We take no commissions, run no ads and give no advice here. This Ritholtz Wealth Management page sticks to what the firm has filed with regulators, plus two press reports on its ownership, and links each source.

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The short answer: is Ritholtz Wealth Management a fiduciary?

Yes. Ritholtz Wealth Management is a fiduciary when it acts as your adviser. It is a registered investment adviser, and its Form ADV reports no broker-dealer registration. That duty means Ritholtz must put your interests ahead of its own. The New York firm is an SEC-registered investment adviser (CRD #168652).

Its latest Form ADV (filed August 10, 2026) shows $9.4 billion in regulatory assets under management for more than 4,200 clients, who hold 13,828 accounts between them. Item 5.E lists no commissions for advisory work. The same filing reports a related insurance agency affiliation (Item 7.A). You can ask how any insurance product you're offered is paid for. Get started with Truthifi

Clients pay an ongoing quarterly fee tied to account value, up to 1.25% on the standard schedule, per its Form CRS (May 2026). Comprehensive Portfolio Management can instead carry a quarterly flat fee.

Ritholtz also has no related broker-dealer, per its Form ADV, so the fiduciary standard that covers its advice is the only standard it answers to.

What "fiduciary" means: a fiduciary is legally bound to place a client's interests above its own. At Ritholtz, that obligation comes with the firm's role as an investment adviser.

Ritholtz Wealth Management at a glance

✅ Ritholtz's record as filed (SEC data as of October 5, 2026). Ritholtz Wealth Management (SEC CRD #168652) is paid through advisory fees, acts as a fiduciary for the advisory relationship and reports $9.4 billion in regulatory assets under management. Each row points to its primary source.

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Ritholtz Wealth Management fees: what you'll pay

Ritholtz Wealth Management's standard asset-based schedule charges up to 1.25%, billed as an ongoing quarterly fee on account value, per its Form CRS (May 2026). Lower ceilings apply elsewhere: 0.40% for non-ERISA 403(b) plans and IRAs for teachers, 0.75% for Good Advice and 0.50% for Liftoff.

• Account minimum: none. The CRS says the firm sets no requirements for opening or keeping an account.

• Planning and hourly work: College Financial Planning is sold on its own for a flat fee. Other planning comes bundled into Comprehensive Portfolio Management and Good Advice.

• Other costs you may pay: the custodian may charge transaction and account fees. Funds, ETFs, crypto index portfolios and annuities carry fees of their own, while Liftoff has no transaction charges.

The Liftoff fee is split between Ritholtz and Betterment, and Comprehensive Portfolio Management clients can choose a quarterly flat fee instead of the percentage.

Ritholtz Wealth Management charges advisory fees: Item 5.E of its Form ADV reports no commissions on advisory services. The filing separately lists a related insurance business (Item 7.A), and insurance sales can pay commissions. If a product falls outside the advisory account, ask how it is paid. The full schedule sits in its Form ADV Part 2A.

Who owns Ritholtz Wealth Management, and what conflicts does it disclose?

According to press reports from WealthManagement.com and Barron's, Ritholtz Wealth Management's employees own the whole firm. Barry Ritholtz and Josh Brown founded the independent RIA in 2013, and a 2026 succession plan widened ownership to 29 employee-shareholders. WealthManagement.com reported that CEO Josh Brown holds the largest stake; Form ADV Schedule A lists the firm's direct owners if you want to confirm it. The firm discloses its conflicts in its own Form CRS.

Its Form CRS (May 2026) names these conflicts of interest as examples, and the same filing explains how Ritholtz addresses each one.

• Fees set as a percentage of assets give Ritholtz an incentive to grow the assets in your account.

• EquityZen and The Compound Capital Fund share revenue with the firm, which gives it a reason to recommend those funds.

• The firm sub-advises and sponsors the Goaltender ETF, earning a management fee there on top of the advisory fee it charges clients who hold it.

• Some of its financial professionals consult for and invest in Altruist, an incentive to recommend Altruist as custodian.

• Its professionals include a CPA and licensed insurance agents, who have a reason to recommend tax or insurance services.

How its financial professionals are paid: pay depends on the advisory revenue each professional brings in and the client assets that person serves, which ties the adviser's pay to the same asset-growth incentive as the firm's percentage fee.

Ritholtz Wealth Management SEC record: complaints and disclosures

On its Form ADV, Ritholtz Wealth Management reports no firm-level disciplinary history, which is the starting point for checking Ritholtz Wealth Management complaints. The Form CRS says No as well to the question of legal or disciplinary history for the firm and its financial professionals.

That said, a clean firm-level answer says nothing about any single adviser, so search by name on IAPD and BrokerCheck, where an individual record would show up.

Our read: with no firm-level disciplinary record, the place to spend your questions at Ritholtz is the conflicts list. What sets this firm's list apart is that several items are products tied to Ritholtz itself: an ETF it sponsors and sub-advises, two funds that share revenue with it, and adviser ties to Altruist. Our recommendation: before you sign, ask in writing whether any of your money would sit in EquityZen, The Compound Capital Fund or the Goaltender ETF, what you'd pay there on top of the advisory fee, and whether Altruist would be your custodian.

Ritholtz has also been SEC-registered since September 16, 2013. It makes notice filings in 48 jurisdictions and reports 83 employees, 48 of them in investment advisory roles. So if you're asking "is Ritholtz Wealth Management legit?", that registration confirms it is a real, regulated adviser. Suitability and cost are separate questions.

What Ritholtz Wealth Management reviews won't tell you

Client ratings speak to the experience of working with an adviser. They rarely cover the payment ties a firm must disclose to regulators. Weigh Ritholtz Wealth Management reviews against the filings before you lean on them.

Three items from its filings are easy to miss in a review. Ritholtz reports no commissions on advisory work but does have a related insurance agency. It earns revenue from EquityZen, The Compound Capital Fund and the Goaltender ETF. And its Form ADV shows no disciplinary record at the firm level.

How to verify Ritholtz Wealth Management yourself

Each fact above can be traced through these three checks:

1. SEC adviser record (IAPD): open Ritholtz's IAPD record and confirm that CRD #168652 shows as registered.

2. Form CRS: read Ritholtz's Form CRS for its fees, conflicts and disciplinary answer.

3. Confirm the entity: make sure the filing belongs to Ritholtz Wealth Management (CRD #168652) in New York, NY, and not a similarly named firm.

What Ritholtz Wealth Management does and who it serves

Ritholtz runs three advisory services: Comprehensive Portfolio Management, Good Advice and Liftoff, according to its Form CRS (May 2026). Financial planning comes with the first two, and College Financial Planning is available for a flat fee. High-net-worth individuals account for $8.12 billion of the assets it manages, per the same Form CRS.

Its Form ADV adds pension consulting, selection of other advisers, financial planning, and portfolio management for individuals, small businesses and institutions. Truthifi sorted the SEC's 5 October 2026 adviser data file by reported regulatory assets. On that internal count, which is our own sort rather than an SEC ranking, Ritholtz places roughly 1,426th of the 16,552 SEC-registered advisers that reported assets, inside the top 9%, and the median firm reported about $449 million. Treat the exact position as approximate, since ties and filtering choices can move it a few places. The SEC file is public, so anyone can rerun the sort. A firm this large typically has more layered revenue arrangements than a small shop, which is one reason its conflicts list is worth reading closely.

Item 5.D of the Form ADV groups more than 4,200 clients by type, broken down below (two small categories are reported as fewer than 5). Client counts differ from the 13,828 client accounts, since one client often holds several:

Read the table by assets, not headcount. High-net-worth clients are about a third of Ritholtz's clients, yet they hold roughly 86% of its $9.4 billion. The filings don't break out fee revenue by client type, and fee tiers vary by balance, so asset share isn't the same as revenue share. Either way, confirm where your own balance lands on the Part 2A schedule.

You choose in your agreement whether Ritholtz can trade without asking first. Item 5.F shows that 13,305 of its 13,828 accounts are discretionary. The firm monitors portfolios at least quarterly. College Financial Planning comes without investment monitoring.

Separately, Ritholtz reports that it or a related person holds custody of some client assets (Form ADV Item 9), and the filing spells out that arrangement.

Recent developments at Ritholtz Wealth Management

Early in 2026 the firm unveiled a succession plan that spread ownership across 29 employee-shareholders. It said the goal was to stay fully independent, passing on private-equity capital. (Barron's)

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After the IAPD check: seeing Ritholtz next to your other accounts

Checking IAPD takes a few minutes and confirms Ritholtz Wealth Management is registered. That's only part of the picture, though. By default, your adviser only sees the accounts held at the firm, so an old rollover or a partner's brokerage account usually sits somewhere else. Truthifi pulls those outside accounts into the same view as your Ritholtz holdings.

How Truthifi can help

Connect your bank and brokerage accounts to Truthifi read-only. You'll see what you own, how it's allocated, performance and where the risk sits, including single-stock exposure, returns next to a benchmark, a fee breakdown of the fees on each account by type, and your Truthifi Score. Share whichever accounts you choose with your Ritholtz advisor.

On any current consumer plan, free plans included, you can plug in an AI assistant such as Claude that supports MCP sign-in. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets an assistant read outside data once you approve it. Then ask whether the Goaltender ETF or one of the revenue-sharing funds shows up anywhere in your holdings. Truthifi Connect is the lighter membership, built for people who just want to use their own assistant. For fee questions in that assistant, you need Connect Max, Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+.

Ask AI about your Ritholtz Wealth Management accounts

After you connect read-only, try questions like these in plain English:

• "What do I own across my Ritholtz Wealth Management accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"

• "What am I paying in fees across all of these accounts?"

Try it with Truthifi: open app.truthifi.com to start for free and run a Free Checkup (limits apply).

Truthifi runs on no commissions, no ads and no advice. Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice.

Start free (limits apply). A Free Checkup costs nothing and, per Truthifi's current plan terms, lets you link up to 10 connections. The pricing page on truthifi.com lists every plan and its limits, and plan details can change, so check there before you choose. One habit is worth adding: advisers update Form ADV at least once a year. When Ritholtz files its next one, compare the conflicts list with the one above. A new fund or affiliate on that list means a new way the firm can get paid, and the time to ask about it is before any of your money moves into it.

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FAQ

Is Ritholtz Wealth Management a fiduciary?

Yes, Ritholtz Wealth Management is a fiduciary whenever it acts as your investment adviser. It is SEC-registered (CRD #168652), and its Form ADV shows neither a broker-dealer registration nor a related broker-dealer. The filing also notes a related insurance company or agency, so for any product outside the advisory account, ask how the adviser is paid.

What does Ritholtz Wealth Management charge?

Ritholtz Wealth Management charges up to 1.25% on its standard asset-based schedule, collected quarterly, though Comprehensive Portfolio Management can instead carry a quarterly flat fee. Good Advice tops out at 0.75% and Liftoff at 0.50%, shared with Betterment, and no account minimum applies. Sources are its Form CRS (May 2026) and, for the full schedule, Form ADV Part 2A.

Who owns Ritholtz Wealth Management?

Employees own all of it, according to press reports. Barry Ritholtz and Josh Brown started the firm in 2013 as an independent RIA. After a 2026 succession plan, 29 employee-shareholders hold the equity. WealthManagement.com reported that CEO Josh Brown has the largest stake; Form ADV Schedule A lists direct owners if you want to confirm it. Barron's reported the firm's stated aim of staying independent rather than taking private-equity money.

Does Ritholtz Wealth Management have complaints or disclosures?

No firm-level disciplinary history is reported. The firm's Form ADV answers No to the firm-level disciplinary-history questions, and its Form CRS answers No to "Do you or your financial professionals have legal or disciplinary history?" Any individual adviser's own record would sit on IAPD and BrokerCheck, so look there too. Get started with Truthifi · See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure

Is Ritholtz Wealth Management legit?

Yes, in the regulatory sense: Ritholtz Wealth Management is SEC-registered (CRD #168652) and its filings are public on the SEC's IAPD site. That doesn't settle whether it fits you or what you'll pay overall, so read the fee and conflict sections of its Form ADV and Form CRS.

Can AI help me check the fees across my Ritholtz accounts?

It can, though fee questions need a paid plan. Start free (limits apply): a Free Checkup costs nothing and lets you link up to 10 connections. An AI assistant you already use, such as Claude, can connect too, and on Connect Max, Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ it can answer questions about the fees on each account. Truthifi itself offers no investment, tax or legal advice. Get started with Truthifi · See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure

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About this fact pack

Truthifi built this Ritholtz Wealth Management fact pack from the firm's Form ADV and Form CRS. Every page is reviewed by the Truthifi Team before publishing. Each page in the series tests one U.S. investment adviser against its public filings.

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A note on sources. This page draws on public documents, mainly Ritholtz Wealth Management's SEC filings and its Form CRS, with each one linked beside the fact it supports (SEC data current as of October 5, 2026). It is general information, not financial or legal advice. Truthifi is not affiliated with Ritholtz Wealth Management. Filings are amended from time to time, so confirm anything important at the linked source. To report an error, write to support@truthifi.com.