Barron’s is a respected, 96-year old American financial news weekly published by Dow Jones.

It has been rating the top financial advisers in America since 2004. Its overall goal in publishing these rankings is to shine a spotlight on the best advisers, with an eye towards raising standards in the industry. The thinking is that the bottom 1 per cent of financial advisers garner an outsized amount of attention in the press. On the one hand, this is understandable; malfeasance and professional misbehaviour should be called out. On the other, this does little to get consumers the help they need most – in locating quality advisers who can help them with their long-term investing and financial goals. The rankings are part of an effort to remedy that.

Advisers fill out a survey about their practice. Barron’s then apply their rankings formula to that data to generate a ranking.

The formula features three major categories of data: Assets, Revenue and Quality of practice.

The quality of practice component includes such things as the length of time an adviser has been in the industry; their regulatory record; the certifications and designations owned by an adviser and their team; charitable and philanthropic work; client retention and other factors.

Again, the goal is to shine a light on the best advisers, thereby raising standards in the industry.

We are immensely proud and honoured to report that our practice appeared in the inaugural Australian list, with our Managing Partner Paul Nicol ranked ninth, a testament to his skill and dedication. We feel that this is a reflection of the company’s very strong ambition to put our clients first, demonstrate integrity in all of our dealings and push the industry forward.

The level of dedication and excellence shown by the firm as a whole is who we are and is reflected in this ranking. Our team has worked extremely hard over the last few years and this recognition only motivates us to continue to dig deep, innovate and work together toward the common goal of helping our clients achieve their financial goals.