There is a reason that large, global investment banks like JP Morgan Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Morgan Stanley still carry a larger share of the ultra-high net worth than their lesser-known counterparts. Branding, logos, and affiliation still matter.

As much as your average advisor in 2019 would like to believe that wealth management has been effectively democratized and found its way to existing on a fair and level playing field – their remains an advantage for the biggest names and players.

Yes, there are disadvantages to working at the most well-known shops on the street – those have been well documented on these pages… but when an advisor is in his/her first decade of building a successful advisory business, it pays to affiliate with the biggest and brightest. Not only is brand cache’ important but so is implied trust. 

While the media may paint Goldman Sachs as ‘vampire squid’ the serial entrepreneur with a newly minted $50M in capital doesn’t necessarily see them that way. Branding matters.

So a bit of slowing down the constant dialogue around the tidal wave of growth in the RIA space. When it comes to the ultra-high net worth subset of clients, the big names are still winning.