Forbes Recognizes Aspiriant’s Next-Gen Partners

Ryan Benson, Ryan Nelson new to prestigious list

Aspiriant continually strives to bring the brightest, freshest talent to our wealth management team and ownership circle. So we’re proud to see that two of our partners, Ryan Nelson and Ryan Benson, were listed among the Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisors by Forbes.

Out of 32,000 nominations, Forbes and SHOOK Research identify 500 of the industry’s rising stars born after 1981 and with a minimum four years of experience as an advisor. For their first time appearing on the list, Ryan Nelson ranked 54th, and Ryan Benson placed at 144.

List contributor R.J. Shook says millions of families entrust their futures with this group of advisors because they have proven that they stand among the very best in wealth management. “They’re seasoned. They’ve lived through market cycles. And their deep relations with families — often representing three or more generations — position them among the best wealth management has ever seen.”

Ryan Nelson is a director in investment advisory in our office in Austin, Texas. He joined Aspiriant in 2012 and became a partner last year. Ryan works with client service teams to explain our investment platform and distill complex financial information into digestible and understandable pieces of a client’s personal wealth plan. He also volunteers as a career counselor for students at the University of California at Santa Cruz who seek to join the wealth management industry.

“While it’s an honor to be recognized by Forbes as a top Next-Gen Wealth Advisor, it is also a testament to Aspiriant as an organization more broadly. This is really about the success of our Exclusive Family Office team of advisors in various disciplines and of the unique way in which we partner together to deliver value to clients,” Ryan Nelson said. “It also confirms Aspiriant has a proclivity for organically developing young professionals into tomorrow’s industry leaders.”

Ryan Benson serves in our Orange County office as a director in wealth management. He came to Aspiriant in 2014 and made partner in 2018. In the family wealth space, he earns the trust of clients by intimately understanding their financial lives so he can help them make informed decisions regarding investments, wealth transfer and other financial services.

“My number one personal goal is gaining and maintaining client confidence,” he says. “To accomplish this goal, I strive to relentlessly advocate on behalf of all clients I serve, doing everything in my power to get the best outcome by offering the most attractive solution at the lowest possible cost.”

Aspiriant’s millennial leadership have been named on Forbes’ Next-Gen list all four years it has been published. David Muchow and Myles Rush, directors in wealth management, have been honored in the past.

Disclosure: SHOOK considered advisors born in 1981 or later with a minimum four years as an advisor. Advisors have built their own practices and lead their teams; joined teams and are viewed as future leadership; or a combination of both. Ranking algorithm is based on qualitative measures: telephone and in-person interviews, client retention, industry experience, credentials, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, such as assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance is not a criterion because client objectives and risk tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. Rankings are based on the opinions of SHOOK Research, LLC, which does not receive compensation from the advisors or their firms in exchange for placement on a ranking, and not indicative of future performance or representative of any one client’s experience. Neither Aspiriant nor its employees paid a fee in exchange for inclusion in the Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisors ranking. For more information see SHOOKresearch.com.