By Matt Barthel

This annual supplement of Barron's contains three separate rankings. What follows is a quick guide to using them.

Like all of our advisor rankings (we publish eight each year), this year's package serves two audiences. The first is wealth management clients -- investors looking for help managing their investments and aligning them with their financial goals. For this group, the lists are a great first-pass vetting of advisors they might hire. The second group is the wealth managers themselves, for whom these lists function as an industry score card.

Barron's aim is to shine a light on the nation's leading advisors, with the ultimate goal of promoting best practices and raising standards of client care. Advisors participating in the rankings fill out comprehensive surveys detailing all aspects of their business, from the types of clients they serve, to the size and shape of their teams, to their industry qualifications and certifications, and their regulatory records. The numbers they submit -- most notably, assets under management and the revenue generated by those assets -- are vetted by their firms and by regulatory databases such as the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website.

Here are some details on the specific rankings:

Top 250 Private Wealth Management Teams

This ranking, along with the Top 100 RIA Firms, has become a major focus of our research. It lists teams focused on serving individuals and families, as opposed to institutions. Barron's has ranked individual advisors dating back to 2004, but in recent years, advisory teams and firms have become the industry's key players, providing a wider range of resources and organizational stability for clients.

The Top 250 list is composed mainly of teams at the nation's brokerage firms, and the best of these teams have been growing assets at a remarkable rate. The total assets managed by the top 50 teams increased from $331 billion in 2020 to $1.1 trillion in this year's ranking. Newcomers make up 19% of this year's Top 250, and several teams made large year-over-year gains. Morgan Stanley's The Bromberg Group in San Francisco leapt 74 spots to No. 112, Merrill's The Cenname Team advanced 61 places to No. 100, and Neuberger Berman's The Stiefel Team (headed by the nation's No. 2-ranked female advisor, Stephanie J. Stiefel) jumped 40 spots to No. 90.

Top 100 Institutional Consulting Teams

This ranking lists the top advisory teams serving institutions, such as endowments and pension funds. The institutional consulting business has been evolving at warp speed, with the demand for scale at a record high and players sorting themselves into specialties. Several teams have made large year-over-year gains, including Bank of America's The Stahle Marten Group, which rose 58 spots to No. 34; Captrust's Team Southfield & Grand Rapids, which gained 37 spots to No. 12; and Morgan Stanley's The Zohny Group, which gained 30 spots to No. 30.

Top 100 Financial Advisors

This is Barron's oldest advisor ranking, first published in 2004. It lists individual advisors, who are ranked based on their contributions to their teams, rather than on the overall team's business. This ranking factors in the work that the advisors do with both individual/family clients and with institutions. It's thus a great barometer for overall advisory excellence. Advisors making big gains in the Top 100 this year include Morgan Stanley's Bruce Burrows, who moved up 56 spots to No. 44; Trevor Wilde of Wilde Wealth Management Group, who gained 32 spots to No. 59; and Merrill's Valerie Garcia Houts, who rose 27 spots to No. 66.

Write to rankings@barrons.com

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May 09, 2025 16:00 ET (20:00 GMT)

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