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It’s long been acknowledged that the US dominates global wealth management, but even seasoned financial professionals may be taken aback by the sheer disparity. The American market is more than eight times the size of its closest rival, the UK, and its footprint overshadows the combined wealth management assets of every other country in the global top 10.
This supremacy shows no signs of abating. According to Natixis Investment Managers, over the past five years, assets under management grew by 20 percent globally. The wealth management firm’s insight also revealed that the “advisory industry was responsible for the stewardship of an estimated $159 trillion globally in 2024 and assets are estimated to grow another 10 percent by the end of the decade to reach $178 trillion in 2029”.
The rising stakes mean that only the best wealth managers will survive. In an industry where scale and service increasingly dictate survival, only the most forward-thinking firms are expected to endure. Wealth management teams who don’t adapt face being driven out of business.
PwC’s Next in Asset and Wealth Management 2025 report strikes a somber note for laggards. It reveals that more than one-third (34 percent) of wealth management CEOs believe that an average competitor will cease to exist within three years unless they change their business model.
Also featured in PwC’s analysis is the pursuit of “a winner-takes-all mentality” where firms bring assets under one roof and use partnerships to be a next-generation firm. Technology and bespoke offerings are fast becoming not just differentiators but prerequisites.
The report states, “We project that business model pressures will winnow the ranks of AWM firms, with 16 percent of firms being bought or shuttered by 2027 – twice the rate of turnover historically.”
In this climate, InvestmentNews’ 5-Star Wealth Management Teams 2025 stand out as exemplars of innovation and client-centric service. Firms were nominated by investors nationwide, with the winners honored after careful review of their industry impact and understanding of client needs, along with performance based on AUM and team results. Quite simply, these firms represent the industry’s forward edge.
Gone are the days when wealth management meant little more than portfolio performance. In its place is a model built on integrated service and proactive planning, which is in full swing at Wealth Distribution Strategies (WDS). The Wisconsin-based firm has specialist advisors in tax, health insurance, and Medicare to reduce the impact of medical expenses and income taxes in retirement.
“With the Affordable Care Act, someone could be retiring before 65, so how do they bridge the gap until Medicare?,” says president Jeff Lamb. “That’s where our Medicare specialist gets involved and how we keep income below a certain level, so we can qualify for much more affordable health insurance.”
Lamb explains how WDS deploys its array of specialists to benefit its clients. He says, “So much of retirement income planning revolves around taxes and those medical expenses. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, it’s how much you actually get to keep after those big expenses.”
Being regarded as family by clients is the norm for Blease Financial Services. The firm adopts a deliberate cadence to serve clients – built on trust rather than transaction.
“They can see how much we care,” explains president Drew Blease.
Of its client base, 98 percent have all their money with them, underlining the level of trust. This exists because the business has the capability to shoulder the load and serve its clients’ needs.
If someone comes to Blease Financial Services and wants to split their investments, the firm offers a choice. Blease says, “I tell them, in six months to a year, we’re going to want you to pick, and no hard feelings if you pick the other firm. We really feel they’ll be better served by one excellent firm and by that, they’ll see we’re obviously confident in our ability.”
This statement of intentions is so powerful that rarely do investors not commit fully. Another hallmark of the Tucson, AZ firm is it doesn’t engage for the sake of it. Many wealth managers boast of having multiple check-ins during the year, apart from during the first six months for a new client. But for Blease, this can be superficial.
“After that, it’ll be once a year or if something comes up, but we’re not going to promise to babysit clients as there’s no reason to. What I found is that it becomes that the client is almost micromanaging the advisor, but they’re hiring us to do a job, so let us do it,” he explains.
That’s not to say clients aren’t in the loop as they’re provided with statements and confirmation notices of any trades, along with encouragement to contact the team when needed.
“You’re not just paying us 50 basis points to manage your investments,” says Noah Hutkin of 57th Street Wealth Advisors, echoing the trend in the sector for the standout firms to go above and beyond being wealth managers.
“We act as a conduit to your accountant,” he adds. “We consult on your 401(k) or any pension plans to make sure that what you’re doing there is married to what we’re doing here in your brokerage accounts. We consult on estate planning and we run financial plans.”
While ‘holistic’ is on-trend jargon across the industry, the term can be misleading.
Hutkin says, “It’s holistic but for many other firms, it’s add-on charges or it’s holistic with just the money that they have at that firm. For us, whatever the management fee is, you get our full range of services, full stop.”
Also bringing a comprehensive outlook to the table is Longevity Capital Management, which doesn’t just look at the portfolios it manages, but at the lives it impacts.
Longevity sees itself not as an investment-first but a planning-first firm. Before any investment decisions are made, a meticulous, holistic planning process explores every angle of a client’s financial life – from tax exposure to healthcare risks, estate goals to income sequencing.
Terri McGray says, “Our clients don’t need a salesman. They need a strategist, a steward, and an advocate.”
Longevity guides clients up to retirement, preparing them for the shift from accumulation to income. This includes optimizing Social Security timing, minimizing IRMAA-related Medicare costs, planning Roth conversions while taxes are historically low, and making decisions around pension elections, executive benefits, or business exit strategies. They analyze cash flow sustainability, portfolio readiness, and tax positioning.
This thoroughness is not theoretical. An example is a retired couple in their 70s who owned several appreciated rental properties, but found them burdensome to manage and thought that selling them outright would trigger significant capital gains taxes.
“We helped them set up several 1031 exchanges into Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs), allowing them to defer taxes, eliminate active management, and convert their real estate into diversified, passive income-producing investments,” says McGray. “The DSTs provided steady cash flow, institutional-grade property exposure, and estate simplification – all while aligning with their broader retirement income and tax planning goals.”
Another case involved a widow with concerns about sustaining her income without jeopardizing the nest egg she and her late husband built, which had $3 million in total assets.
McGray says, “We structured a blend of dividend-paying blue-chip stocks, municipal bonds, and a laddered portfolio of income-oriented structured notes – with capital protection at maturity. The result was a monthly income that meets her needs, downside buffers, and peace of mind that she’s not dependent on the stock market to write her paycheck.”
Over the past year, volatility has swept through markets, testing the mettle of even the most seasoned financial advisors. For wealth management firms, the turbulence has proved not just a challenge but a crucible, forcing reassessment and adaptation.
Female-owned Longevity provides a different outlook. McGray says, “We bring a female lens to wealth management and that makes us better advisors for everyone, not just women. But for the women we serve, especially those who’ve been overlooked or underserved by traditional firms, it makes all the difference.”
Over the recent period of volatility, McGray and her team have seen a meaningful shift.
“High-net-worth individuals who once worked with large advisory firms or private banks are now seeking deeper, more personal guidance because they’re tired of one-dimensional service that stops at asset allocation,” she says.
Something similar is also experienced at DBS when the workload rises during uncertainty. One reason is that the team is trying to take advantage of the situation with Roth conversions or rebalancing portfolios.
Lamb says, “The other part is it’s very rewarding to show clients, after the fact when things come back up again, why we stayed with it and how our strategies are paying off.”
No matter what is thrown at them, the DBS team is confident that they can conjure up a solution. Lamb adds that uncertainty doesn’t paralyze WDS clients; it galvanizes the firm’s advisors.
“There’s always a smart place in the portfolio to pull from. Our strategies aren’t necessarily built to maximize returns over the next month or year; it’s designed to help them maximize their situation over the long haul. Uncertainty creates a lot of opportunities and we’ll take advantage of them when they do.”
Over at 57th Street Wealth Advisors, they also understand how to navigate choppy markets. Their philosophy is grounded in long-term reassurance. The firm, which has an approximate $250,000 new account minimum, relies on its history and breadth of skills.
Hutkin says, “In these unprecedented times, it’s a nice feeling as some clients obviously are more nervous than others. We have clients on both sides of the aisle, as I’m sure every advisor does, but it’s nice that we know we’re helping people and giving them peace of mind.”
Proving how innovative they are, 57th Street Wealth Advisors tells clients to keep between six- and 12-months cash at the bank and send them anything above that to put in treasuries at no risk.
“Traditional savings and checking accounts don’t earn any interest. We want them to get a return on their cash and to do it for as low of a charge as possible,” says Hutkin.
Despite the turmoil, there has been no major discontent at Blease Financial Services due to the longevity of its clients’ tenure.
“I’d say we probably have got on the high end, maybe 20 phone calls,” says Blease. “Most of our clients have been with us a while and gone through the ups and downs.”
To further enhance transparency during uncertain times, Blease is preparing to launch a new initiative: periodic video updates from the firm’s leadership, offering clients an inside look at how their advisors are interpreting the current economic landscape.
While performance metrics and AUM are important and often dominate headlines, what sets the 5-Star Wealth Management Teams 2025 apart may be less quantifiable – but no less critical. Across the board, these firms champion a collaborative culture over hierarchical rigidity, drawing strength not from a single figurehead, but from the collective.
That ethos runs deep at Blease Financial Services, where the shortest staff tenure is nine years.
“It’s my company and the buck stops with me for good and bad,” says Blease. “But we are collaborative and there’s mutual respect. It’s knowing that not one team member is any more important than another, including myself.”
He is proud to have created a positive camaraderie that is particularly important in a small office.
At 57th Street Wealth Advisors, being highly responsive is part of the everyday. Accessibility isn’t a promise – it’s a practice.
“We don’t let clients sit and stew with a question,” says Hutkin. “My mailbox has two voicemails in it from the last eight months and that goes for the team. We answer the phone.”
It’s also a highly collaborative culture as the whole team meets twice a day (pre-market and after the close) to discuss matters such as outstanding tasks, market conditions, client messaging, investment decisions and analysis, marketing initiatives, and best practices.
Keeping it simple is fundamental at Longevity Capital Management, whose typical clientele have between $2 million and $15 million in investable assets. The firm translates complexity into clarity by combining high-level technical and computing power expertise with emotional intelligence.
McGray says, “We don’t overwhelm clients with jargon or noise. We break down decisions into clear, actionable steps that align with the life they want to live – each back- and forward-tested using sophisticated software.”
The firm’s approach extends to treating each client as an individual, not as a profit center. All plans are tailored with precision.
“It’s aligned with an investment strategy to support it efficiently, tax-aware, and risk-adjusted to the client’s specific phase of life,” explains McGray. “We are fee-only fiduciaries by design. That means no commissions, no hidden agendas, and no product pushing.”
WDS is known for its array of specialists, which the firm employs to focus on education efforts. For the last 19 years, the firm has run a popular retirement planning course at the University of Wisconsin, equipping soon-to-retire professionals (targeted at those between the ages of 50 and 65) with the tools to make confident decisions.
Yet for Lamb, teaching goes far beyond the lecture hall.
“I remind clients that a lot of people make me look a lot better than I would be by myself. There’s plenty of collaboration that’s happening behind the scenes and credit has to be shared,” he says. “It starts with our support staff, our client relationship managers and client support coordinators, all the way up to the financial advisors.”
InvestmentNews honored the top wealth management firms in America that excelled in growing and retaining clients.
Investors across the country were invited to nominate their advisory teams – defined as groups consisting of four or more advisors – and highlight the standout services that distinguished these teams. Key areas of focus included:
meaningful contributions to clients and the financial industry
deep understanding of client needs
notable impact achieved over the past 12 months
standout performance based on AUM and team results
The IN team carefully reviewed all nominations, evaluating how each advisory team made a significant difference for their clients and within the broader financial services industry.
