Top-Ranked Financial Advisors

Top-Ranked Financial Advisors by AdvisoryHQ

2018 | Advisory HQ

2019 | Advisory HQ

2020 | Advisory HQ

AdvisoryHQ’s Top-Ranked Financial Advisors

Each year, AdvisoryHQ publishes its list for Top-Ranked Financial Advisors. AdvisoryHQ’s top ranking articles and publications are becoming industry standards.  AdvisoryHQ’s editorial, research, and ranking teams conduct extensive due diligence to identify, select, and rank the top companies in various industries, including financial services, wealth management, banking, investment management, accounting, consultancies, and financial advisory, amongst others.

Their focus is on the everyday consumer. All of their research and top-ranking publications are conducted from the end user and consumer’s perspective. And, best of all, they publish their top ranking reviews for anyone to view for free.

Firms do not pay for their ranking. In fact, most firms do not even realize that they are being reviewed and ranked by AdvisoryHQ until after their reviews have been completed and published to the public.

Note: Less than 1% of “considered” firms are selected for inclusion in their top rankings.

Intelligent Capitalworks has been named as one of the top-ranked financial advisors by AdvisoryHQ for the last four consecutive years.

AdvisoryHQ’s Top-Down Selection Methodology

When reviewing companies, the decades-old processes and methodologies used by firms like Dun & Bradstreet, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, U.S. News, Bankrate, Vault, Forbes, and NerdWallet have mostly been based on three key pillars from data-mining and analytics of public record filings and are highly focused on three pillars: total assets under management (AUM), firm size/quality and the amount of revenue generated by an advisory firm.

To generate a more reflective ranking, AdvisoryHQ went beyond fees, ratios, data, and metrics. They developed ground-breaking and multi-prong “Top-Down Review & Ranking Methodologies” that are carried out by actual people (their research and editorial teams) versus online systems or machines.

AdvisoryHQ methodologies are based on a wide range of filters including: fiduciary duty, independence, quality of services provided, overall value provided, transparency, level of customized services, history of innovation, fee structure, customer experience (positive and negative), team excellence, and experience.

How Advisory HQ Builds Their Ranking Methodology

Based on keyword searches that users enter into the search box on their website, combined with an extensive keyword search analysis performed using Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Ask.com, AOL, and other search mediums, AdvisoryHQ determined that the average consumer mostly searches for financial advisors that fit some or all of the following dimensions:

  • Independent financial planners, advisors, and asset management firms
  • Advisors that act as fiduciaries
  • Firms that provide customized services
  • Firms that have a high level of transparency
  • Fee-only advisors and wealth managers
  • Fee-based advisors that are also fiduciaries
  • Firms that have a well-established and experienced advisory team


When constructing the logic for AdvisoryHQ’s selection methodology, the AdvisoryHQ review team integrated the above requirements as part of their selection criteria. The following sections provide a detailed review of their methodology criteria, factors, and ranking process.

AdvisoryHQ uses a multi-step selection methodology for identifying, researching, and generating its list of top ranked firms. AdvisoryHQ’s review and ranking articles are always 100% independently researched and objectively written.

Below is a step-by-step overview of AdvisoryHQ’s methodology process.

Step 1: Using publicly available sources, AdvisoryHQ identifies a wide range of firms that are providing services in a designated area (city, state, or local geographic location).

Step 2: AdvisoryHQ’s review team then applies initial methodology filters to narrow down the list of identified firms/products. These filters include company strengths, trustworthiness, transparency, professional reputation, managed asset, ROI/ROA effectiveness, fees structure, what customers/clients are saying about the organization, and many more.

Step 3: After trimming down the initial list, AdvisoryHQ then conducts a deep-dive assessment of the remaining firms. The award criteria takes into account a range of factors, including experience level, level of customization, site quality, resources, features, range of provided services, innovation, value-added, and many more factors, to build up a broad picture of what each firm or product has to offer, before the final selection process occurs.

Step 4: Based on the results of the performed assessment, AdvisoryHQ’s research and selection team then finalizes the list of entities that make it into its top rated publications, which are then published to the general public.

Read more about top-ranked financial advisors at AdvisoryHQ.

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