This is an extended version of the profile that appeared in the May issue of Investment Advisor, part of AdvisorOne's Special Report profiling this year's members of the IA 25, the most influential people in and around the advisor universe. See the complete list and Special Report schedule for extended profiles of all the 2011 members of the IA 25.
In registered investment advisor and fiduciary circles, Ron Rhoades, new to the IA 25 this year, is a gentleman and a scholar. An attorney by training, Rhoades is a private wealth manager, director of research and chief compliance officer at Joseph Capital Management LLC, an RIA in Hernando, Fla., Chapel Hill, N.C. and on Long Island, which manages about $160 million for around 150 families.
Rhoades chairs the Industry Issues Committee and is a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA). A prolific writer, Rhoades is active in print, on the Web and in Washington as an advocate for extending the fiduciary standard of conduct to brokers who provide advice to individual investors. He is a member of The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard, as is this editor.
"There is a tremendous lack of knowledge out there" among investors, according to Rhoades, about the differences between brokers and RIAs. Rhoades notes that "it is incumbent on RIAs to basically educate the public at large, through articles in community newspapers, or speaking, about the different types of advisors and the advantages and disadvantages of each."
His firm has grown to seven professionals since it opened its doors in 2001, "right after 9/11," Rhoades says. They are adding another advisor now, bringing the total to eight. The new advisor is the first they have hired "right out of college," and is going through training at the firm now.
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