Financial Planning Hawaii has just been ranked as the fastest growing RIA in Hawaii
By John H. Robinson, Owner/Founder
In late May, I received a call from a reporter at Citywire, a London-based financial news organization, informing me that Financial Planning Hawaii has been ranked as the fastest growing SEC registered investment advisory firm (RIA) in Hawaii and that FPH will be included in Citywire's annual list of the 50 fastest growers in each state.
50 GROWERS ACROSS AMERICA 2026
The purpose of his call was to learn about our growth strategy and to invite me to a conference in Austin Texas, which I will be attending at the end of September. At the end of our interview, he shared that my perspective is unique insofar as I am the only RIA interviewed who does not wish to be a repeat winner.
I explained that we are a mature firm and are not proactively pursuing growth through new client acquisition. The substantial increase in assets reported on our SEC Form ADV resulted from a fortuitous combination of factors: a supportive investment environment, existing clients adding assets through retirement rollovers or inheritances, and growing brand recognition in Hawaii in both traditional and AI search.
The reason I do not wish to win the award again is that it is stressful for me and unfair to our existing clients to continue growing by adding new clients. I am pretty much at full capacity already.
As I explained in the interview, one of the magical aspects of this business is that as long as the stock and bond markets generally provide reasonable returns over time, client assets and our revenue can continue to grow organically without adding new clients. This is very different from other professional service businesses, such as most medical, law, and tax practices which generally rely on upon incremental client acquisition to grow revenue and earnings.
While many RIAs scale through adding new advisors, we are a very different shop. I have carved out a unique financial planning practice with a clearly defined approach to financial planning and portfolio management. I am not interested in taking on existing planners under the FPH brand who have their own way of doing things. Instead, the way we intend to grow follows in the footsteps of 250-year-old luxury goods maker Hermes insofar as the way to ensure consistency in process and quality craftsmanship is to keep the business in the family.
Our first "apprentice" is Sawyer Patrick (Itaat's son-in-law). My youngest son, Brody, will be joining full-time after he graduates from Northeastern next year (2027). Having Brody and Sawyer on board gives us the ability to scale incrementally. It remains to be seen if others of my progeny join the family business as well.
Either way, the best path forward for Financial Planning Hawaii and Fee-Only Planning Hawaii is the same way Hermes makes its handbags. For us, it is one carefully crafted financial planning review at a time.