This rating is not indicative of any client's experience or future performance.

 

The rules for our rankings of investment advisers and investment advisories:

Here are America's best financial advisers from the brokerage industry, as identified by researcher R.J. Shook, author of the Winner's Circle books. The brokers, he says, follow the industry's best practices and have the biggest books of business. The scoring system assigns a value of 10 to the top broker; the other scores are calculated by comparing each broker with the No. 1 finisher in terms of assets, revenue, customer satisfaction and other factors. Total assets include those at the adviser's firm and held elsewhere but overseen by the adviser. The scoring gives less weight to institutional assets.

 

Advisers were asked to complete an online survey regarding the metrics of their practice, and resulting submissions were tabulated and grouped by geographic regions. Quantitative criteria were used to benchmark advisers in categories including location, assets under management, and niche client focus.

 

The process begins with an invitation to our readers to nominate those wealth advisors who have truly gone above and beyond the call of duty in meeting their clients' needs. We also solicit nominations from private banks, wealth management and investment firms and industry associations. Nominated advisors, and others who wish to participate, then complete a detailed online questionnaire in which they provide their educational and professional credentials, work history, compensation structure, client retention rate and other background information. We then ask about areas of expertise, their approaches to working with new clients and how they meet the unique needs of the affluent clientele they serve.

 

The Winner's Circle® is an organization independent of the firms involved and does not receive compensation from the over 100 participating firms or its affiliates, financial advisors or the media in exchange for ranking purposes. Each advisor on Research Winner's Circle® Teams lists was filtered down from a national list from securities firms, banks, independent firms and more. The Winner's Circle team vetted each Series-7 registered advisor through a host of quantitative and qualitative criteria, including assets managed, revenues, experience levels, acceptable compliance records and U4 forms, discussions with management and more. Because client portfolios vary and are typically unaudited, portfolio performance is not a criterion.

 

The Winner's Circle® is an organization independent of the firms involved and does not receive compensation from the over 100 participating firms or its affiliates, financial advisors or the media in exchange for ranking purposes. Each advisor on this year's California Winner's Circle® list was filtered down from a national list of over 7,000 nominations from securities firms, banks, independent firms and more. The Winner's Circle team vetted each adviser through a host of quantitative and qualitative criteria, including assets managed, revenues, experience levels, acceptable compliance records and U4 forms, discussions with management and more. Because client portfolios vary and are typically unaudited, portfolio performance is not a criterion.

 

Created by Registered Rep. magazine, the top-50 lists rank advisors in the U.S. by the amount of assets they have under management. To be considered for these Registered Rep. rankings, advisors must have at least 50% of their business with individual investments.

ADVISORONE'S "50 TOP WOMEN IN WEALTH" SURVEY
AdvisorOne.com selected whom they believed to be the most influential, powerful and inspiring women for the 50 Top Women in Wealth list. Hundreds of individuals were nominated and a committee of 12 women sponsored by AdvisorOne.com chose the top 50 based on the candidate's leadership, influence and impact on the industry. Luminous Capital did not pay a fee for Ms. Ip to be included on the list.