The 2017 IA 25 Readers’ Choice

• Skip Schweiss, head of advisor advocacy at TD Ameritrade Institutional, is an outspoken advocate for RIAs and for the fiduciary model.
Regardless of what happens with the DOL fiduciary rule, advisors are already fiduciaries and "will benefit from the public attention given to fiduciary advice," he said in February.

Almost 30% of readers voted for Schweiss, frequently citing his advocacy efforts. "Skip continues to be at the forefront for advisors advocating for them in Washington, while they are able to focus on their business, knowing he has their backs," one commenter said. 

• Charles Schwab's discount brokerage made the RIA model possible, and as of the end of 2016, its custody business serves over 7,000 advisors managing $1.3 trillion in client assets, including $67 billion in net new assets. Over a quarter of readers called for Schwab to be among the most influential in the industry. 

• Harry Markowitz's groundbreaking Modern Portfolio Theory forms the basis of most investment portfolios, from traditional financial planners to robo-advisors. MPT is so influential that over 23% of readers felt Markowitz's contribution to the industry was more valuable than Benjamin Graham's work in value investing or Eugene Fama's efficient market hypothesis.

• Ben Bernanke, whom almost 23% of readers voted for, had already served as chairman of the Federal Reserve for more than a year when the Great Recession hit in 2007, and would continue to lead the Fed for another seven years.
It took three rounds of quantitative easing over nearly six years, but when Bernanke left the Fed in January 2014, GDP was growing at over 2% annually, the unemployment rate was below 7% and the Dow closed just under 15,700.

• As the average advisor age stays stubbornly above 50, Michael Kitces saw a need to build up young talent. When he co-founded FPA's NexGen community many years ago, he lobbied hard for a maximum age of 37 for members.

With the XY Planning Network, he's focused on serving the next-gen client. The network of hundreds of fee-only advisors (whose median age is 37) offer virtual services and a flat monthly fee to help serve the millennial generation's growing wealth. 

• The act that bears former Sen. Chris Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank's names is one of the most onerous regulations enacted on financial professionals, so it's no surprise to see that readers counted Dodd and Frank among the most influential people in the industry. Over 20% of respondents voted for the duo, more than for Phyllis Borzi and Thomas Perez, who wrote and supported the fiduciary rule.

One reader commented that the Dodd-Frank Act "opened Pandora's box that the Republicans wish would have remained closed. Unfortunately, the representative in the field is being punished as well as the middle-income earner. Even if [the DOL fiduciary rule] goes under, field reps are still being singled out as the bad guys and must pay with lower compensations and higher production numbers."

• As a testament to the lingering effect one bad apple can have on the entire bunch, over 19% of respondents saw fit to count Bernie Madoff among the most influential people in the industry.

Madoff's historic Ponzi scheme, which robbed investors of billions of dollars, placed heightened scrutiny on advisors.