More Information on Our Awards

Real Leaders Top Impact Companies

  • Date the rate was given: January 18, 2023

  • Period of time upon which the rating was based: 2022

  • Identity of the third party: Real Leaders Inc.

  • Compensation paid/application fee: $495

  • Methodology: The Top Impact Companies rank for-profit, privately owned companies based on their 3-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and gross annual revenue. Winners are ranked by total score and then are sorted by industry in the magazine. 

SmartAsset 2023 Top 100 Fastest Growing RIAs

  • Date the rate was given: September 6, 2023

  • Period of time upon which the rating was based: March 2020 - June 2023

  • Identity of the third party: SmartAsset Advisors, LLC

  • Compensation paid/application fee: none

  • Methodology: “To compile our rankings, SmartAsset identified all U.S.-based investment advisors registered with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). We only considered firms that have at least $500 million in AUM, offer financial planning services and have no disclosures on their record. While we filtered RIAs based on whether they offer financial planning, some firms may primarily market their services to financial advisors and other businesses. Firms that underwent a merger or acquisition between 2020 and now were excluded from consideration.

    The study examined data, paring down to approximately 1,700 firms that fit those qualifications, removed firms with recent mergers or acquisitions, and ranked them using the following metrics:

    One-year percentage change in number of client accounts. Data comes from the SEC and is for June 2022 and March 2023.

    Three-year percentage change in number of client accounts. Data comes from the SEC and is for June 2020 and June 2023.

    One-year percentage change in assets under management. Data comes from the SEC and is for March 2022 and March 2023.

    Three-year percentage change in assets under management. Data comes from the SEC and is for March 2020 and March 2023.”

Inc. 5000 America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies

  • Date the rate was given: 2022

  • Period of time upon which the rating was based: March 31, 2018 to December 31, 2021

  • Identity of the third party: Inc./Mansueto Ventures LLC

  • Compensation paid/application fee: $245

  • Methodology: Companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2021. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to four decimal places. The top 500 companies on the Inc. 5000 are featured in Inc. magazine’s September issue. The entire Inc. 5000 can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000

InvestmentNews 2023 Fastest-Growing Fee-Only RIAs

  • Date the rate was given: November 30, 2023

  • Period of time upon which the rating was based: July 2020 - July 2023

  • Identity of the third party: InvestmentNews/KM Business Information US, Inc.

  • Compensation paid/application fee: none

  • Methodology: “InvestmentNews selected the Fastest-Growing Fee-Only RIAs based on data reported to the Securities Exchange Commission on form ADV.

    To qualify, firms must have met the following criteria: (1) latest ADV filing date is either on or after July 1, 2022, (2) total AUM is at least $100M, (3) does not have employees who are registered representatives of a broker-dealer, (4) managed assets for individual clients during its most recently completed fiscal year, (5) no more than 50% of amount of regulatory assets under management is attributable to pooled investment vehicles (other than investment companies), (6) no more than 25% of amount of regulatory assets under management is attributable to pension and profit-sharing plans (but not the plan participants), (7) no more than 25% of amount of regulatory assets under management is attributable to corporations or other businesses, (8) does not receive commissions, (9) provides financial planning services, (10) is not actively engaged in business as a broker-dealer (registered or unregistered), (11) is not actively engaged in business as a registered representative of a broker-dealer, and (12) has neither a related person who is a broker-dealer/municipal securities dealer/government securities broker or dealer (registered or unregistered) not one who is an insurance company or agency.

    To be considered for the list of fastest-growing AUM, firms must have met the criteria in each year (ending July) between 2020 and 2023. In cases where a firm filed more than one annual update to their ADV, the latest filing for the year was used.”

Certified B Corporation

  • Date the rate was given: July 2018

  • Period of time upon which the rating was based: 2017-8; recertified every 3 years

  • Identity of the third party: B Lab

  • Compensation paid/application fee: $2,000 annually

  • Methodology: “B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company must:

Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards. 

Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction. 

Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.”