2007?
The purpose of this question is to identify the number of your Firm's clients, not the number of accounts. Many clients have multiple accounts under advisement. Please list married couples as one client, even if you advise them on multiple accounts, custodial accounts, trusts, charitable vehicles, etc. Clients who are children in multigenerational-client families should be counted as separate clients if they are adults.
21. Is your firm a wholly or partially owned subsidiary of a financial institution of other larger parent organization?
22. If you answered "yes" to #21, what is the name of the parent organization?
23. If you answered yes to #21, list the percentage of the firm that the parent organization owns. (You may round off percentage.)
24. Has your firm merged with or acquired another firm in 2007?
25. Which of the following products do you either sell or recommend to your clients on a regular basis? Check all that apply.
The answers to this question will not appear with your listing. They will be used only in aggregate.
[] mutual funds
[] hedge funds or other alternative investments
[] separately managed accounts
[] life insurance
[] property and casualty insurance
[] annuities
[] individual stocks
[] ETFs
[] art, precious coins, and other collectibles