Give every RIA the same quality of information the people negotiating with them already have.
Most databases and marketplaces gather what your firm files, sell it to everyone else, and give you nothing back. We built RIA Ascent the other way round.
Why we built it
Your firm’s record is public. Lists are built from it and sold. The people across the table, buyers, recruiters, vendors, read it before they ever call you. If you want to see what they see, you pay for it. You never choose who sees what, and when the record changes hands, nothing comes back to the firm it describes.
We think the firm should be the one that benefits. So the record is free with an account. Your own profile is private by default, and you decide what to share, with whom, and when. When sharing gets you something, a better-fit partner, a better price, a faster start, that is the return on your own data.
What we do
RIA Ascent puts the RIA industry in one place, built around the advisor. Owners get a private profile of their firm: how it compares, what it is worth, what to improve first, what it runs on, where it is heading. Everyone who works with firms gets the connected record. Buyers and vendors pay for access to the firms that chose to be found; advisors are not charged for the core.
How it works
A benchmark score, a value range that tightens as you share more, and matching to vendors and partners on your firm’s actual shape rather than a sponsored listing. You control what you disclose, and to whom.
Subscription access to the firms that chose to be found, being built with design partners. No listing is sold. No introduction happens unless the firm asked or accepted an invite.
What we believe
- Advisors should not have to pay to understand their own business.
- A valuation is only as good as its inputs, so we show our methodology and label our confidence.
- Nobody buys a listing on this platform. Placement follows fit.
- Firms own their data. Sharing is opt-in, at the level of detail the firm chooses.
- The data about a firm should work for the firm, not only for the people selling it.
Who’s behind it
I have spent nearly 30 years in this industry: first inside wealth firms, then inside the technology companies building for them, and for the last eleven consulting to both. The whole time I watched the same things repeat. Firms picking technology off a conference recommendation. Owners taking a valuation number from the person who benefits from that number. Advisors going independent with no map. I solved those one firm at a time, until it was clear that one firm at a time does not scale. The answer was infrastructure, not another engagement.
RIA Ascent started at a conference, watching vendors spend a fortune for a few minutes of attention, advisors sit through demos of products they did not need, and acquirers work the room. I built the first prototype between sessions, coding in my room until the sun came up. A year later, here we are helping you take your first step on your ascent.
RIA Ascent is built by Ascent Growth Platforms Inc.
RIA Ascent helps advisors see their firm clearly and act on it with real numbers instead of guesswork. The record and your firm’s score and valuation are live. Matching is being built with design partners.
Questions, partnerships, press: james@riaascent.com