when choosing an ria you hire the financial firm you will be working with not necessarily an individual advisor unless that s how they operate investment advisor representatives are the individuals who work for the ria and directly provide advice to clients an ria may have just a single advisor or several iars each with its own areas of expertise and approach to investing 
therefore when selecting an ria you re not just choosing a firm but potentially also among the individual iars within that firm ensure that you understand the ria s philosophy and standards and the specific skills and qualifications of the iar who may be handling your portfolio once you select those firms that fit your location requirements you can review each firm s website and social media for information on the types of services offered the registration the representatives and the total amount of money managed by the ria the type and level of advice that rias provide can vary widely from firm to firm so make sure the areas on which they focus fit your needs this means that you shouldn tria firms are required to file sec form adv which is the uniform form used by investment advisors to register with both the sec and state securities authorities the form which should be offered to you by the firm in which you are interested provides detailed information about the firm from fees and client types to assets under management and more to check the record of an advisor you have two major sources for information search the total aum of the firm in which you are interested by using the sec s investment adviser public disclosure website and compare them with yours to see if your assets are on the low or high side for the firm you can find this information directly on the company s website its financial disclosure forms or its annual report 