San Luis Obispo, CA Santa Barbara Avenue Office

Independent Financial Group is a large, integrated advisory and brokerage firm that provides investment advisory programs, financial planning, and retirement plan services to individuals (including high‑net‑worth clients), trusts, corporations, business owners, and plan sponsors. The firm’s Form ADV reports regulatory assets under management of about $12.9 billion and describes programs delivered by IARs through platforms such as AccessPoint (via Envestnet), Schwab‑custodied CAM, and third‑party asset managers (TPAMs), as well as separately managed account and unified managed account options.

Investment advice is delivered primarily by IARs who are often dually licensed and may implement discretionary or non‑discretionary strategies tailored to a client’s risk profile and one of seven AccessPoint investment profiles (from Capital Preservation to Aggressive Growth). IFG uses a mix of in‑house model portfolios and third‑party manager models, and describes processes for manager due diligence, model construction, rebalancing, and periodic performance reporting through custodians such as Pershing and Schwab.

What distinguishes IFG among large enterprise advisers is its explicit dual role as both a registered investment adviser and an active broker‑dealer: the brochure discloses commission and transaction‑based compensation, ticket markups, participation in programs such as Pershing’s FundVest and cash sweep arrangements, and the firm’s involvement in securities‑backed lending and margin facilities. The firm also documents arrangements with TPAMs where it can act as promoter or co‑adviser and describes economic relationships with product sponsors, banks, and other advisers—features and revenue sources that the brochure identifies and that are less typical for many similarly sized advisory firms.