The traits that make a money management firm stand out in a crowded industry are various and sundry.
They can range from excellent company leadership and employee benefits to unusual perks like allowing dogs in the office or providing subscriptions to meditation apps. Even office decor can be a differentiator. And when talent is in short supply, small differences matter.
Ranking the best U.S. money management workplaces is no easy task.
To do it, Financial Planning collaborated with HR research firm Best Companies Group. First up, establishing definitions. For the purposes of this list:
A money manager handles the portfolios of institutional investors — such as pension funds, endowments or foundations — and is regulated by the SEC as an investment advisor.A workplace in money management is any registered investment advisor that employs money managers, has at least one U.S. office, has been in business for at least a year and has at least 10 employees in the U.S.
To rank the firms, Financial Planning and Best Companies Group polled financial professionals about the firms they work for. The surveys asked about factors such as leadership, pay and benefits, training, the general work setting and engagement and communications. Each firm was then separately asked about its work policies, practices, benefit, systems and demographics.
The Best Companies Group combined the scores from these two evaluations to produce the final ranking. In the end, 18 firms were named as the best workplaces in money management. (See last year’s rankings here.)
