Top RIA Rankings Don’t Guarantee AI Search Visibility
Holding a top spot in industry rankings isn’t a guarantee that an RIA will show up in artificial intelligence-assisted searches, according to a new analysis from the public relations firm Gregory.
For AI Search Power Players: The RIAs AI Recommends for Niche Audiences, Gregory analyzed 8,389 AI-generated answers to 248 separate questions mirroring how affluent professionals would seek out financial advice. The agency analyzed answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
According to the results, rankings such as CNBC’s 2026 Financial Advisor 100, Barron’s 2026 Top 100 Mega and Top 200 RIA lists aren’t a sure bet for inclusion in AI responses. Gregory found that 84 of the 100 firms on the CNBC list were never named (the other 16 appear in about 0.5% of answers, and none of the top 10 appeared).
For Barron’s Top 100 RIAs, 78 were named at least once, and 22 never appeared, though 69% of all mentions of the firms in the list were of those in the top 10. Only 10 firms from the Top 100 list appeared in more than 1% of AI answers.
According to Gregory Co-CEO and President Joe Anthony, firms are “being left off the shortlist” even before they know clients are looking.
“Imagine spending decades building one of the country’s most respected financial advisory firms, only to discover that when a prospective client asks AI who to hire, your name never comes up,” Anthony said. “That’s what’s happening to some of the industry’s best-known firms.”
Scale and a national footprint may help some firms appear in more answers, with Mercer Advisors, Creative Planning and Mariner Wealth Advisors mentioned in 26.6%, 18.1% and 15.4% of answers, respectively.
But scale wasn’t a guarantee for frequency in AI-assisted answers, either. All nine of Barron’s Mega RIAs appear, with seven appearing in more than 1% answers. (Barron’s describes mega RIAs as those managing over $120 billion in assets and employing over 100 workers).
But the top-slotted firm, LPL Financial, appeared in only 0.4% of answers and was “never framed positively,” according to Gregory. No. 3 Edelman Financial Engines appeared in 0.5% of answers.
For the study, Gregory framed questions about how eight groups of affluent professionals would search for advice, including professional athletes, attorneys, business owners, dentists, entertainers, media executives, physicians and technology employees.
While some of the other most-mentioned RIAs included national firms like Wealthspire Advisors, EP Wealth, Cresset and Cerity Partners, other firms reached the top 10 with a narrower focus on a niche audience.
For example, the Salt Lake City-based Dentist Advisors, a financial planning firm for dentists, was the fourth-most-mentioned firm behind Mercer, Creative Planning and Mariner, at 7% of responses (with 45% framing it as a top pick for the questioner). WealthKeel, with an emphasis on physicians, was the seventh-most-mentioned firm, and SLP Wealth (specializing in high earners managing student loan debt) was ninth.
Additionally, firms with expertise suited to client segments gained a leg up in certain instances. Among pro athletes, for example, the top five RIAs mentioned (Mercer, EP Wealth, Mariner, Cresset and Captrust) all have pages for professional athletes cited in athlete answers.
And the more specific your niche, the better you can answer specific questions, according to Gregory; for example, the South Carolina-based Hockey Wealth Group showed up in 85% of answers to questions about the National Hockey League. Anthony said specialized advisors had a “major opportunity” in AI-assisted answers.
“A firm that understands the financial needs of physicians or professional athletes may be far more visible to those clients than a nationally recognized firm managing billions of dollars,” he said.
The top source for AI answers was overwhelmingly firms’ websites (including banks and brokerages), with 89.5% of AI-assisted answers citing them. Behind them were “directories and listing sites,” “business and financial media,” and “social, video and podcasts” at 24.5%, 24% and 13.8%, respectively.
