Top Financial Advisors in Denver, CO

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Fee-based Mercer Global Advisors, Inc. is SmartAsset's top financial advisor firm in Denver. Outside of its headquarters in the city, the firm boasts offices throughout Georgia, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Connecticut, Montana, New Jersey, Hawaii, California, Wisconsin, New York, Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Washington, Virginia and Delaware. The firm has hundreds of financial advisors working to manage its billions in assets under management (AUM).

There are few competing firms that can rival the plethora of advisory certifications that Mercer has. In fact, there are more than 100 certified financial planners (CFPs), chartered financial analysts (CFAs) and certified public accountants (CPAs) on staff here.

Individuals and high-net-worth individuals are Mercer's most common client types. It also maintains advisory relationships with pension and profit-sharing plans, charitable organizations and businesses. The firm generally requires accounts to have a minimum of $500,000.

Certain advisors at Mercer can sell securities on a commission basis. While this is a potential conflict of interest, the firm's fiduciary duty requires it to act in clients' best interests at all times.

Mercer Global Advisors, Inc. Background

Mercer Global Advisors was established in 1985 by founder Kendrick Mercer. It began as a law practice that focused on estate planning. After seeing an unmet need, though, he decided to launch an investment advisory firm with the mission of helping its clients achieve "economic freedom."

The firm provides services like comprehensive investment management, financial planning, family office services, tax planning, estate planning and retirement plan design and administration.

Mercer Global Advisors, Inc. Investment Strategy

Mercer Global Advisors' investment strategies include:

• Strategically weighted investments
• Broad asset class and multi-factor diversification
• Attention to cost
• Separate account managers and institutional funds
• Systematic rebalancing
• Tax and distribution management

Beyond those basic tenets, the firm offers an array of customized strategies designed to meet varying risk tolerance levels, time horizons and investment objectives. These include total return strategies, defensive strategies and income strategies.

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Johnson Financial Group, LLC is a family office and wealth management firm serving more than 500 individuals, high-net-worth individuals, trusts, pension and profit-sharing plans, charitable organizations and small businesses. 

The fee-only advisory firm requires each new client to have at least $30 million, and it charges asset-based fees and commissions for its services. 

Johnson Financial Group, LLC Background

Founded in 2002, Johnson Financial Group offers portfolio management, financial planning, pensions consulting, advisor selection and family office services. The firm’s family office services include bookkeeping, expense management, bill-pay, private foundation administration and advisor coordination. The family office services are separate from, and in addition to, the firm’s main advisory services. Brandon C. Johnson is the principal owner of the firm.

Johnson Financial Group, LLC Investment Strategy 

Johnson Financial Group says it applies a total return approach to portfolio management and that its investment strategies focus on building globally diversified portfolios that are tax- and cost-efficient. 

Investments the firm generally utilizes include domestic and foreign equities, fixed income securities, CDs, options, mutual funds, separately managed accounts, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), private placements and alternative investments. 

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IWP Wealth Management, LLC does not necessarily have a set account minimum, so long as clients pay their individually negotiated, fixed quarterly fee. The fee-only firm’s client base is made up almost entirely of high-net-worth individuals, which account for nearly 90% of its clientele.

IWP Wealth Management manages the second-largest amount of assets on this list. It has a combination of certified financial planners (CFPs), certified public accountants (CPA) and chartered financial analysts (CFA) on staff.

IWP Wealth Management, LLC Background

IWP Wealth Management, LLC was founded in 2004. The firm’s primary shareholder is its founder, Charles A. Willhoit. All IWP Wealth Management partners own equity in the firm.

The firm was formed because its founders thought that while the financial industry had wealth management covered, it wasn’t offering much in the way of assistance with the day-to-day complexities of wealth. IWP Wealth Management, which identifies as a family office, limits the number of families it serves so it can ensure it’s always available to provide counsel and guidance.

That’s just one piece of the firm’s four-part equation, though. The firm also offers accounting and impact assessment, asset preservation growth and tax and estate planning and wealth transfer.

IWP Wealth Management, LLC Investment Strategy

IWP Wealth Management says its investment philosophy is risk-averse, focusing more on preserving wealth than earning aggressive returns. The firm has a wealth platform, where its clients can sign in to monitor their investments' growth over time and other financial information.

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SRS Capital Advisors is a fee-based firm that works with more than 2,500 individual clients, the majority of whom are not high-net-worth. The only institutional clients at the firm are pension and profit-sharing plans. Some advisors at the firm earn commissions as insurance agents. Though this is a conflict of interest, all advisors still must act as fiduciaries. Financial planning fees are charged on a per-project or hourly basis. Investment management fees are based on a percentage of assets under management.

The team includes five certified financial planners (CFPs), two chartered life underwriters (CLUs) and one chartered financial analyst (CFA). There is no minimum account size listed.

SRS Capital Advisors Background

SRS was founded in 2004. It is managed and controlled by a board of directors.

Services include investment management, pension consulting and financial planning.

SRS Capital Advisors Investment Strategy

Individual stocks make up more than half of the investments at SRS, so the firm is a good choice for investors who want to pick companies to invest in. Bonds and cash holdings make up the rest of the investments.

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To be a client of GHP Investment Advisors, Inc. (GHPIA), you’ll need at least $500,000 in investable assets. The fee-only firm is one of a few on this list that has a majority of non-high-net-worth individual clients. High-net-worth individuals account for just one-fifth of its client base.

GHP Investment Advisors has four certified financial planners (CFPs), one chartered financial analyst (CFA) and two certified public accountants (CPAs).

GHP Investment Advisors, Inc. Background

GHP Investment Advisors, Inc. was founded in 1995. The firm is a member of GHP Financial Group, the operator of GHP Horwath, P.C., which is one of Colorado’s biggest accounting firms. Its connections give this fee-only, independent firm access to a variety of accounting, tax, financial and business advisory experts.

GHPIA claims to be all about integration. When working with clients, the firm focuses on widespread wealth management for your entire life. It wants to get everyone from your accountant to your insurance broker to your attorney on the same page and working toward the same goals.

The firm customizes portfolios to fit clients’ needs, goals and risk levels. It makes its selections using a unique tool called the GHPIA Benchmark Valuation Indicator, which measures risk through various statistical tools to weed out anything high risk.

GHP Investment Advisors, Inc. Investment Strategy

GHPIA mainly uses fundamental analysis when making investment decisions. The firm also employs a range of investment strategies, including long-term purchases, short-term purchases, margin transactions and option writing. 

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Cherry Creek Family Offices, LLC is a firm targeted at a niche group of very wealthy families. It has a much higher account minimum than the other firms on this list. The company's website says that its method of investing is “best suited” for those with at least $40 million in investable assets. The fee-only firm handpicks its clients.

Cherry Creek Family Offices has no certified financial planners (CFPs) on staff, but does have two certified public accountants (CPAs).

Cherry Creek Family Offices, LLC Background

Cherry Creek Family Offices, LLC was formed in 2011. It’s owned by the firm’s managing partner, Timothy Ulfig, and the firm’s chief financial officer, Ben Novak.

As the firm’s name implies, it is focused on families - to be specific, very wealthy families. The firm works with its client groups to come up with what it calls a “Family Mission Statement,” which is essentially an agreement that informs all of the group’s financial decisions.

Cherry Creek Family Offices, LLC Investment Strategy

Cherry Creek tailors its services according to what its clients want, and it lets its clients impose restrictions on particular investing selections and sectors. Cherry Creek has an in-house private equity team that works on private investments. Its investment strategy uses long-term purchases, like securities held for at least a year.

The firm states that it believes in educating its clients and allowing them to make the ultimate decisions about their investments rather than pushing particular solutions or products. The firm provides consultations, reviews and updates to clients at no additional charge.

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Next on the list is fee-only firm Syntrinsic Investment Counsel, LLC. There are multiple financial advisors currently on staff at Syntrinsic's offices in northern Denver. Across that team, you'll find four chartered financial analysts (CFAs) and one chartered alternative investment analyst (CAIA). The firm requires an account minimum of $15 million for new clients. 

Syntrinsic Investment Counsel has a majority of individual clients. The firm also actively maintains relationships with estates, trusts, charitable organizations, family partnerships, retirement plans and profit-sharing plans.

Syntrinsic Investment Counsel, LLC Background

Syntrinsic Investment Counsel is under the leadership and principal ownership of CEO Ben Valore-Caplan. In 2008, Valore-Caplan founded Syntrinsic.

Outside of the firm's trio of investment management services, clients can take advantage of investment policy statement review and development, customized performance reporting, tax planning, philanthropic gift planning, intergenerational wealth planning, cash liquidity management and more.

Syntrinsic Investment Counsel, LLC Investment Strategy

Before Syntrinsic Investment Counsel feels comfortable designing your investment portfolio, it will delve into what type of investor you are. For example, those that are more risk-averse will typically avoid equities and leech onto safer investment types, like ETFs, mutual funds and bonds. Aside from risk tolerance, your time horizon, liquidity needs and investment goals will be of the utmost importance.

The exact asset allocation that your portfolio follows will be based on Syntrinsic's proprietary market and investment analysis. It completes this research on two-time scales: long-term (10 years) and short-term (less than three years). The allocation that maximizes your return potential according to your risk tolerance will then be implemented, monitored and rebalanced as needed.

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JFG Wealth Management is a fee-only firm working only with high-net-worth individuals. Unsurprisingly, there is a fairly high minimum account size of $5 million.

Fees are based on a percentage of assets under management for investment advice and fixed for financial consulting. The team includes two chartered alternative investment analysts (CAIA), one certified financial planner (CFP), one chartered financial analyst (CFA) and one certified public accountant (CPA).

JFG Wealth Management Background

JGF was founded in 2016, It is owned by another firm on this list, Johnson Financial Group. Services offered include investment management and financial consulting.

JFG Wealth Management Investment Strategies

Around half of the assets under management at JFG are invested in mutual funds. Almost a quarter is in stocks, and around one-fifth is invested in private capital investments. The rest is split between bonds and cash holdings.

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To be a client of Private Capital Management, LLC, you’ll need at least $1,000,000 in investable assets. The firm’s client base is almost entirely comprised of individuals both with and without a high net worth.

The fee-only firm has nine certified financial planners (CFPs), five chartered financial analysts (CFAs) and one chartered financial consultant (ChFC) on staff. It also has its own unique system for rating investments, its proprietary investment ranking system.

Private Capital Management, LLC Background

Founded in 2000, Private Capital Management, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guaranty Bank and Trust Company, which is owned by the bank holding company Guaranty Bancorp. The firm boasts more than 70 years of combined investment experience. 

PCM portfolios are primarily comprised of no-load mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and index funds. The firm uses in-depth fundamental research and its own proprietary quantitative investment ranking system to find investments that balance risk and return. 

The firm offers a complimentary investment portfolio review. Its financial planning services are also complimentary, and the firm offers them on occasion and on a discussion basis with new and existing clients. 

Private Capital Management also puts out a market commentary on a quarterly basis. Past commentaries dating back to the first quarter of 2016 are available on the firm’s website. 

Private Capital Management’s Proprietary Investment Strategy

Private Capital Management has come up with its own system to evaluate investments called its proprietary investment ranking system. Every month, the firm screens a large selection of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to figure out which may be good investments for its clients. Once screened, the investments are ranked according to this system, which considers indicators like volatility, risk, bear market performance, measures of risk-adjusted returns and cumulative returns over varying time periods. 

The firm uses this method, as well as qualitative research, to identify investments for its clients.

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ICA Group Wealth Management is a fee-based firm offering services of financial planning, investment management and retirement planning. As a fee-based firm, its advisors may earn commissions for the sale of certain securities. While this can create a potential conflict of interest, the firm and its advisors are bound by a fiduciary duty to care for the needs of the clients. There is no minimum account investment to work with the firm. 

ICA Group Wealth Management Background

ICA Group Wealth management was founded in 2021 by current President and CEO, Chad Renner. The firm now has more than 30 advisors who manage over $650 million in assets across more than 1800 clients. 

ICA Group Wealth Management Investment Strategy

The firm creates an investment strategy for each individual client portfolio that is suitable for and in line with the client's investment guidelines such as their long-term financial goals and appetite for risk. The firm utilizes mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as well as a number of other securities and potential investments.