As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we are excited to once again highlight outstanding achievement by women leaders and professionals in the wealth management industry with the Pathfinder Awards – Top Women Industry Leaders of 2025. In two concurrent articles, winners address the industry on empowering women as advisors and clients.
We also bring you our Deals & Recruiting Roundup, our on-location coverage of Future Proof Citywide, Cerulli’s research on revenue models for advisors, Yenamandra on minimizing compliance costs with AI, opportunities for advisors serving rural clients and J.D. Power’s study showing DIY investors are turning to the pros.
Deals & Recruiting Roundup: This edition of the Deals & Recruiting Roundup covers Merit’s acquisition of Sanctuary, Summit’s stake in Gateway, Wealth Partners Capital Group and HGGC’s stake in MCF, Pure’s purchase of Personal Investment Management, Integrated’s recruitment of Prout, GCM Grosvenor’s joint venture with Ryan Chapman, AssetMark’s debut of its succession program, Dynasty appointing investment banking leaders, Sequoia Financial Group naming a General Counsel, Altruist appointing a Chief Business Officer, Orion naming an EVP of Wealth Product and Clearstead appointing an Executive Chairman.
Women Pathfinders: We announce the winners of the fourth annual Pathfinder Awards – Top Women Industry Leaders.
Empowering women advisors: Pathfinder winners Beth Lawlor, President, Private and Affluent Wealth Management at U.S. Bank; Moira Buckley, Vice President of Western Territory at Prudential Advisors; Elizabeth Pavlik, Chief Product Officer at Docupace; and Julie R. Davis, Head Of MMFA Field Recruiting & Development at MassMutual, address how the wealth management industry is doing with respect to women advisors and leaders, and discuss what steps should be taken to make improvements.
Advancing women clients: Pathfinder winners Hayley Wood Bates, Senior Financial Advisor at Signature Estate & Investment Advisors (SEIA); Terri Kallsen, Managing Partner at Rise Growth Partners; Jacqueline Martinez, Managing Partner at Alaris Acquisitions; and Heather Fortner, Chair and CEO of SignatureFD, address how the wealth management industry is doing when it comes to advancing women clients and women in the general public.
Future Proof on technology: At Future Proof Citywide, Craig Iskowitz, CEO of Ezra Group, moderated a panel on blending human expertise and digital innovation with Ritik Malholtra, CEO of Savvy Wealth, and Eden Ovadia, CEO of FINNY AI.
Amy DeTolla, Founder and CEO of Aureus Advantage, moderated a panel on the digital transformation of private markets with Michael Maroon, Managing Director of GLASfunds, and Ryan Eisenman, Co-Founder and CEO of Arch.
We also spoke with Michael Purcell, Managing Director, Sales and Business Development at Canoe, about alternative investments, AI and large language models (LLMs).
Future Proof on product innovation: Also at Future Proof Citywide, Vildana Hajric, a Reporter at Bloomberg, moderated a panel on cooperation for product innovation with Bryon Lake, Chief Transformation Officer, Asset & Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs Asset Management; Jose Minaya, Global Head of Investments and Wealth at BNY; and Mark Alberici, Head of Product Innovation & Third Party Relationships at State Street Global Advisors.
We also spoke with Katie Rooney, CMO of USCF Investments, about commodities ETFs, and Phil Huber, Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Solutions at Cliffwater, about private market interval funds.
Fee-based in the lead: Cerulli research shows the fee-based model is dominant and growing for financial advisors, while commission-based revenue declines. The research also discusses alternative methods for revenue generation, such as financial planning fees. Andrew Blake, Associate Director at Cerulli, commented.
Minimizing compliance risk: In this month’s Regtech Surge column, Sid Yenamandra, Founder and CEO of Surge Ventures, describes the types of damage that compliance problems can cause and the AI-based solutions that are available to minimize the risk.
Seeking humans: A J.D. Power study shows that young DIY investors are seeking human advice, and ranked Raymond James on top for client satisfaction. Kapil Vora, Senior Director of Wealth Intelligence, J.D. Power, provided comments.
Rural wealth: Opportunities and challenges exist in providing financial advice for rural clients. We examine rural wealth with Paige Christofferson, Chief Business Development Officer at Berthel Fisher; Daryl Seaton, President of Sowell Management; Jamie Mackay, President and COO of SFA Partners; and Tarah Williams, President and COO of Prospera Financial Services.
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Larry Roth
CEO
Wealth Solutions Report