Registered investment advisors (RIAs) are undoubtedly best positioned to serve high-net-worth families and individuals seeking an alignment of interests between the firm and client. To shine a light on the growing RIA channel, FINTRX explores three of the largest registered investment advisors (RIAs) based in North Dakota.
Founded in 1917, Eide Bailly Advisors is a Fargo, North Dakota-based business advisory, accounting, and technology firm with over 40 offices in 14 states. Eide Helmeke & Co., one of the two primary lines of heritage of Eide Bailly, began when Bishop, Brissman & Co., CPAs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, opened an office in Fargo, North Dakota, with John A. Cull as its manager. In 1998, Eide Helmeke & Co. merged with Charles Bailly & Co. to form Eide Bailly LLP. Eide Bailly began with $31 million in revenue and 56 partners. In 2001, Eide Bailly diversified into financial, forensic, technology, and other consulting services. Today, the firm has over 350+ partners, upwards of 2,500 staff members, and is a top 25 CPA and consulting firm helping the middle market grow and thrive.
Eide Bailly Advisors offers accounting, auditing, financial planning, portfolio management, and investment advisory services to trusts, estates, charitable organizations, corporations, other business entities, municipalities, and individuals. Whether you’re thinking about your retirement plan, charitable giving goals, or making sure your family has the support it needs, the group's team of tax professionals, financial advisors, business advisors, estate planners, and business valuation analysts help transition your wealth. Eide Bailly equips its clients with a team that brings knowledge from an array of specialty areas—business valuation, estate, trust and gift tax planning, financial planning—to provide a comprehensive approach to their wealth plans. Eide Bailly Advisors serves clients in the United States.
- Founded: 1917
- Headquarters: Fargo, ND
- Discretionary Assets: ~$232.5M+
- Non-Discretionary Assets: ~$558.3M+
- Total AUM: ~$790.9M+
- Specialties: Tax Services; Audit & Assurance; Consulting; Wealth Planning; Risk Advisory; Ownership Transaction; Financial Planning; Investment Services; Insurance Services
Founded by Rob Mastel, RPM Advisors, LLC is a Fargo, North Dakota-based advisory firm offering portfolio management, retirement, financial planning, and advisory services to individuals, institutions, trusts, private funds, charitable organizations, and investment companies in the United States. Before founding RPM Advisors, Mastel was the Retirement Development Manager and Vice President with Bell State Bank & Trust. He also served as a member of the organization's mutual fund committee and Asset Consultant for the North and South Dakota region with Wells Fargo's Institutional Trust Services.
RPM Advisors offers a unique process of evaluating plans that join the priorities of the organization to a provider. The firm goes beyond traditional screening methods to deliver superior fund evaluation, not only choosing which factors to evaluate but assigning weights to each, ultimately creating a customized fund line-up specific to the strategic goals of each client. RPM Advisors, LLC is quickly changing the retirement plan landscape by helping employers navigate the fiduciary regulations, reduce costs, build processes, evaluate providers, evaluate investments, and prepare for retirement.
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Fargo, ND
- Discretionary Assets: ~$3.2M+
- Non-Discretionary Assets: ~$206.4M+
- Total AUM: ~$209.7M+
- Specialties: Portfolio Management; Benefits Consulting; Plan Strategy and Design; Defined Contribution Plan Consulting; Ongoing Plan Operational and Administration Consulting; Retirement Planning
Michael V. Young founded Classic Asset Management in 1986, though the firm has only been providing investment management services since 2006. Classic Asset Management, LLC (CAM) is a federally registered investment advisory firm headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. CAM specializes in creating substantial efficiencies and profitability for independent investment advisors and small- to mid-sized RIA firms. CAM’s management team has been providing investment advisory services on a retail basis since 1997.
Today, Young serves as the firm's chief compliance officer and a managing member. The firm is 100% owned by Classic Holdings, LLC, which is owned by Young, Craig Alan Rottman, and Douglas Gene Schmitz. As CAM has grown, it has expanded its business to focus on the success of other financial advisors and RIA firms. By partnering with CAM, advisors can benefit from our client relationship tools, business development tools, back-office operations, high-quality technology, and a comprehensive multi-custodian investment platform. This gives advisors more time to focus on what they do best, building relationships with their clients.
Classic Asset Management provides clients with a range of services, including financial planning, retirement plan advising, and discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management. Financial planning services are typically broad-based and consider a client's full financial picture. When it comes to making more specific investment decisions, the firm looks at fundamental, charting, cyclical and technical methods of analysis. Commonly used investment strategies include long- and short-term purchases, margin transactions, and Modern Portfolio Theory.
Founded: 1986 (Registered as an RIA in 2006)
Headquarters: Fargo, ND
Discretionary Assets: ~$164.8M+
Non-Discretionary Assets: ~$5M+
Total AUM: ~$169.9M+
Specialties: Portfolio Management; Financial Planning; Retirement Plan Advisory Services
A registered investment advisor (RIA) is any firm advising or managing the wealth of high-net-worth individuals or institutions. Directly regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), RIAs offer a wide range of financial services — from wealth and investment management to direct lending and personal finance education, etc. An important distinction regarding RIAs is the fiduciary obligation to always act in the best interest of their clients.
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