Which Top RIAs Have the Richest Client Accounts?

The size of an advisory firm, as measured by assets under management, doesn't always indicate the size of the clients that firm serves. Indeed, some of the largest accounts are found in comparatively smaller firms that cater to a few ultrahigh-net-worth families.

To create this ranking, we took our RIA Leaders list of the top fee-only independent RIAs, then calculated the average client account size.

The results were illuminating.
For example, the No. 3 firm on this list, Financial Clarity, has an average client account size of more than $40 million -- yet on our overall rankings, the firm landed at No. 93, with an AUM of just $1.265 billion.

By contrast, the second-largest RIA in the country, Creative Planning, has more than $12 billion in total AUM -- but its average client account size is less than $400,000.

Also not surprising: Half the names on this list are based in wealth centers like New York and California (with firms in Beverly Hills, San Francisco and Silicon Valley).

Click through to see the top 10 list, or click here to see the rankings in a single-page format. -- Ann Marsh

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