AUM size is a starting point. Growth trajectory is a signal. If you're a fund manager, ETF issuer, or financial services firm trying to identify which RIAs to prioritize, the ones scaling fastest are often your best bets. They're winning new clients, making platform decisions, and building out their investment stack in real time.
FINTRX tracks over 45,000 RIA and broker-dealer firms and 790,000+ registered reps, with thousands of data points and powerful AI to surface exactly who you're looking for. The options are endless, but here are five straightforward ways to quickly target the fastest-growing prospects in your ICP.
The fastest path is the most direct one. FINTRX flags any RIA that has grown its AUM by 20% or more over the prior 12 months with a dedicated Rapid Growth filter. Right now, there are 874 independent RIAs in that bucket that also fall in the $500M to $5B AUM range. These are firms in active expansion mode, not steady-state managers.
Maridea Wealth Management out of Brooklyn, NY is one current example. They're sitting just under $960M in AUM, have grown rapidly enough to earn the flag, and operate 21 locations across 10 states—that's a firm building infrastructure to match its growth. Synergy Asset Management in Vancouver, WA tells a similar story: over $1.3B in AUM, all discretionary, spread across eight offices in six states. These are firms that have clearly figured something out operationally and are pressing on it.
AUM growth doesn't always tell the full story. A firm adding 500 clients a year at modest account sizes looks very different from one adding 20 ultra-high-net-worth relationships. FINTRX lets you filter by growth in number of accounts and number of clients over one, two, three, four, or five-year windows, letting you separate the two growth profiles and target accordingly.
If you're an ETF issuer looking for broad retail penetration, you want firms growing their account counts at scale. If you're a private credit manager or alternative fund, you want firms growing their average client size, which signals movement upmarket toward HNW and institutional allocators.
Firms that recently crossed $500M or $1B in AUM are at an inflection point. They're often revisiting vendor relationships, upgrading research tools, and professionalizing their investment process for the first time. They also frequently face compliance requirements that push them toward more institutional-grade data.
FINTRX covered this directly in Q1 2026 research showing 438 independent RIAs crossed the $500M and $1B marks in a single quarter. You can replicate that kind of query directly in the platform using AUM range filters combined with historical growth data. The firm that just crossed $1B last quarter is a very different conversation than the one that hit $1B three years ago.
Recognition is a useful shorthand for momentum. FINTRX tracks accolades from Barron's, Citywire, AdvisorHub, CNBC, Forbes, and others, and you can filter by any combination. There are currently 140 independent RIAs that have been named to Barron's Top 100 RIA Firms (2025), Citywire 50 Growers Across America (2025), or AdvisorHub 50 RIA Firms to Watch (2026).
Savant Wealth Management in Rockford, IL sits at nearly $50B AUM with Barron's recognition and a spot on the AdvisorHub watchlist. MAI Capital Management out of Cleveland has $52B under management, 16,000+ clients, and repeated Barron's appearances. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services in Plymouth, MN has crossed $122B and carries recognition from Barron's, Forbes, Citywire, and AdvisorHub simultaneously. Firms at this level are actively evaluating their technology stack and external manager relationships. They're not choosing data providers by accident.
Acquisition-active RIAs are a unique targeting category. They're growing by design, not just by market returns, and each deal they close brings integration decisions: new advisors to onboard, new client segments to cover, new geographies to manage. FINTRX tracks historical acquisition data by deal count, date, AUM at time of acquisition, and location of acquired firm.
There are currently 138 independent RIAs between $500M and $5B in AUM that have completed at least one acquisition since mid-2024, and not just the rollup platforms everyone already knows. SAX Wealth Advisors out of Parsippany, NJ has grown to $3.6B across 34 offices in 14 states and has been quietly adding firms. Summitry in Foster City, CA sits at $3.35B, nearly all discretionary, and has made acquisitions recently as it builds out its Bay Area footprint. McKinley Carter Wealth Services in Wheeling, WV has crossed $2.3B and operates 15 offices across five states, with a Citywire Growers designation layered on top of their M&A activity.
These are firms in active build mode. Each acquisition they close is an opening. They're evaluating what technology and data infrastructure can scale with them, and they're making those decisions in real time.
The real unlock is stacking these signals. A firm that appears on the rapid growth filter, recently crossed $1B, and received a Citywire Growers recognition in the last year is not a coincidence. It's a firm that has done something right and is likely in the market for better intelligence to sustain it.
FINTRX lets you build that query in a single search, export the results, and go directly to the decision-makers at the contact level. You're not starting with a list of names and hoping for relevance. You're starting with a thesis about which firms are growing and working backward to exactly who to call.