There’s no replacement for specialized, honed expertise. Specialists save lives, solve unique problems and enable us to do what we could not otherwise accomplish, at home and at work. Specialized teams of professionals in wealth management empower and guide us in ways that catalyze our efforts and solve our difficulties, making us and our industry much more efficient and productive. This week, we honor the top five professional services firms in our industry, which have proven pivotal to the success of so many of us and our businesses.
We also bring you our monthly Wealthtech Roundup and weekly Deals & Recruiting Roundup, an expert panel on AI for advisors, marcoms approaches for elections, the impact of remote work on recruiting, Bluespring’s $1.35 billion acquisition, Commonwealth’s latest recruit and the launch of an energy ETF.
Professional excellence: We honor the top five professional services firms that are having an impact on the wealth management industry: CEG Worldwide, Fusion Financial, GreenLine, Hamburger Law and Wipfli.
Deals & Recruiting Roundup: Meet our newest Recruiter of the Month, Troy Hammond, CEO of World Investment Advisors. We also cover OneDigital Investment Advisors acquiring ASI Wealth Management, Bluespring Wealth Partners acquiring Rodgers & Associates Wealth Advisers, Sequoia Financial Group acquiring Karpas Strategies, Robertson Stephens acquiring Ratio Wealth Group, Commonwealth recruiting Sentinel Advisory Group, Cetera recruiting Mike McCormick, CAPTRUST Financial Advisors surpassing $1 trillion, Wealthcare Capital Management surpassing $7 billion, Focus Financial Partners promoting Travis Danysh to Chief Corporate Development Officer, Bridgemark Strategies adding three recruiting specialists and Merrill partnering with IMG Academy.
Wealthtech Roundup: Meet our newest Wealthtech Leader of the Month, Michael Batnick, Managing Partner at Ritholtz Wealth Management. Other entries include Genstar buying into Docupace, RISR partnering with Journey Strategic Wealth, Domain Money hiring Kyle Sausser as Head of Growth, Dynasty promoting Leslie Norman to CTO, iCapital partnering with Perigon Wealth Management, InvestCloud partnering with Buckingham, The Oasis Group releasing an AI WealthTech Map, BMO’s survey on customer usage of AI, LPL hiring Sushil Vyas as CTO of Infrastructure and Operations, ACA Group acquiring Encore Compliance, and Arete Wealth tapping BNY Pershing for its custody and Wove solutions.
Leveraging AI for advisors: Craig Iskowitz, Founder of the Ezra Group, moderated a discussion on AI uses, tools and opportunities with Lee Davidson, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Morningstar; Sindhu Joseph, CEO of CogniCor Technologies; and Henry Zelikovsky, CEO of Softlab360.
Pennsylvania purchase: Kestra Holdings subsidiary Bluespring Wealth Partners acquired Rodgers & Associates Wealth Advisers, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based firm with more than $1.35 billion in client assets led by husband-and-wife partners Rick and Jessica Rodgers. Rick Rodgers and Stuart Silverman, Chairman of Bluespring, provide comments.
Marcoms during elections: We asked marcoms veterans Rob Farmer, Senior Vice President at StreetCred PR; Joe Anthony, President at Gregory FCA; and Sean Neary, Co-Head of Financial Services at Edelman Smithfield, how advisors should adjust their strategies for this historic election cycle.
Remote recruiting: The pros and cons of remote work on recruiting wealth management talent present a complex picture that we discuss with Sander Ressler, Managing Director of Essential Edge; Cecile V. Munoz, President of U.S. Executive Search & Consulting; Will Briggs, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer at Cambridge Investment Research; and Craig Bartlett, SVP of Advisors, Choreo.
Wisconsin recruit: Commonwealth Financial Network recruited Middleton, Wisconsin-based Sentinel Advisory Group, formerly with Northwest Mutual. With more than $300 million in client assets, Sentinel is led by Co-Founders Brent Cashore, Peter Shulla and Nathan Keeling. Cashore, Shulla and Becca Hajjar, Managing Principal and Chief Business Development Officer at Commonwealth, provide comments.
Recruiting specialists: Consulting firm Bridgemark Strategies hired three recruiting specialists: Managing Directors Jason Hawn and Timari Robison, and Senior Vice President, Recruiting, Travis Boak. Firm CEO and Co-Founder, Jeff Nash, provides comments.
Value energy ETF launch: Octane Investments launched its first investment product, the Octane All-Cap Value Energy ETF (OCTA), which looks for strong cash flows and balance sheets in energy stocks at over $1 billion market cap. The firm’s Managing Director, David Allen, comments.
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Larry Roth
CEO
Wealth Solutions Report
