‘Top’ Financial Guidance
By Carl Choy
Principal of CKW Financial Group
The inaugural edition of the Financial Times 300 Top Registered Investment Advisors (June 26, 2014, issue) begins by asking what makes a top quality adviser. With a methodology that includes assets under management, growth rate, compliance record, industry certifications and online accessibility, the question that follows is, “why publish this now?”
As baby boomers retire and the financial landscape becomes increasingly complicated, the demand for top-quality advice has accelerated.
That trend has helped to propel the growth of the segment of the investment industry that, by definition, makes their living selling advice: registered investment advisors, or RIAs. One indication of how the RIA sector has grown is that they now sell more in combined mutual fund and exchange traded fund assets than the Big Four brokerages.
While many financial advisers in big brokerages have evolved to where they now spend more time providing advice than carrying out “buy” and “sell” transactions, RIAs always have been advisers first. As a group, RIAs have shown tremendous growth in the past 10-15 years and a large part of that stems from advances in technology, which allow a small office to offer the same financial reporting, tax accounting and market analysis as the big brokerages.
CKW Financial Group is honored to be the only RIA firm from Hawaii on the Top 300 list. CKW’s mission always has been to help good people and institutions be financially better, and we continue to take a holistic approach to managing investments toward achieving clients’ goals. While we value tradition in proven practices, we also believe in the strength and necessity of innovation — finding new solutions using the latest technology.
As a RIA, we have the freedom to research, select, invest and trade anywhere, unbound by corporate, institutional and market parameters. In that way we are able to act in the best financial interests of our clients. In addition, we operate as a fiduciary and take full fiduciary responsibility, in writing, for financial advice we provide.
Thanks to our clients’ faith and confidence in us, we received this nice recognition.
