Ranking Methodology 2006

What's the best way to determine who are America's best wealth advisors? Diligence.

I have spent countless hours, mostly face-to-face, interviewing most of the advisors on our top-100 list and other lists, probably thousands of the industry's outstanding advisors altogether. It's a lengthy, but necessary, process after vetting through over 7,000 nominations that we receive from over 100 investment, insurance, banking and other related firms. Each firm stands behind each candidate they nominate, based on Winner's Circle criteria that was developed by myself and approved by the Winner's Circle advisory board of industry leaders.

On the qualitative side, advisors are vetted through their firm's compliance area, then by my team where we scour each advisor's U4 record (NASD-maintained records of complaints, whether justifiable or not). Since there are many instances where a complaint may not even involve the actual advisor (or the firm offered a settlement for the sake of avoiding unnecessary expenses), I have researched each incident, discussed with the advisor and firm, and have even received a letter for these situations from senior management substantiating the individual's worthiness. More qualitative checks include reports like customer satisfaction, client-loss reports, seven years minimum experience, community involvement, discussions with varying levels of management and peers, and even clients. (Portfolio performance is not a criteria because most advisors do not have audited track records; simply asking an advisor for proof of portfolio performance may result in cherry-picking since clients generally have different portfolios. Instead, we focus on customer satisfaction and client retention.

The teams that these advisors lead are evaluated for qualities such as depth of experience, credentials and ability to properly service clients. Because successful advisors will have the numbers to prove it, we consider revenue and total (custodied and noncustodied) assets. With the numbers, an emphasis is placed on the non-institutional figures.

The ranking algorithm places weighted values on revenues produced (with different weightings assigned to different types of revenues), custodied assets and noncustodied assets (with different weightings assigned to different types of assets). Numbers are adjusted to ensure equal comparisons, such as with team and partnership structures, and the varying ways in which revenues can be reported. Each data point is indexed to the advisor with the leading number in each category, then summed up to provide a final ranking score.

The result is a list of America's finest wealth advisors who are setting new standards for all financial professionals. As I like to say to these individuals, "Congratulations for second place." It's their clients that always come first.

        The Winner's Circle's Missions

In the securities industry, to promote: best practices, highest code of ethics, and integrity, professionalism

Outside the industry, to promote: the value of advice, raising investor confidence, and helping investors find a trusted advisor