RIA Trend Report - Financial Performance: Net Profit and Profit Margins

For 2015, the median net profit is reported at $148 thousand, implying a net profit margin of 34.6%, a level near historical highs. However, as seen in Table 1, while advisors are predicting higher absolute net profits in 2016, they do expect some degradation in margin. When we review the distribution of net profits across our survey sample, we note that over one-third of RIAs report profits of $100 thousand or less. Just over one-quarter are in each of $100-250 thousand and $250,000-1 million cohorts and 10% are in the $1 million+ range. The projections for 2016 indicate a shift upward, primarily from the lowest tier to the next two tiers.

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