RIAs by state · SEC data as of October 1, 2026

RIAs in North Carolina

The SEC-registered investment advisers based in North Carolina, what they manage, and the largest independent wealth managers.

North Carolina is home to 202 wealth-focused RIAs managing $215B, 14th of 51 states and DC. The largest is Bragg Financial Advisors Inc in Charlotte, with $4.7B.

Wealth-focused RIAs: 202
Their assets: $215B
$1B+ firms: 39
All SEC RIAs: 282

Largest independent wealth managers in North Carolina

Largest independent wealth managers headquartered in North Carolina
#	Firm	Headquarters	Regulatory AUM	Individual clients	Employees
1	Bragg Financial Advisors Inc SEC record	Charlotte	$4.7B	1,537	39
2	Salem Investment Counselors Inc SEC record	Winston Salem	$4.2B	1,294	18
3	Biltmore Family Office, LLC SEC record	Charlotte	$3.5B	85	24
4	Colony Family Offices, LLC SEC record	Charlotte	$3.4B	631	16
5	Smith Salley Wealth Management SEC record	Greensboro	$2.9B	1,093	18
6	Guardian Wealth Advisors, LLC SEC record	Raleigh	$2.7B	2,123	50
7	Alphastar Capital Management SEC record	Cornelius	$2.5B	8,466	150
8	Cornerstone Wealth SEC record	Huntersville	$2.5B	2,373	50
9	Capital Investment Advisory Services, LLC SEC record	Raleigh	$2.4B	6,172	91
10	Novare Capital Management SEC record	Charlotte	$1.9B	757	23
11	Ally Invest Advisors SEC record	Charlotte	$1.7B	83,199	8
12	Delegate Advisors, LLC SEC record	Chapel Hill	$1.7B	42	13
13	Financial Symmetry Inc.SEC record	Raleigh	$1.5B	872	35
14	Mill Capital Management, LLC SEC record	Concord	$1.5B	97	5
15	Ironsides Asset Advisors, LLC SEC record	Rocky Mount	$1.4B	34	3

Ranked by regulatory assets under management on each firm’s latest Form ADV. Excludes broker-dealers’ advisory arms and managed-account platforms. Nationally: the 100 largest RIAs.

Questions

How many RIAs are there in North Carolina?

282 SEC-registered investment advisers have their main office in North Carolina, and 202 of them are wealth-focused, managing at least half of their assets for individuals and high-net-worth clients. That ranks North Carolina 14th of 51 states and DC, according to Financial ADVSR’s count of SEC data as of October 1, 2026.

What is the largest RIA in North Carolina?

Bragg Financial Advisors Inc, based in Charlotte, is the largest independent wealth manager headquartered in North Carolina, with $4.7B in regulatory assets under management and 1,537 individual clients on its latest Form ADV.

How much do North Carolina RIAs manage?

Wealth-focused RIAs based in North Carolina report $215B in regulatory assets under management, 20th among the states. 39 of them manage $1 billion or more; the median manages $317M.

How we built this

The SEC publishes a list of every registered investment adviser, drawn from each firm’s Form ADV. We used the list current through October 1, 2026, kept the 16,943 advisers the SEC shows as approved, and placed each in the state of its main office; 14,641 are based in the United States. Regulatory assets under management come from Item 5.F, client counts from Item 5.D.

Wealth-focused RIAs manage at least half of their assets for individuals and high-net-worth clients, the same test as our RIA Custody Tracker; there are 8,130 in the US. Rankings and each state’s largest-firms list show independent wealth managers only: wealth-focused firms that offer financial planning, are not themselves broker-dealers, and hold less than half their assets in wrap programs they sponsor or manage. That leaves out wirehouse and broker-dealer advisory arms and managed-account platforms, which still count in each state’s totals.

What it doesn’t show

State-registered advisers, most of which manage less than $100 million, register with their state regulator and aren’t in SEC data.
A firm counts only in its main office state, though many have offices in several.
Figures are as of each adviser’s latest annual Form ADV update, usually its December 31 fiscal year-end, so they lag recent deals.
Firms that file under more than one registration (an RIA and a separate institutional arm, for example) appear as separate advisers.

The data is free to use with credit to Financial ADVSR. Questions or corrections: contact the editors.