Best Financial Advisors in Atlanta — 7 That Survived Our Rubric

Finding a good financial advisor in Atlanta is harder than it sounds. The market is crowded, with established firms alongside newer practices all over. Flashy marketing doesn’t tell you much about quality, though, so we went to the source.

Advisors have to file a Form ADV with the Securities and Exchange Commission or state regulators, and we analyzed thousands of them. AI helps us extract details that go beyond a firm’s location and total assets: how it charges, what minimums it sets and which services it provides. From there, we filtered and scored advisors.

Price matters a lot, though we weren’t simply hunting for the cheapest option. Firms with unusually high fees were removed entirely. We looked at a range of services, accessibility for small investors, size and a variety of other factors. For the full breakdown of how each firm was evaluated, see our methodology page.

» Not in Atlanta? See our picks for the best financial advisors nationwide

Buckhead Capital Management offers a competitive 1.00% fee for the first $2.5 million in its direct equity accounts (the firm has separate AUM fee schedules for equity and fixed-income portfolios, which can cause some confusion; we focused on the equity accounts here). It’s also the largest firm on this list, with almost $6 billion under management, which we like. Plus, there’s no minimum fee. Notably, clients can ask for a performance-fee structure instead – typically they get a lower base fee but then pay an additional negotiated fee if their portfolio hits certain return targets. This can provide some additional flexibility that not all advisors offer.

ZWJ Investment Counsel is a long-established financial advisory that’s smaller than Buckhead Capital Management in terms of assets under management (but still large). Registered since 1981, ZWJ has the second-longest track record on the list, backing roughly $4.23 billion in assets. There’s no minimum fee, which we like, and the firm’s $1 million account minimum, though steep, is negotiable. The firm doesn’t prepare tax returns or estate planning documents.

Registered since 1984, this is one of the longest-operating firms on this list, and it offers a separate, much cheaper passive investment track (0.45% down to 0.10%) alongside its main advisory program. The $1 million account minimum is a high threshold for the firm’s wealth management program, making it less accessible than some of the other firms on the list for a smaller investor.

SEC-registered only since 2021, Eagle Rock has a short regulatory track record compared to other firms on the list. But with AUM fees at just 0.75% for the first $5 million, Eagle Rock Investment Company is significantly cheaper than most of the other advisors on the list. There’s a $1 million account minimum, which the firm says is negotiable, so smaller investors that can get in stand to save a good amount of money on fees.

Sard Wealth Management is a mid-size advisory firm with a negotiable $1 million account minimum. There’s no minimum fee, which we like because it helps prevent surprises. Clients pay a decent 1.00% fee on the first $1 million and then get a decent quarter-point break on the next million. Amounts over $2 million pay a 0.50% AUM fee, which is relatively inexpensive compared to other advisors we’ve seen. This firm doesn’t prepare tax returns or estate planning documents, though, and it gets commissions on insurance sales. If the conversation veers toward annuities or insurance products, be sure to ask who is getting paid and how.

American Financial Advisors has a cost-effective AUM fee schedule: a standard 1.00% fee on the first $500,000 and then just 0.50% on anything beyond that up to $5 million (after which it drops again). Although many advisors offer discounted fees on balances above a certain amount, the fact that this firm starts reducing its fee after just $500,000 definitely stands out. Combine that with the sheer size of the discount and we think this creates a tremendous value opportunity for small investors. Plus, there’s no account minimum. The one downside is that for investors with less than $30,000, the firm’s $300 minimum annual fee pushes the effective fee rate above 1.00%. Also, the firm describes its fee negotiability as “limited,” which is a more guarded stance than firms on this list that advertise open negotiation.

Minerva Planning Group is one of the smallest firms on this list in terms of AUM size, but it has a lot to offer for clients who can make its $1 million account minimum. One of the biggest things we like is the fee schedule. There’s no minimum fee, the discounts start to kick in after $500,000 and balances below $1 million pay less than 1.00%, which can be hard to find. We also like the size of the discounts: 20 basis points after the first $500,000 is a meaningful break, in our opinion. Also, the $1 million account minimum is negotiable.