MagnifyMoney 
Though Arizona may be best known for the Grand Canyon, the southwestern state also offers an abundance of financial advisors for residents to choose from. How do you find the ideal financial partner for your dreams and goals with so many options?
MagnifyMoney is here to help. To ease your search, we’ve created a curated list of the best financial advisors in Arizona. We’ve reviewed reams of paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on each firm. And we’ve only considered firms that provide comprehensive financial planning and work with individual investors. Don’t hesitate to read up more on our methodology, either.
And we know that you’ll be the best judge of the best financial advisor to guide you. We’re just glad you stopped by to use our list in your search.
| Firm name | City | Minimum assets required | Fee structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc. | Tucson | No minimum |
|
| TFO Phoenix, Inc. | Phoenix | $20,000 |
|
| Dynamic Wealth Advisors | Phoenix | No minimum, though some advisors may have their own requirements |
|
| WealthPlan Advisors, LLC | Scottsdale | $500,000 |
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| Stoker Ostler | Scottsdale | $500,000 |
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| Wall Capital Group, Inc. | Phoenix | Varies by service, starting at $5,000 |
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| PFG Advisors | Phoenix | $25,000 |
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| Trek Financial | Scottsdale | $100,000 |
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TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc. starts off our list for the best financial advisors in Arizona. The firm was established in 1990. The firm doesn’t have a principal owner, but rather is owned by several individuals and trusts. In addition to its headquarters in Tucson, TCI Wealth Advisors has other offices in Arizona (in Flagstaff and Scottsdale), as well as locations in Denver and Reno, Nev.
TCI Wealth Advisors provides investment management, financial planning and consulting services and retirement plan consulting. Its clients are primarily individual investors, including high net worth individuals (defined by the SEC as those with at least $750,000 under an advisor’s management or a net worth believed to be at least $1.5 million), but it also serves businesses, pension and profit-sharing plans, trust, estates and charitable organizations.
TCI Wealth Advisors focuses primarily on long-term purchases (defined as securities held for at least a year), as it believes in building long-term wealth through disciplined asset allocation. The firm creates portfolios that most often consist of mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), equities, bonds and bond funds, and, in some cases, it recommends real estate investment trusts (REITs).
In making recommendations, TCI Wealth Advisors uses both fundamental analysis, which looks at historical and current data, and cyclical analysis, which considers past relationships between price and market trends.
TCI Wealth Advisors reports no disciplinary history, which includes any civil, criminal or regulatory events over the last 10 years involving either the firm or its employees or affiliates. The SEC requires that all registered investment advisors report this information in their Form ADV paperwork.
For more information, visit the firm’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) page.
Next on our list of the best financial advisors in Arizona is TFO Phoenix, Inc. The firm was established in 2011. It is owned by two trusts — CASK Irrevocable Trust U/A and TFO, Irrevocable Trust — both of which are controlled by Christopher Erblich, who serves as the firm’s CEO and chairman. As its name suggests, the firm is headquartered in Phoenix.
TFO Phoenix provides investment management, family office services, family office advisory services, consulting and educational seminars and workshops. Its clients include individuals who both do and do not meet the SEC’s definition of a high net worth individual. The firm also serves qualified retirement plans, trusts, charitable organizations, small businesses and corporations.
Rather than attempting to forecast the financial future, TFO Phoenix bases its investment recommendations on a variety of factors including diversification, measured risk and the minimization of taxes and fees, as well as the client’s goals and time horizon. The firm also believes in the disciplined rebalancing of portfolios.
Client portfolios typically include a mix of no-load mutual funds, ETFs and managed accounts, including individual equities and bonds managed by third-party advisors.
All registered investment advisors are required by the SEC to disclose any disciplinary events — including civil, criminal and regulatory actions — on their Uniform Application for Investment Advisor Registration, commonly referred to as Form ADV. TFO Phoenix reports no such events.
For more information, including access to the firm’s Form ADV, visit its IAPD page.
Dynamic Wealth Advisors was founded in 2008 and is owned by the company Dynamic Management LLC. The firm provides investment advisory services and financial planning to individual investors, and also offers professional services to other financial advisors. Its clients include individuals who both do and do not meet the definition of high net worth, as well as trusts, estates, charitable organizations, pension and profit-sharing plans and businesses.
In addition to its headquarters in Phoenix, the firm has advisors in 50 other locations across the U.S., though these locations may operate under different business names.
Dynamic Wealth Advisors focuses primarily on long-term investments (those held for a year or more), though in some cases the firm does make short-term purchases due to a client’s objectives or market conditions. In general, Dynamic Wealth Advisors recommends portfolios that include securities, private placements, private equity and private debt investments.
The firm uses both fundamental analysis (evaluating a company’s values and overall economic and industry conditions) and technical analysis (evaluating securities and market activity) to develop investment strategies for its clients. It also takes into consideration the client’s risk tolerance, diversification considerations and level of interest.
Dynamic Wealth Advisors reports no disciplinary history on its Form ADV. This means the firm and its employees and affiliates have not faced any civil, criminal or regulatory events within the last 10 years.
For more information, visit the firm’s IAPD page.
Established in 2009, WealthPlan Advisors, LLC provides individual portfolio management, financial planning and retirement plan and institutional consulting services. The firm’s clients are individuals, including high net worth individuals, in addition to retirement plans, institutions, foundations, trusts, charitable organizations, corporations and state and municipal entities. It requires a minimum investment of $500,000 for access to individual portfolio management services.
WealthPlan Advisors is owned by two investment companies — Wealth Management Inc. and Retirement Plan Advisors Inc. — as well as indirectly by Rick L. Horton, a principal at the firm who also serves as the firm’s chief compliance officer, and Scott L. Schlappi, who is also a principal at the firm. The firm is headquartered in Scottsdale and also has offices in Lehi, Utah, and St. Louis, Mo.
WealthPlan Advisors takes a long-term approach to investing and diversifies portfolios among various asset classes, with a focus on keeping costs and turnover low. Portfolios may include mutual funds, ETFs, separate accounts, variable annuity contracts, collective trusts and other investment vehicles.
The firm uses a wide range of analysis methods to make recommendations, and believes in regular rebalancing once a portfolio is established.
WealthPlan Advisors reports no legal or disciplinary history, indicating that neither the firm nor its employees or affiliates have faced any civil, regulatory or criminal events over the last decade. For more information, visit the firm’s IAPD page.
Established in 1997 as Private Wealth Management Inc., Stoker Ostler Wealth Advisors, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of BMO Financial Corp., which is in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Montreal.
Stoker Ostler offers investment management, financial planning and financial consulting services. The firm’s clients include individuals who both do and do not qualify as high net worth, trusts, estates, charitable organizations and corporations. It generally requires a $500,000 minimum investment, though it may reduce it in certain cases.
In addition to its Scottsdale headquarters, Stoker Ostler has an office in Salt Lake City.
In addition to evaluating a client’s goals, risk tolerance and other unique circumstances, Stoker Ostler bases its investment recommendations on evaluations of the market and economy provided by analysts, banks and security firms. The firm keeps working lists of securities it recommends and also uses lists from affiliates.
Portfolio recommendations typically include equities, fixed income securities, real estate investment trusts and alternative investments. Overall, the firm prefers to make long-term investments, which are held for a year or more, but it will also sell after shorter lengths of time when it makes sense for a client. The firm makes a point of trying to offset realized gains with losses to minimize tax implications.
Stoker Ostler reports no disciplinary disclosures in its Form ADV. The SEC requires that all registered investment advisors report any such events from within 10 years involving the firm or its employees or affiliates.
For more information on the firm, visit Stoker Ostler’s IAPD page.
Wall Capital Group Inc. was established in 1990, though until 2018 it did business under the name of Money Matters Financial Group, Inc. The firm is owned by David J. Wall, the firm’s founder and president, and his wife, Colleen M. Wall.
Wall Capital Group offers financial planning and asset management services for individual investors on a discretionary basis only, meaning the firm’s advisors make the final decisions about purchasing investments on their clients’ behalf. Most of the firm’s clients are Illinois Police and Fire Pension Funds and individual investors, primarily those who do not qualify as high net worth per the SEC’s definition. The firm generally doesn’t manage accounts under $5,000 for clients, though it requires a minimum of $50,000 for individuals to access asset management and full-scale financial planning services.
The firm has its headquarters in Phoenix, with an additional office in Hinsdale, Ill.
Wall Capital Group uses research from various sources including Morningstar, Ned Davis Research, Dorsey Wright and Associates and Charles Schwab & Company to guide its decisions regarding mutual funds and account managers. The firm primarily considers the disciplinary history and track record of funds and managers, with each client’s risk tolerance and objectives ultimately shaping the investment mix used.
Most of the firm’s portfolio recommendations are limited to mutual funds and ETFs. The firm does not allow clients to impose restrictions on the investments used in their portfolio.
Wall Capital Group, Inc. reports disclosures, meaning it has a disciplinary history free of any civil, criminal or regulatory events involving the firm, its employees or its affiliates over the last 10 years. You can get more information on the firm by visiting its IAPD page.
PFG Advisors, which has been a registered investment advisor since 2014, offers investment advisory services, financial planning and consulting services and robo-advisory services through Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios™. It primarily works with individual investors, including those who are high net worth, though its current client base also includes businesses and a select few pension and profit-sharing plans and charitable organizations.
In addition to its headquarters in Phoenix, the firm has roughly 130 additional office locations throughout the U.S. PFG Advisors is a wholly owned subsidiary of Priority Financial Group, LLC, which is owned by the firm’s CEO, Michael T. Prior.
PFG Advisors’ approach to investing emphasizes the continual and regular supervision of client accounts. Each client’s account is tailored to their unique needs and will be initially designed to meet a specific investment goal.
In general, portfolios are created using individual stocks or bonds, ETFs, mutual funds and other public investments. Whether the firm takes a short- or long-term approach will depend on the client’s objectives and risk tolerance.
PFG Advisors has a clean disciplinary record, meaning that neither the firm nor its employees or affiliates have had any reportable issues within the last 10 years. This includes any civil, criminal or regulatory events.
For further information on PFG Advisors, go to its IAPD page.
To close-out our list of the best financial advisors in Arizona, we have Trek Financial. This is an employee-owned investment advisory firm that’s been registered with the SEC since 1996. The firm provides its services through its network of investment advisor representatives. Available services include asset and investment management, model portfolios, individual security selection, financial institution consulting services, financial planning, access to third-party advisors, workshops and seminars and retirement plan services.
Trek Financial’s clients are primarily non-high net worth individuals, though it also serves those who are high net worth as well as pension and profit-sharing plans and businesses. In addition to its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, the firm has almost 30 other locations throughout the country.
Trek Financial takes a goals-based approach to determine investment strategies and risk level. As such, the firm aims to help each of its clients determine how to reach their goals without taking on unnecessary risk, as opposed to the traditional investing approach of maximizing risk for a given level of return.
While Trek Financial does take into account historical data when making investment decisions, it takes a forward-looking approach to portfolio construction. The firm incorporates macro trends with returns, risks and correlation when formulating its portfolio recommendations.
Trek Financial has no disclosures to report. For reference, this includes any civil, criminal or regulatory issues from within the past decade involving either the firm or its employees or affiliates. The SEC requires all registered investment advisors to report this information in their Form ADV filings.
For further information on Trek Financial and to view its Form ADV, visit its IAPD page.
The highest state income rate bracket in Arizona is 4.50%, and the state does not have an inheritance tax or estate tax. Residents may be subject to federal inheritance and gift taxes, however, and may have to pay inheritance taxes if they inherit property from a state that does have an inheritance or gift tax.
While most financial advisors offer basic retirement planning, if saving for your golden years is your primary goal or you want someone to help you manage an employer-sponsored retirement plan, then you want to make sure an advisor has deep experience in retirement planning. Be sure to ask them about their expertise and other important questions to make sure you find the best financial advisor to meet your needs.
Nearly anyone can call themselves a financial advisor, so it’s important to look into an advisor’s background and credentials. While there are a variety of abbreviations that follow financial professionals’ names, an important one to look for is registered investment advisor (RIA).
A RIA is registered with the SEC or with the state. Additionally, RIAs are required to act as fiduciaries, which means they are required to put your financial best interests ahead of their own.
Fees vary between financial advisors in Arizona, so it’s important to make sure you understand their fee structure. For example, some advisors may charge a percentage of your assets under management, in which case the average rate runs about 0.50% to 1.25%. Others may charge an hourly fee, which generally runs between $100 and 400 per hour.
It’s also important to know if your advisor is fee-based or fee-only. Fee-only advisors solely receive compensation from their clients. Fee-based advisors, on the other hand, may also earn money from products they sell, which introduces the possibility for potential conflicts of interest to arise.
In our search for the best financial advisors in Arizona, we looked at firms throughout the state. All the firms considered are bound by fiduciary duty, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and offer individual account management and financial planning services. Information for our methodology criteria is taken directly from each firm’s most recent Form ADV filing and brochure, found in the IAPD database.
To localize our results for this list of the best financial advisors in Arizona, we exclusively looked at firms that met the above criteria and had their headquarters in Arizona, per the address provided in the Form ADV. We only considered those firms that offer financial planning services and portfolio management to individual investors. To be considered for this list, firms also could have no more than one disciplinary disclosure in the past 10 years. From there, the remaining firms that met all of the above stipulations were ranked in order of highest to lowest AUM, as this is an indication of a firm’s size and how many assets it has been entrusted to manage.
Our reviews have also listed several other key features that will help you determine which financial advisor may be most fitting for your investing style and financial needs. While our ranking system and methodology can help you compare firms, it does not indicate which firm may be best for you. All information here is accurate as of [review date TK] but don’t hesitate to check out any firm’s Form ADV for yourself on the SEC’s Investment Advisor Public Disclosure site.
Julie Ryan EvansJulie Ryan Evans is a writer and editor who has covered small business, real estate and personal finance for nearly a decade. She has written for an array of publications, including USA Today, Realtor.com, LendingTree and Debt.com.
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