As would be expected, the top initiative for RIAs this year remains increasing profits by way of growing assets under management and revenues. Seventy-six percent of advisors list this response as one of their top three initiatives. In contrast, very few advisors – less than 3% in total – list growing profit via expense reduction as a topthree objective. Taken together, it certainly appears that the two responses indicate a majority of RIAs are confident in the top line growth opportunities for their business and are willing to invest in the resources required to drive that growth. Improving the firm’s marketing and business development efforts tallies a close second in total response rates and, at 31%, actually saw a slightly higher number of RIAs list it as their top priority. The next tier of responses includes improving client satisfaction and investing in technology to become more efficient, both of which garnered total response rates of over onethird of advisors. While almost none of the advisors surveyed indicate selling their business as an important objective, 10% do indicate that their #3 initiative is to purchase another financial advisory business, which represents a notable increase from last year’s survey. Based on this hierarchy of goals, advisors remain focused on growing their businesses organically but are perhaps beginning to consider layering on additional growth via acquisitions.
Next Part 2 of 7: Services Offered by Advisors in 2015