The Financial Times Top 300 RIAs includes Acropolis in their inaugural ranking!

A subscription may be required, but here is the link to the report.

When we started out nearly 12 years ago (our anniversary is in August), we received a few accolades from a magazine published by Bloomberg that consistently said that we were one of the fastest growing firms.

Still, compared to other firms on the list, we were pretty small back then.  We just crossed $1.1 billion which, by my estimate ranks us between 100-125 among RIAs that serve clients in the same way that we do (but not as well, of course).  There are other firms like hedge funds that register as RIAs, but obviously don’t do the same thing.

In the FT survey, they said that the size of the firm accounted for about 85 percent of the ranking, arguing that ‘size is a key indicator of quality, in that bad firms rarely continue to attract and retain clients.’

While that’s true to some degree, I have seen some large firms that may have said all of the right things at the top only to fall short when it comes to consistent implementation.  And as one of the founders of Acropolis, I can say that it’s a lot more challenging to deliver consistently high quality advice and service.

Thankfully, we have a large team of dedicated, well trained people who really care about our clients and doing the right thing.  There is still work to be done (and there always will be), but we are far more organized than we were a decade ago and we’re adamant about not sacrificing quality for growth.

A number of clients over the years have said that they didn’t know that we’ve grown as much as we have, which is a real compliment since it means that their experience as a client is unchanged from the early days.

In addition to the firm size, the FT considered five other factors including firm growth, length of operation, SEC compliance record, professional designations held and the quality of the website.

Of course, we are very proud and gratified to be included on the ‘elite’ list of advisors by the FT.  It should go without saying that we are deeply appreciative to our clients for making this possible.

On behalf of everyone at Acropolis – Thank you!