CPA Wealth Provider is proud to present the sixth annual financial planning awards honoring CPA/financial planning firms, broker/dealers, and financial planning software vendors as well as providing special Awards of Excellence to those who are in the vanguard of leadership in financial planning. The winners are those firms or companies that have taken the lead through innovation, efficiency, initiative, or growth in the financial planning area.
Bill Carlino, editor-in-chief of Accounting Today and editorial director of the Accountants Media Group, Daniel Hood, managing editor of Accounting Today, and Stuart Kahan, executive editor of CPA Wealth Provider judged the 60+ nominations received. The winners, along with honorable mentions, are detailed in these pages.
CPA/FINANCIAL PLANNING FIRMS
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DMJ Wealth Advisors
Greensboro, N.C.
A special online program, Wealth Management Solution, offers an aggregated comprehensive view of a client's financial portfolio. Financial documents that typically take up to a year to collect and organize, are uploaded onto a secure online vault that can be accessed and professionally evaluated by a client's financial advising team. By using the site, DMJ advisors can provide live modeling on the spot and help communicate the impact of financial decisions.
Fuller Landau
Toronto, Canada
The firm has developed an electronic Internet-based client satisfaction survey that provides clients with an efficient tool to assist Fuller Landau in obtaining critical and timely client feedback. It also provides a customized consolidated reporting for each client that removes the strain of trying to interpret multiple reports and allows clients to efficiently review the performance of each money manager and the portfolio as a whole.
Gilman Ciocia
Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
In an effort to facilitate identifying potential acquisitions, the firm has launched an advertising campaign involving targeted direct mail, a customized Web site, and inbound and outbound telemarketing to prospect for leads. Its three-year plan calls for doubling its accounting revenues as a percentage of business within that period and up to 33 percent within five years. The firm already has more than $4.6 billion in assets under management.
Keats, Connelly and Associates
Phoenix, Ariz.
The firm specializes in U.S./Canada cross-border planning for wealthy individuals. It uses a very specialized niche to build one of the largest and most successful wealth management firms in the country. The conception is based on innovation by targeting a niche with high barriers to entry that were large enough to support the firm but too small for larger companies to invest the time and money needed to overcome.
Plante Moran Financial Advisors
Southfield, Mich.
The firm's average annual revenue growth has been more than 25 percent over the past five years. It uses a systematic five-step investment management process that allows its clients to make the best long-term decisions while removing the emotional elements that can distract them from their ultimate financial goals. It is also a firm that offers formal trust services through the Plante Moran Trust.
