For the third year, we are excited to name the top professional services firms in wealth management. These firms bring expertise from adjacent fields – such as law, marketing or strategic capital raising – into the wealth management arena to provide guidance and strengthen the industry. This year’s PRO 4 winners demonstrate excellence while playing pivotal roles in raising the standards of our industry.
In addition, we bring you our Deals & Recruiting Roundup; technology advancing compliance; Alera Group on holistic retirement needs; Intention.ly on constant innovation; wealth.com on AI in estate planning; recruiting by RFG, SFA Partners and Raymond James; BlackRock’s report on “generational opportunity” in fixed income ETFs; SEIA hiring Matt Matrisian as President and Kevin Keefe joining Independent Financial Group as President and COO.
Deals & Recruiting Roundup: This edition of the Deals & Recruiting Roundup covers Lido acquiring BluePointe, Altruist raising Series F funding, ECHELON Partners releasing its first quarter M&A Deal Report, Elevation Point taking a minority stake in Fortage Capital Advisors, RFG adding advisors in North Carolina and Oregon, Raymond James recruiting Biss Wealth Partners, DayMark adding a $200 million team, Strategic Blueprint recruiting three firms, Kestra recruiting Turas, SEIA appointing Matt Matrisian as President, Sound Income Group hiring Scott Clarke and Daniel Sheehan, and RBC recruiting a $500 million team from Merrill Lynch.
And the winners are: This year our PRO 4: Top Wealth Management Professional Services Firms are Essential Edge, Intention.ly, Lone Willow Advisors and Seward & Kissel.
Retirement wellness: Christian Mango, EVP and National Practice Leader of Retirement Plan Services at Alera Group, addresses the evolution of retirement plans, saying that modern plans need to holistically address employee needs, stress and financial wellness.
Fix before it breaks: Randy Lambert, Head of RIA Solutions at Intention.ly, makes the case that the “don’t fix what isn’t broken” philosophy can harm RIAs. Instead, he says firms should update their processes and continually evolve while leveraging technological advancements.
AI-based estate planning: Seungwoo Son, Vice President of Applied AI at wealth.com, addresses the transformation of estate planning by AI-based technology, how it advances human connections and what the future may hold.
Tech augments compliance: In the latest Regtech Surge column, Sid Yenamandra, Founder and CEO of Surge Ventures, explains how technology can help with compliance issues such as audit trails, data security, siloed data, policy gaps and more.
Carolina and Oregon recruiting: RFG Advisory recruited North Carolina-based Tyler Brown from Edelman Financial Engines, and Oregon-based Claudia Porter from Cambridge. Brown launched TurnPoint Wealth. Brown commented, along with RFG’s Chief Growth Officer Abby Salameh and CEO Shannon Spotswood.
Raymond James recruits from Edward Jones: Al Biss joined Raymond James’ independent advisor channel Raymond James Financial Services (RJFS) as Biss Wealth Partners. Biss previously managed about $325 million in client assets with Edward Jones. He and Sanjiv Shukla, Western Assistant Division Director for RJFS, commented.
SEIA hires Matrisian: Signature Estate & Investment Advisors (SEIA) appointed Matt Matrisian, formerly of AssetMark, as President. Co-Founder Brian Holmes was previously President and will continue as CEO.
IFG onboards Keefe: Independent Financial Group (IFG) hired Kevin Keefe as President and COO. Keefe and CEO and Founder Scott Heising commented.
“Generational opportunity” in ETFs: The BlackRock report “Innovation Meets Opportunity” projects fixed income ETFs are on pace to hit $6 trillion in AUM by 2030, if not earlier, due to accelerating investor demand and widening adoption. The report discusses how investors can leverage bond ETF innovation to navigate markets and capture what the firm sees as a “generational opportunity.”
SFA recruits from Osaic: Strategic Blueprint, an RIA in the SFA Partners family of firms, recruited three advisory firms from Osaic representing $200 million in client assets combined. Jamie Mackay, President and Chief Operating Officer, SFA Partners, and Michael Bryan, Chief Growth Officer of Strategic Blueprint, commented.
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Larry Roth
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Wealth Solutions Report
