Observations

• For Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia, only 6 top financial advisors were identified and mentioned.

Rankings

• Of the 422 top advisors ranked, 82 are from Morgan Stanley (19%), 80 are from Merrill Lynch (19%), 53 are from UBS (13%), 13 are from JP Morgan (3%), and 194 are from other firms.
• Of those from Merrill Lynch, 21 advisors deal with private wealth management and 59 deal with wealth management.
• Of those from Morgan Stanley, 31 advisors deal with private wealth management, 39 advisors deal with wealth management, and 12 are from Graystone Consulting.
• In Alabama, the first ranked financial advisor is Tony Smith. Smith is the managing director of Investments at Stonegate Wealth Management, a division of UBS Financial Services, Inc.
• In Alaska, the first-ranked financial advisor is Jeff Leonard. Leonard is one of the founders of Leonard & Marten and a registered principal of Raymond James Financial Services LLC.
• In Arizona, the first-ranked financial advisor is Trevor Wilde. Wilde is the managing director at the Wilde Wealth Management Group.
• In California, Gregory Vaughan is the first-ranked financial advisor. Vaughan is a managing director at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management (PWM).
• In Colorado, Shawn Fowler is the first-ranked financial advisor. Fowler is a managing director at Morgan Stanley PWM.
• In Connecticut, the first-ranked financial advisor is Jeff Erdmann. Erdmann is a managing director at Merrill Private Wealth Management.
• In Washington, D.C., Marvin McIntyre is the first-ranked financial advisor. McIntyre is a managing director at Morgan Stanley PWM.
• In Delaware, the first-ranked financial advisor is Kimberlee Orth. Orth is a private wealth investor at Ameriprise Financial.
• In Florida, Thomas Moran is the first-ranked financial advisor. Moran is the founder and CEO of Moran Wealth Management.
• In Georgia, the first-ranked financial advisor is Rod Westmoreland. Westmoreland is a managing director at Merrill Private Wealth Management.
• In Hawaii, Matthew Megorden is the first-ranked financial advisor. Megordan is the senior vice president of the Megorden Group at UBS Financial Services.
• In Illinois, the first-ranked financial advisor is Paul Tashima. Tashima is a managing director of the Corporate Cash Management Group at UBS Financial Services.
• In Indiana, Wm. Craig Dobbs is the first-ranked financial advisor. Dobbs is a managing director at Morgan Stanley Graystone Consulting.
• In Kentucky, the first-ranked financial advisor is Barry Barlow. Barlow is the managing director of Barlow Associates at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.
• In Maryland, Robert Scherer is the first-ranked financial advisor. Scherer is a managing director at Morgan Stanley Graystone Consulting.
• In Massachusetts, the first-ranked financial advisor is Raj Sharma. Sharma is the managing director of the Sharma Group at Merrill Private Wealth Management.
• In Michigan, Charles C. Zhang is the first-ranked financial advisor. Zhang is the founder and CEO of Zhang Financial.
• In New York, the first-ranked financial advisor is Lyon Polk. Polk is the managing director of the Polk Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management.
• In North Carolina, William Oliver is the first-ranked financial advisor. Oliver is the managing director of the Oliver Private Wealth Group at Wells Fargo.

Research Strategy

• For Merrill Lynch email addresses, we used the structure {first name}_{last name}@ml.com, based on David Stahle's email address (row 24), Carl Hoover's email address (row 50). Please note that it is also possible to email the advisor in question through the group website which was provided in the sources on the spreadsheet.
•  Troy Griepp's email address was reconstructed from the structure of others working for Morgan Stanley PWM. We were unable to find an email format similar to that of other advisors working for the same division.
• For First Republic Investment Management, we found that the email format most frequently used was {first initial}{last name}@firstrepublic.com and was similar to that of Rebecca DeCesaro (row 310)
• For JP Morgan, we used the email format {first name}.{last name}@jpmorgan.com and found it was similar to that of David Reiser (row 331)
• For Doyle Wealth Management, we used the email format {first name}.{last name}@doylewealth.com. As there was no other advisor to compare it to, we are assuming it is correct.
• For Stifel, the following format was used: {last_name}{first_initial}@stifel.com. As there was no other advisor to compare it to, we are assuming it is correct.
• For Baird, the option chosen was {first_initial}{last name}@rwbaird.com. This follows the pattern of other Baird financial advisors of whom we were able to find the email address such as Cameron Ragen whose email address is cragen@rwbaird.com (row 398).
• For Brighton Jones, the option chosen was {first name}@brightonjones.com. This follows the pattern of another Baird financial advisor of whom we were able to find the email address: Jon Jones whose email address is jon@brightonjones.com (row 398).