Coeur d’Alene-based Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC has been recognized as the highest-ranked registered investment advisory company in Idaho and Eastern Washington by Forbes Media LLC.

Pinkerton Retirement ranked No. 179 on Forbes’ annual Top RIA Firms list, making it one of 250 wealth managers nationwide to be selected out of over 42,000 firms that were nominated.

“For them to rank us as not just in the top 1%, but No. 1 in Idaho and No. 1 in the Inland Northwest is a great privilege that speaks loudly that our team here is exceptional,” says Dan Pinkerton, president and CEO of Pinkerton Retirement.

The recognition comes at a time when Pinkerton Retirement is in the process of expanding its reach.

Pinkerton Retirement’s main office is located at 2000 John Loop, in Coeur d’Alene, and its Spokane office is located at 505 W. Riverside. In April, the company opened a third office at 4115 Bridgeport Way West, in University Place, Washington, near Tacoma. The four-person West Side office is just the beginning of the company’s growth, Pinkerton says.

“We are actively expanding,” he says. “We’re going to be adding a minimum of five more locations around the country this coming year.”

Pinkerton currently has about 40 employees.

The Forbes list was created by Shook Research LLC, an independent financial adviser research company. Using a ranking algorithm, Shook factors in quantitative and qualitative metrics to rank the firms, including revenues, assets under management, client-related data, interviews, compliance records, team dynamics, and community involvement.

Pinkerton Retirement has over $1 billion in assets under management and advisory, Pinkerton says.

Established in 1996, the company is no stranger to national recognition. Dating back to 2007, Pinkerton Retirement has been named to numerous fast-growing and top financial adviser lists by publications such as Barron’s magazine, Financial Times magazine, Financial Advisor Magazine, RIA Magazine, and others. 

However, 2023 marks the first year Pinkerton Retirement has been named to a Forbes list, Pinkerton says.

He attributes the high ranking to Pinkerton Retirement’s team, its clients, and the comprehensive financial services it offers.

“We require the highest educational backgrounds,” he says. “We’re also very comprehensive as it relates to the 12 strategies that we review with our clients every year to make sure that they’re staying proactive.”

Also contributing to the No. 179 ranking, Pinkerton Retirement is a leader in financial education, Pinkerton says. The firm has had over 10,000 retirees or near-retirement individuals attend its workshops over the past 36 years, he says.

In addition to geographic growth, Pinkerton Investments Inc., the parent company of Pinkerton Retirement, last year acquired W.E. Sherman & Co., a national investment research company that was headquartered in St. Louis.

Since the Journal last reported on the acquisition, W.E. Sherman & Co. now operates as Sherman Portfolios LLC and Sherman Advisor Group.

Sherman Portfolios, which is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, offers varying levels of portfolio signals, market snapshots, daily and weekly reports, bull and bear indicator charts, portfolio toolkits, and custom portfolio reports for its subscribed member firms.

Sherman Advisor Group is made up of a small subgroup of those member firms, Pinkerton says. Those firms have access to the Sherman Portfolios turnkey asset management program, a technology platform that advisers can use to oversee their clients’ investment accounts.

Following the acquisition, about 800 firms used W.E. Sherman & Co.’s services, the Journal previously reported. Those firms had until March 26 to sign new contracts to continue accessing the research.

Pinkerton declines to disclose the current number of Sherman Portfolios members, but he says many of the firms that were members under contract with W.E. Sherman & Co. are still members under the Pinkerton Investments subsidiary.

“We fully anticipate we’ll be over 1,000 within the next year. We’re expanding the services as well as the technology, and significantly expanding the portfolios,” Pinkerton says. “We’re expanding it to the tens of thousands of additional registered investment advisory firms that we did not have a relationship with before. We’re just beginning the national campaign to make it more of a household name.”