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Choosing a financial advisor in Nevada can feel daunting, given the number of financial advisors in the state. Before you start looking at the options, however, you should first take a step back and think about the proper fit for you. This means gaining an understanding of your financial needs and goals, as well as how much you can realistically spend for an advisor’s services.
Once you’re ready to start comparing firms and data points, this list of the best advisors in this tax-friendly state can come in handy. To determine the top advisors in Nevada, we only considered firms that manage individual accounts and offer financial planning services. We then ranked these firms based on assets under management (AUM), which serves as a general metric for a firm’s size. Although not formally part of our ranking, we encourage readers to take note of each firm’s client-to-advisor ratio, as this indicates how much attention you may get as a client. All data used in our methodology is taken from each firm’s most recent Form ADV filing with the SEC so as to ensure the accuracy and reliability of our rankings.
While our ranking cannot tell you which firm will be the best fit for you, the data it offers can help you to make a more informed decision. Take a look at our list below for the top firms in Nevada and their key highlights:
| Firm name | City | Minimum Assets Required | Fee Structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Wealth Consulting Group | Las Vegas | Varies by program |
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| Buckley Wealth Management, LLC | Las Vegas | No minimum |
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| RB Capital Management, LLC | Reno | No minimum |
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| Cornerstone | Reno | Generally $250,000 |
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| Arista Wealth Management, LLC | Las Vegas | $250,000 for investment advisory services |
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| American Wealth Management | Reno | $300,000 but negotiable |
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| H&H Retirement Design and Management, Inc. | Las Vegas | $1 million for portfolio management |
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| Legacy Wealth Planning, LLC | Reno | No minimum |
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| Capstone Capital | Henderson | Generally $500,000 |
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| Kingsbridge Wealth Management, Inc. | Las Vegas | Generally $5 million for separately managed accounts; private funds start at $100,000 |
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For our search, we looked at firms across the state of Nevada. All of the firms considered are bound by fiduciary duty, registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and offer individual account management and financial planning services. Information used for our methodology criteria is taken directly from each firm’s most recent Form ADV filing and brochure, found on the IAPD database.
To localize our results for this list, we exclusively looked at firms that met the above criteria and had their headquarters in Nevada, as per the address provided in the Form ADV. Of those firms, we only considered those 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.
In our reviews, we 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 is designed to help you compare firms, it does not indicate which firm may be best for you. All information here is accurate as of March 1, 2021, but we urge you to also evaluate these firms on https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/.
The Wealth Consulting Group has a network of affiliated advisors across nearly 30 offices in several states, with a heavy presence in California. The sign above the office door won’t necessarily say The Wealth Consulting Group, as advisors often operate under their own firm name and branding. But the advisors offer services and are licensed through The Wealth Consulting Group.
The group’s client list runs broad, ranging from middle-income investors and wealthy families to pension plans and corporations. Advisors offer investment management and financial planning services. The firm also offers a dedicated team of professionals for planning issues around topics such as estate, business, executive and employee benefits, as well as charitable and retirement planning.
Legally known as WCG Wealth Advisors, the current firm structure launched in 2014. Its founder and CEO is Jimmy Lee, and the firm is owned by The 1970 Lee Trust.
Clients can choose among various options for investing their money. The firm offers model portfolios created by its investment committee as well as by third-party firm LPL Financial. Client money can also be invested in other programs with third-party managers. Typical asset classes include mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), individual stocks and bonds, real estate investment trusts and variable annuities.
The firm’s general investment philosophy focuses on a “core-satellite” approach, where the core reflects the appropriate asset allocation given the client’s circumstances, and the satellite is where the firm weaves in the views of its investment committee and what it believes are the key long-term trends.
The Wealth Consulting Group discloses no disciplinary issues, thus giving it a clean record. The SEC requires all registered investment advisors to disclose to the public any legal or disciplinary events against the firm or its employees over the prior 10 years that a potential client would find material when evaluating the firm or the integrity of its management team. Learn more about the firm by visiting its IAPD page.
After nearly four decades in the investment industry, founder Brian Buckley struck out on his own to form his eponymous firm in 2017. Buckley is the primary owner of the firm.
Based in Las Vegas, the team at Buckley Wealth Management serves a mix of individual and institutional clients, including middle- and upper-income individuals and families. These clients rely on the firm primarily for asset management as well as financial planning and consultations around topics such as insurance, retirement, education or estate planning.
No one strategy drives the team’s investment decisions at Buckley Wealth Management. Instead, a mix of short- and long-term strategies and research methods is used. When conducting research, the team analyzes everything from individual companies and industries to overall economic conditions and patterns in market movements. When constructing portfolios, the team focuses on creating the ideal asset allocation for each individual client, factoring in their goals, risk tolerance and current situation. Some investments are held for the long-term, while others may be bought and sold within a day.
Typical investments in client portfolios include individual stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs and other private and public investments. Advisors also may identify and recommend appropriate third-party managers for client money.
Buckley Wealth Management discloses no legal or disciplinary actions against the firm or its employees in the prior 10 years that a client would view as material when evaluating the firm or its leadership team’s integrity. Learn more by viewing the firm’s IAPD page.
RB Capital Management is headquartered in Reno, Nev., with four additional offices in California and one in Shelton, Connecticut. The advisors serve middle-income and high-net-worth individuals and families, as well as retirement plans and other businesses.
The firm’s CEO and CIO Robert Ballan founded the firm in 2000 and is the principal owner. Clients turn to Ballan and the team’s other advisors for investment management and financial planning.
RB Capital Management specializes in hedged strategies and managed fixed-income portfolios. Advisors recommend fixed-income portfolios for most of their clients. They create custom portfolios tailored to each client’s goals to protect against large interest rate and credit risk. Their portfolios have a combination of long and hedged equity, the latter in the form of what is called covered call writing on individual equity positions, which the firm views as a conservative options strategy.
Advisors’ recommendations may include fixed income, equities and alternative investments such as precious metals, real estate and commodities. For diversification for some clients, the firm also uses the unaffiliated investment advisor Flexible Plans, which uses a collection of mutual funds and regularly rebalances the account.
RB Capital Management works with clients through discretionary relationships, meaning clients give advisors permission to place trades without clients needing to first sign off.
RB Capital Management has no legal or disciplinary marks against the firm or its employees over the prior 10 years that would be material to a potential client evaluating the firm or the integrity of the management team. Visit the firm’s IAPD page to learn more.
Founded in 2011 and owned by president and CEO Christopher Abts, this independent firm serves middle-income and high-net-worth individuals. Cornerstone especially caters to doctors and small business owners. Pension and profit-sharing plans, charitable organizations and other firms round out the client list. Legally known as Cornerstone Retirement Group, the group works out of a single office in Reno, Nevada.
The team offers what it calls comprehensive wealth management, which includes portfolio management as well as financial planning and consulting. It also offers educational events to clients and the general public.
Cornerstone manages accounts through discretionary relationships, meaning clients are not asked for approval before trades are placed. To determine which investments offer the best opportunity, advisors use three types of analysis:
The firm’s portfolio recommendations may include ETFs, individual stocks or bonds or other securities, or the use of a third-party platform manager or money manager. Advisors may buy investments with the goal of holding them for the long term, or to sell in less than a year to take advantage of expected price movements.
Cornerstone has a clean record. The firm discloses no legal or disciplinary actions in the prior 10 years that would be material to a potential client evaluating the firm or the integrity of the management team. To learn more, visit the firm’s IAPD page.
Founded in 2006, Arista Wealth Management caters primarily to individual investors. It serves both middle-income and high net worth investors, the latter defined by the SEC as those with at least $750,000 to invest or a net worth of $1.5 million. Clients can choose if they’d like both investment management and financial planning, or only one of the services. A formal financial plan will include a written document and look at your entire financial situation. A consultation may address a particular topic, such as business planning, corporate and tax planning, insurance planning, estate planning or retirement planning.
Based in Las Vegas, the firm has a second office in Mesa, Ariz. Arista Wealth Management is owned by Starcrest Trust. The firm also serves a select number of institutional investors such as corporations and nonprofits.
The firm aims to create portfolios that will reduce investment costs, provide broad diversification across global markets and provide the maximum reward for the given level of risk. Portfolios may include low-cost mutual funds, ETFs, and other public securities and investments, tailored to each specific client.
In general, the team at Arista Wealth Management uses three strategies. They plan for investments to be held for the long term. They buy investments with money borrowed from your brokerage account, allowing you to buy more than the available cash in the account, known as margin transactions. Finally, they largely use a passive index approach. They may recommend passively-managed asset class and index mutual funds. Advisors prefer passive mutual funds sponsored by DFA and Vanguard, because fees are often lower than other types of funds.
Arista Wealth Management discloses no disciplinary or legal blemishes that would be material to a client evaluating the firm or the integrity of the management team, thus giving the firm a clean record. To learn more, visit the firm’s IAPD page.
With roots dating back to 1988, a mother-son duo built this Reno, Nevada-based firm. Today, the firm is owned by the son, Laif Meidell, who serves as the firm’s president. His mother, Patricia, serves as chairman of the board.
American Wealth Management serves a mix of clients including middle-income and wealthy individuals and families, retirement plans, charities and other businesses. Advisors provide investment management and financial planning services, either together or as standalone services. They also provide advice to retirement plan participants and owners of annuity contracts. The list of topics they can address in their financial plans is broad, encompassing everything from estates, charitable giving, education, taxes and insurance to stock options, employee benefits, debt and more.
The firm primarily uses ETFs and mutual funds, although individual stocks and bonds may be recommended in certain situations. While the firm’s core investing strategies tend to have low turnover and are sensitive to taxes, their tactical strategies focus on total return. Thus, they may not factor in tax considerations, and may have high turnover, increasing transaction costs.
To make investment decisions, advisors at American Wealth Management rely on a proprietary research tool that analyzes large amounts of quantitative data such as price momentum and trends. This tool then ranks various equity investment styles, sectors, international areas and alternative and fixed-income asset classes. The goal is to identify long-term price trends while avoiding so-called head fakes, or short-term price changes not in sync with long-term trends.
Advisors manage client money without asking clients to sign off on each trade, known as discretionary management.
American Wealth Management has a clean record. The firm discloses no legal or disciplinary actions against the firm or its employees that would materially impact a client’s opinion of the firm or the integrity of its leaders. Learn more on the firm’s IAPD page.
H&H Retirement Design and Management serves wealthy individuals and families, requiring a minimum investment of $1 million for portfolio management. In particular, the firm has experience with business owners, dentists, physicians and retirees. The firm also may take on work with certain more modest-income investors and institutions such as charities and businesses.
The firm offers clients various levels of service to choose from: standalone portfolio management, portfolio management plus reducing taxes in the account or a full financial plan combined with asset management. Founded in 2014, the firm has a single location in Las Vegas and is owned by its CEO, Kenneth Himmler.
H&H Retirement Design and Management takes control of the daily trading decisions in client accounts, without requiring clients to sign off. Clients can choose how they want their money invested: customized portfolios constructed by their advisor and tailored to their specific goals and needs, model portfolios or through using unaffiliated third-party money managers, including so-called robo or online advisors.
Generally the advisors invest for the long-term. Investment recommendations may include public equities, fixed income, mutual funds, variable life insurance and annuities, options and real estate partnerships.
H&H Retirement Design and Management has a clean record. The group discloses no legal or disciplinary marks against the firm or its employees in the past 10 years that a client would find material in its evaluation of the firm or the integrity of its leadership team. Visit the firm’s IAPD page to get more information.
Founded in 2017, Legacy Wealth Planning is an independent advisory firm based in Reno, Nev., that is owned by four of its advisors. The team provides investment management and financial planning. For the latter, advisors provide clients a written plan, and can address a broad range of topics, particularly around retirement and education planning.
The firm’s list of clients includes middle-income and high net worth individuals and families, as well as institutions including retirement plans.
The Legacy Wealth Planning team offers discretionary portfolio management, meaning clients give advisors control to buy and sell investments without needing client approval. Advisors construct a custom portfolio tailored to the client’s individual needs and objectives. Each portfolio will vary based on the individual advisor’s personal philosophies and approaches, but generally portfolios may include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, real estate investment trusts and others. Client money may also be invested in model portfolios.
Separately, advisors are licensed to serve as broker-dealers, meaning they can buy or sell securities for commissions.
Legacy Wealth Planning has no disciplinary or legal disclosures that would be material to a potential client evaluating the firm or the integrity of the management team, giving the firm a clean record. Visit the group’s IAPD page to learn more.
In 2002, Ron Leavitt and Jeff Burr founded Capstone Capital to serve individuals, families and small business owners. Today the firm, still owned by president Leavitt and Burr, provides portfolio management and financial planning services to both middle-income and wealthy investors out of its Henderson office. The team also works with a few institutional clients, including nonprofits and financial institutions.
Advisors manage client accounts on a discretionary basis, meaning they can place trades in client accounts without prior client approval. Investment recommendations may include stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, mutual funds and ETFs.
Generally, rather than focusing on picking top-performing stocks, the team works to create an appropriate asset allocation across stocks, bonds and cash based on the client’s individual situation. Advisors factor in the client’s objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon and liquidity needs. The firm prefers passive asset allocation strategies. They tend to look for mutual funds or ETFs with low management fees, low turnover and broad market exposure.
Capstone Capital discloses no disciplinary or legal actions against the firm or its employees over the prior 10 years that would be material in a client’s opinion of the firm or the integrity of its leadership team. Visit the firm’s IAPD page to learn more.
Kingsbridge Wealth Management works with a select group of deep-pocketed individuals and families who can plunk down at least $5 million for a customized portfolio. Client money is typically invested through separately managed accounts. The team also manages five private funds available to certain wealthy and sophisticated investors. The minimum requirement to invest in those funds generally ranges from $100,000 to $1 million. Clients can also tap the firm for financial planning and consultations, as well as services wealthy families may find helpful such as succession planning, lifestyle management and record-keeping.
Firm President and principal owner David Dunn founded the firm in 2009 and registered it with the SEC in 2012. The group is based in Las Vegas.
Advisors use separately managed accounts and customize each account based on the client’s needs and goals. They may recommend equities, fixed income, ETFs, mutual funds, options and other securities or private investments. Advisors may also recommend third-party managers to oversee some of an account. Clients may invest some of their money in the private funds managed by Kingsbridge.
The firm believes that indexing to specific asset classes provides an advantage, since they are lower cost, can be handled in a way that lowers tax bills and can participate in market gains. Advisors will index with individual equities or ETFs when appropriate or possible. Advisors also may use an algorithm to create a portfolio that tracks a specific index. For taxable accounts, advisors try to limit tax bills.
Kingsbridge Wealth Management discloses no legal or disciplinary actions against the firm or its employees in the prior 10 years that would materially impact a client’s opinion of the firm or the integrity of its leadership. Visit the firm’s IAPD page to view its filings and get more information.
Nevada is one of the most tax-friendly states in the nation. The state has no income, estate or inheritance tax. However, residents may still be subject to federal estate taxes.
No. Some financial advisors focus solely on growing your investment account, known as asset management. Other planners provide more comprehensive management, which can look at many aspects of your financial life including life goals, savings, liquidity, insurance needs and retirement plans. These advisors can put together a retirement plan that factors in your goals, current savings, Social Security and other assets. If retirement planning is a priority for you, make sure to ask advisors if they offer this service before you begin working with them.
There are various certifications and licenses that a professional can earn that indicate their experience and expertise as a financial advisor. Two of the most highly respected industry designations include the certified financial planner (CFP) and certified financial analyst (CFA) designations, both of which require taking a comprehensive exam and meeting certain requirements, including adhering to an ethical code. For example, to earn the CFP designation, advisors must have a bachelor’s degree, complete coursework in financial planning, have 6,000 hours of financial planning experience and pass an exam.
Fees vary by firm and sometimes even by advisors within a firm. The median advisory fee hovers just shy of 1%, according to a 2019 study by industry group RIA in a Box. Keep in mind that clients may still owe additional fees for trading and certain internal fees, such as mutual fund fees.
Advisors are also paid in different ways. Some advisors earn compensation only from clients; they are known as fee-only planners. Others are paid by clients as well as the investment companies providing the products sold; they are known as fee-based planners.
Amanda GenglerAmanda Gengler has been researching and writing about finance for more than 15 years. She honed her personal finance writing as a journalist at Money magazine for a decade.
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