SEC Award Criteria Disclosure

AdvisoryHQ is one of the fastest-growing platforms to provide news coverage, reviews, and ranking of advisors and wealth managers within the U.K., U.S., Canada, and Australia.

To generate a more reflective award ranking of the top advisors and investment managers, AdvisoryHQ went beyond just analyzing AUM, revenue, and the size of an advisory firm. AdvisoryHQ developed a breakthrough “Top-Down Advisor Selection Methodology” that is based on a wide range of filters including fiduciary duty, independence, transparency, level of customized service, history of innovation, fee structure, quality of services provided, team excellence, and wealth of experience.

AdvisoryHQ uses the 4-step selection methodology summarized below for identifying, researching, and generating its list of top ranking firms:

Step 1: Using publicly available sources, AdvisoryHQ identifies a wide range of financial advisors, RIAs, financial planners, and wealth management firms providing services in a designated area (city, state or local geographic location).

Step 2: The firm’s review and selection team then applies initial methodology filters to narrow down the list of identified firms. These filters include each firm's fee structure, fiduciary duty classification, and level of independence.

Step 3: After trimming down the initial list, AdvisoryHQ conducts a deep-dive assessment of the remaining advisors. The award criteria takes into account a range of factors, including experience level (broad level of expertise and extensive years of experience), transparency, level of customized services, and website quality. Open door policy, resource availability (number of “available” advisory professionals and supporting staff), and range of provided services are also assessed to build up a broad picture of what each firm has to offer, before the final selection process occurs.

Step 4: Based on the results of AdvisoryHQ's assessment, the firm's research and selection team then finalizes the entities that make it into the respective top ranking lists, which are then published to the general public.