Which RIAs does AI recommend?
Wealthy professionals now ask AI which financial advisor to call. A physician asks about student loans, a musician asks about selling a catalog, and a tech employee asks what to do with company stock. The firms named in those answers make the shortlist before anyone visits a website.
Gregory analyzed 8,389 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews to see which RIAs AI recommends to physicians, attorneys, athletes, and five other audiences of wealthy professionals.
The answers favor three national firms and a group of niche specialists, and they hardly ever name most of the firms on the industry's best-known rankings of top RIAs.
Independent RIAs mentioned across eight audiences of wealthy professionals
%
of firms on CNBC's 2026 Financial Advisor 100 never appear in the answers
of Barron's 2026 Top 100 RIAs are named in more than 1% of answers
Top-Ranked RIA Firms Are Missing From AI's Answers
CNBC's Financial Advisor 100 and Barron's Top 100 RIAs are the industry's best-known rankings. Gregory matched every ranked firm against the AI answers, and most of them barely register.
- 84 of CNBC's 100 ranked firms are never named. None of CNBC's top 10 appears in a single answer.
- 22 of Barron's Top 100 RIAs never appear. Only 10 are named in more than 1% of answers, and 41 show up in fewer than 1 in every 1,000.
- The top of the Barron's list takes most of the attention. Barron's top 10 firms account for 69% of all mentions of the list's firms, and Mercer Advisors accounts for 39% by itself.
When AI Cites Media Coverage About an RIA, It Usually Names the Firm
The right media coverage influences AI mentions. When an answer cites a story with a firm at the center, that firm shows up far more often than in answers to the same question that don't cite it.
- Carson Wealth appears in 41% of business owner answers that cite WSJ Buyside's review of the firm, against 8% without it.
- Wealthspire Advisors appears in 84% of athlete answers that cite either of two stories on its sports launch, against about 9% when those stories aren't cited.
- Creative Planning appears 2.4 times as often in business owner answers that cite WSJ Buyside as in answers that don't.
- Singer Burke appears in every media executive answer that cites the Los Angeles Times profile of Richard Singer, against about half of comparable answers without it.
Specialists Beat National Giants
in Their Niche
When a question names a profession, a league, a city, or a fee model, the national firms often give way to specialists.
- Dentist Advisors appears in 57% of dentist answers, the highest rate for any RIA in any single audience.
- Concert Financial Planning appears in 97% of answers about flat-fee planners for BigLaw attorneys.
- Artisan Financial Planning appears in 88% of musician answers.
- The Hockey Wealth Group appears in 85% of NHL answers.
- Melby Wealth Management appears in 74% of Nashville answers for business owners.
- WealthKeel appears in 42% of physician answers, ahead of every national firm.
The RIAs AI Names Most
Three national firms set the baseline. Mercer Advisors appears in 26.6% of all answers, Creative Planning in 18.1%, and Mariner Wealth Advisors in 15.4%. No other RIA reaches 8%.
Breadth wins the overall list. Seven of the top 10 appear across most of the eight audiences. Dentist Advisors, WealthKeel, and SLP Wealth earned their spots by owning one to three audiences.
The RIAs AI Names Most
| Rank | RIA | Mention Rate | Positive Share |
| 1 | Mercer Advisors | 26.6% | 28% |
| 2 | Creative Planning | 18.1% | 26% |
| 3 | Mariner Wealth Advisors | 15.4% | 26% |
| 4 | Dentist Advisors | 7.0% | 45% |
| 5 | Wealthspire Advisors | 6.5% | 23% |
| 6 | EP Wealth Advisors | 5.8% | 24% |
| 7 | WealthKeel | 5.5% | 37% |
| 8 | Cresset | 5.4% | 44% |
| 9 | SLP Wealth | 5.4% | 28% |
| 10 | Cerity Partners | 4.9% | 52% |
What's Inside the Full Report
- Top 10 RIAs, positive framing, and top sources for each audience: professional athletes, attorneys, business owners, dentists, entertainers, media executives, physicians, and tech employees
- Which prompts specialists own
- How ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews differ in the firms they name and how warmly they describe them
- How media coverage, rankings, and directory listings drive more mentions
- The full comparison of CNBC and Barron's ranked firms against AI visibility
Find Out Where Your Firm Stands in AI Search
Gregory runs the questions your prospects ask through up to seven AI models and analyzes the answers with Gregory Influence Engine, our AI search measurement tool. An AI search audit shows where your firm appears, how the answers describe you, which competitors they name instead, and which sources they rely on.
From there, we build the plan. That can include new pages that answer an audience's questions, placements on the lists and directories AI cites, news coverage with your firm at the center of the story, and ongoing tracking in Influence Engine. Influence Engine received a 2026 InvestmentNews 5-Star award for technology and software for investment management professionals.
FAQ
Across all 8,389 answers, Mercer Advisors appears in 26.6%, Creative Planning in 18.1%, and Mariner Wealth Advisors in 15.4%. Within a single audience, specialists often lead. Dentist Advisors appears in 57% of dentist answers, and WealthKeel leads physician answers at 42%.
Not reliably. 84% of the firms on CNBC’s 2026 Financial Advisor 100 never appear in these answers, and only 10 of Barron’s 2026 Top 100 RIAs are named in more than 1% of them. When a ranking page is cited, the firm on it is usually named. Every answer that cites Barron’s Advisor Finder profile of Creative Planning names the firm.
Firm websites are the most cited source and appear in 90% of answers. Directories and listing sites appear in 25% and business and financial media in 24%. Physician answers lean on community sites such as The White Coat Investor, which appear in 56% of them.
Start with an AI search audit. Gregory runs the questions your prospects ask through up to seven AI models and shows where your firm appears, how it is described, and which competitors and sources show up instead.