Advisor assets hit record high in 2014

Last year was a strong year for advisors and their firms.

Assets under management for the average advisor reached $97 million, average advisor revenue surged 13% to $655,000 and revenue on assets improved to 0.69%, finds a PriceMetrix report.

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And this news is despite the fact that advisors reduced the number of clients they work with, and increased their percentage of fee-based business.

“[Advisors] made significant short term progress but, perhaps more important, they made fundamental improvements as well, such as increased client retention,” says Doug Trott, president and CEO of PriceMetrix. “That said, long term challenges loom over the industry which need to be addressed or future growth could well be threatened.”

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Additional findings include:

• the average number of clients in an advisor’s book fell to 150, down from 156 in 2013;
• the percentage of fee-based assets in the average advisor’s book increased from 31% to 35%;
• among priority clients, who have more than $250,000 in assets, retention rose from 96.2% in 2013 to 96.7%; and
• the proportion of new clients who are under 45 remains at 23%, and that figure hasn’t changed since 2011.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.