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Award Criteria

PAM Awards

The PAM Awards are designed for top investment professionals, wealth advisors, legal firms, consultants and other key service providers operating within the private asset management industry, who have proved themselves over the course of the last year.

The judging process, using an independent panel made up of industry experts, is based on a mixture of qualitative and quantitative performance indicators. P. Scott Gregorchuk is a judge for the PAM Awards, generally, but is not permitted to judge any category in which FFT Wealth Management, LLC (“FFT”) is a candidate for the award.

When FFT applies to win a PAM Award, along with all other candidates, it must demonstrate:

  • Financial progress - candidates must be able to demonstrate a performance track-record over the course of the last twelve months;
  • Growth - client numbers, internal hires, and geographic expansion;
  • Client satisfaction - provide evidence of client satisfaction, including evidence of exceptional service and direct client statements; and,
  • Product innovation - details of new services and products launched over the course of the prior twelve months. 

Although client satisfaction statements are included in the criteria for consideration, the client satisfaction statements may not be representative of any one client’s experience because the statements provided reflect the experiences of only some of the FFT clients. It is not known whether clients who did not provide statements approve or disapprove of the advisory services provided to them.

Forbes

The Forbes ranking of America’s Top Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative data, rating thousands of wealth advisors with a minimum of seven years’ experience and weighing factors like revenue trends, assets under management, compliance records, industry experience and best practices learned through telephone and in-person interviews. Portfolio performance is not a criteria due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data.

SHOOK invites approximately 1/3 of the nominated advisers to complete their online survey. SHOOK conducts subsequent telephone and in-person interviews with select responding advisers.

FFT Wealth Management does not pay a fee to Forbes or SHOOK Research to be considered for or included in the rankings. FFT is not required to be a member of or subscriber to Forbes, SHOOK or any other group to be considered for or included in the rankings.

FFT is not affiliated with Forbes or SHOOK.

Financial Times

Financial Times (“FT”) examines the database of RIAs registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and selects those that reported to the SEC that they had $300MM or more in AUM. The RIAs have no subjective input. FT invites qualifying RIAs, more than 1,500, to complete a lengthy application that gives them more information. FT adds to this with their own research into the RIAs practices, including data from regulatory filings.

The formula that FT uses to grade advisers is based on six broad factors and calculates a numeric score for each adviser. Areas of consideration include adviser AUM, asset growth, the company’s age, industry certifications of key employees, SEC compliance record and online accessibility. AUM and asset growth, combined, comprise roughly 80-85% of each adviser’s score.

FT caps the number of companies from any one state. The cap is roughly based on the distribution of millionaires across the US.

FFT Wealth Management does not pay a fee to the Financial Times to be considered for or included in the rankings. FFT is not required to be a member of or subscriber to the Financial Times or any other group to be considered for or included in the rankings.

FFT is not affiliated with the Financial Times.

Wealth & Money Management

These awards are granted by Wealth & Finance International. Wealth & Finance invites its subscribers and an additional base of industry specific professionals to place a vote using its online voting form. Wealth & Finance may also put forward companies that it has worked with or profiled recently. They accept self-nominations. FFT Wealth Management does not solicit any of its clients who may be subscribers to Wealth & Finance to nominate it for any awards. Further, should a client independently choose to nominate FFT for any Wealth & Finance award, this should not be construed as indicative of any experience that a client has had or will have with FFT.

Once a firm has been short-listed, Wealth & Finance’s research team will research each candidate. The candidate firm will also be given the opportunity to provide supporting evidence. An in-house judging panel makes the final determination of the winners.

FFT does not pay a fee to Wealth & Finance to be considered for or included in the rankings. FFT is not required to be a member of or subscriber to Wealth & Finance or any other group to be considered for or included in the rankings.

FFT is not affiliated with Wealth & Finance.

Family Wealth Report

These awards are granted by Clearview Financial Media.  The are judged solely on the basis of the entrants' submissions and their responses to a number of specific questions, which are answered focusing on the client experience, not quantitative performance metrics.  Responses also address, but are not limited to, a description of our business as well as certain key metrics such as staffing, AUM growth, revenue and service offering.  The methodology for assessing each submission has not been validated or verified by FFT.

To avoid any conflict of interest, Clearview Media has three judging panels.  One panel of bankers/MFOs who judge the trusted advisor categories. A second panel of trusted advisors who judge the MFO and banking categories and a third panel dedicated to judging the technology section.  

Neither FFT nor any of its affiliates pay a fee to Family Wealth Report or Clearview Media to be considered for or included in the rankings.  Neither FFT nor any of its affiliates are required to be a member of or subscriber to Family Wealth Report or any Clearview Media publication or any other group to be considered for for included in the rankings.  

Neither FFT nor any of its affiliates are affiliated with Clearview Media or Family Wealth Report.

Other Ranking Lists

To the best of FFT Wealth Management's knowledge, all other ranking lists including, but not limited to the Philadelphia Business Journal and Financial Advisor Magazine, are based on publicly available AUM information. FFT does not apply for or provide any supplemental subjective information to these publications.

FFT does not pay a fee to any of the publications to be considered for or included in the rankings. FFT is not required to be a member of or subscriber to any of the publications to be considered for or included in the rankings.

FFT is not affiliated with any of the publications or entities who publish these rankings.