Oak Partners’ Marc Ruiz named to Forbes’ 2026 Best In-State Wealth Advisors in Indiana

Success in the financial industry isn’t constructed overnight — it’s earned through years of trust, experience, and guiding clients through life’s most important financial decisions. That commitment recently led Oak Partners Wealth Advisor Marc Ruiz to be recognized by Forbes as one of Indiana’s best wealth advisors.

Ruiz ranked 79th on the Forbes 2026 Best In-State Wealth Advisors list. While this is an individual recognition for Ruiz, he credits the entire Oak Partners team for allowing him to be in a position to receive this Forbes recognition.

“I was incredibly pleased to be recognized. It was a bit of a process to apply, submit data, do an interview – but I’m glad that the effort paid off,” Ruiz said. “I also couldn’t be as successful without my team.”

Even though Ruiz is one of the most experienced members of the Oak Partners team, he believes this Forbes recognition is one of the most prestigious of his career. Not only does it create a level of satisfaction for the years he has devoted to this industry, it also lets people throughout the state of Indiana know how reliable Oak Partners is.

“Every year, the firm gets recognized by The Times’ Best of the Region, which is always a gratifying achievement because it’s a reader’s poll and we are mostly a Northwest Indiana firm. To be recognized on the state level as well – there’s a lot of strong advisor firms throughout Indiana, so it’s definitely reassuring. I know we run a great practice here and we have a great connection with all of our clients,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz, who started with Oak Partners in 1993, has seen plenty of growth opportunities in his time with the firm. In 2002, he started writing a column called “Your Mind on Money” to keep people alert of financial planning and investment insights.

With more than three decades of experience in the financial industry, he pinpoints the transition period of Oak Partners moving from a brokerage business model to the fiduciary business model as one of the most impactful moments.

“We’ve been really doing almost entirely fiduciary work for about 17 years now, and the industry pivoted and went that way about seven years ago,” Ruiz said. “By using that fiduciary standard and developing great client experience around it – that was a hard work pivot when we did it. I think it’s been so much better though for our clients, and it’s good to see it paying off.”

Through his experience and the lessons he’s learned in his career, Ruiz believes two things stand out above the rest that have impacted his path to success as a wealth advisor.

“There’s the appreciation for human nuance, which is really being able to understand personal financial habits and behaviors of my clients. I appreciate advising them around their own personal values and habits, which is something that takes decades to understand and learn,” Ruiz said. “On the human side, it allows you to understand them, their behavior, their needs, and their goals. On the financial market side, there’s no substitute for experience. They always say, ‘History doesn’t repeat in financial markets, but it does rhyme,’ and just having that frame of reference for market behavior over many cycles allows you to provide the best advice and account management that you can.”

While Ruiz believes that decision making in the financial industry can be difficult at times, having this frame of reference for market cycles is vital to help people understand what a good investment looks like.

One of the best parts of Ruiz’s experience as a wealth advisor has been the rewarding feeling he gets from assisting clients in their navigation of major financial decisions or planning for their futures.

“There’s literally not a financial situation or a family money situation that we have not worked through in our career with clients,” Ruiz said. “The combination of being an experienced investor and planner, while being consistently available when clients need us, is so important for them. We want to provide them with real answers about complicated financial situations; it’s just the greatest thing I can provide to them from the experience point of view.”

Not only does Oak Partners work with adults on financial advice, it also works with students who are learning about investing or hope to get into the financial industry one day. Through programs like high school internship programs, Ruiz believes that anyone with a passion for the financial market and a desire to always learn something new will take people far in this industry.

“I’m mentoring a young woman right now, and it’s a long process. It takes about three years to raise a competent wealth advisor,” Ruiz said. “You have to find things you have a passion for, and you have to try and make the community a better place. On the financial market side, this is a lifetime of learning. Some young investors might think the one market cycle they’re in establishes their entire frame of reference when it’s just a temporary situation. A lot of it is about navigating a series of sequential temporary situations.”

With years of experience and a desire to create the best client experience, Ruiz being recognized by Forbes was not something that came into fruition overnight. It took decades of committing himself to the people in Northwest Indiana to receive this state-level achievement, and he’s honored to do so while representing Oak Partners.

For more information on Oak Partners, you can visit oakpartners.com.

The Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisor ranking, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on in-person and telephone due diligence meetings and a ranking algorithm that includes: client retention, industry experience, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, including: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Portfolio performance is not a criterion due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. Neither Forbes nor SHOOK Research receives a fee in exchange for rankings. Best of the Region awards based on reader votes.

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC.