Competitive Research Prompts for Financial Advisors and RIAs

This guide is for marketing and business development people at RIAs, hybrid broker-dealer practices, and independent advisory teams who need to know what competitors are doing, not just who they are. You will leave with a set of prompts you can run today and a way to judge whether what you find is worth acting on.

Why this beat is harder than it looks

There are now more than 26,000 SEC-registered investment advisory firms in the US, serving over 68 million clients. That scale cuts both ways. It means almost any city has a dozen firms that look interchangeable on paper: fee-only, fiduciary, CFP on staff, "holistic planning." It also means the real competitive threats are not always the firm down the street. Cerulli and others have flagged direct-to-investor platforms (Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab retail) as growing faster than advisor-mediated channels in recent years, largely by capturing 401(k) and IRA rollovers before an advisor ever gets a call. So a serious competitive scan has to cover three layers at once: local and regional RIAs, national roll-ups and aggregators buying up practices, and the DIY and robo platforms picking off the self-directed segment.

Good competitive research in this industry pulls from a narrow but reliable set of sources: SEC Form ADV filings (Part 1 and Part 2A/2B) via the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database, FINRA BrokerCheck for hybrid or dually-registered advisors, state securities regulator sites for smaller firms, and trade coverage from InvestmentNews, Financial Planning, Citywire RIA, and WealthManagement.com. Add in M&A trackers (many aggregators like Cerulli, Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions, and Schwab Advisor Services publish deal counts and RIA benchmarking studies) and you have a defensible picture, not a guess. Cadence matters too: ADV amendments happen annually or after material changes, so a quarterly re-check is usually enough, while press coverage of M&A and advisor moves is worth a weekly skim.

Prompts to run

The prompts below assume access to a web-connected research tool or a research assistant who can pull public filings and trade press.

1. Local competitor map: "List RIAs registered with the SEC or [state] securities regulator within 25 miles of [city], with AUM, number of clients, and fee structure pulled from their Form ADV Part 2A."
2. Fee benchmarking: "Compare the stated fee schedules (AUM-based, flat-fee, hourly) of five RIAs serving [target client segment, e.g., pre-retirees with $1-5M in assets] in [region], citing their ADV brochures or public websites."
3. Service expansion tracking: "Summarize recent public announcements from RIAs or wealth management firms adding tax planning, estate planning, or family office services, using trade press from the last 12 months."
4. M&A and roll-up watch: "List RIA acquisitions or mergers announced in the last quarter involving firms with $200M-$1B AUM, noting the acquirer and any stated rationale."
5. DIY platform positioning: "Summarize how Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab describe their retail advice or hybrid-advice offerings on their own sites, and note any pricing or account minimum changes in the last year."
6. Advisor movement: "Find recent news of advisor teams departing wirehouses or broker-dealers to join or form independent RIAs in [region], and note the AUM they reportedly brought with them."
7. Marketing and content audit: "Review the public content (blog, newsletter, LinkedIn) of three competing RIAs in [niche, e.g., physicians or business owners] and summarize their stated differentiators."

Judging what you find

• Filing vs. marketing claim: A firm's ADV brochure is a legal disclosure; its website is a sales pitch. When the two disagree on fees or services, trust the ADV.
• Recency of AUM figures: ADV amendments can lag by months. Cross-check large AUM claims against a second source, like a press release or a Cerulli/Barron's ranking, before repeating them.
• Source independence: Custodian-published RIA benchmarking studies (Schwab, Fidelity) are useful for industry-wide trends but have an interest in showing the RIA channel favorably. Treat their numbers as directional.
• Sample size and scope: A trade article citing "advisors say" without a named survey or firm count is an opinion piece, not data. Look for the underlying study.
• Regulatory status changes: A BrokerCheck or IAPD disciplinary flag is a hard fact worth noting immediately; a competitor's own "fiduciary" claim is not verified by anything but their own filing.

A standing brief

If you want this running in the background: "Track new RIA registrations, ADV amendments, and M&A activity within [region/niche] weekly; flag any competitor fee changes, service additions, or disciplinary actions; summarize trade press coverage of DIY platform moves that affect advisor-mediated business." A standing research brief can run this beat weekly so the scan doesn't depend on someone remembering to do it.

Two things are worth checking even when search results come up thin: the firm's actual Form ADV filing (not just its marketing page), and whether any recent regulatory action shows up on BrokerCheck or the SEC's disciplinary database. Both are free, public, and often skipped.