Announcing WSR’s Hispanic Top Industry Leaders

Plus The Latest In Recruiting, A Retirement Specialist Firm Makes Moves, A $1 Billion Custodian Recruitment, How Advisor-Directed Strategies Can Beat DIY Investors, Robos And Third-Party Platforms And More

To My Fellow WSR Community Members:

As National Hispanic Heritage Month draws to a close, we celebrate by naming prominent wealth management professionals from various industry backgrounds as Hispanic Top Industry Leaders in the fourth group of our 2022 WSR Pathfinder Awards.

As always, Pathfinder Awards are an opportunity for persons of diverse backgrounds to share their advice on improving our industry’s diversity and creating welcoming environments, as well as letting students and career-changers glimpse who the winners are as role models for the next generation of leadership.

For those reasons, we give them a platform to discuss their careers, driving philosophies, past experiences and thoughts on diversity issues in several enlightening articles this week.  

In addition, our trend story examines how advisor-directed strategies can cope with do-it-yourself (DIY) investors as well as robos and third-party solutions providers, and we bring you the latest in recruiting news, how to simplify difficult statistics for clients, a $1 billion custodian recruitment, coverage of a retirement-focused firm’s integration and executive buildout and more.

This Week’s Issue

In our On The Rise section this week, we have four articles celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month:

• We honor the 2022 Pathfinder Awards – Hispanic Top Industry Leaders: Stephanie Gutierrez, Head of Product Management and Integrations at Equity Advisor Solutions; Robert Cruz, Vice President, Information Governance & Strategic Alliances of Smarsh; Isidoro Korngold, Chairman of the Board and co-founder at Intercontinental Wealth Advisors; Sandra Terronez, Senior Financial Planner at Bogart Wealth; Edward E. Fernandez, President and CEO of 1031 Crowdfunding; and Angel Gonzalez, ChiefMarketing Officer and co-founder of Snappy Kraken.

• We speak with Hispanic Wealthtech Leader Of The Year Robert Cruz about steps to address inequities in the wealth management industry and wealthtech space, his interest in technology and his favorite parts of working as a wealthtech professional.

• We talk to Hispanic Financial Advisor Of The Year Sandra Terronez about what she enjoys about her career, challenges in the office for women of Hispanic origin and the steps we can take to advance Hispanic women in our industry.

• Hispanic CMO Of The Year Angel Gonzalez shares with us his words to live by, his experiences founding Snappy Kraken and his advice to a person of Hispanic origin considering an entrepreneurial move or a career in wealth management or marketing.

We also have these articles for you:

• Firms must figure out how to ensure that their advisor-directed investing strategies do not become compromised by self-directed “do-it-yourself” (DIY) investors, low-cost robo advisor platforms, as well as third-party solutions providers that serve both advisors and retail clients. In the Upmarket section, we explore insights on this challenge from Andy Watts, CFP, Vice President, Investment Solutions at Avantax Wealth Management; Andy Aziz, Chief Strategy Officer at d1g1t; and Michael Reisner, Co-President & Co-Chief Executive Officer at CION Investments.

• In Newsmakers & Roundups, this edition of Weekly Recruitments covers deals from across the country involving some of the biggest and most active wealth management firms in the industry. We look at Hightower facilitating its fourth sub-acquisition for Fairport Wealth in New Jersey, Wealth Enhancement Group adding Bohmer Kilcoyne Wealth Management in Ohio, Mercer Advisors acquiring Goldstein Munger + Associates in California and Cetera Financial Group recruiting Burrows Capital Advisors via Totus Wealth Management in Texas.

• How do you make complex jargon meaningful for clients? In the Digital Domain, Andy Aziz, the Chief Strategy Officer ofd1g1t,explains how to take complex but useful statistics on client portfolios and goals and present them so that clients find it easy to understand without mastering difficult statistical concepts.

• Also in Newsmakers & Roundups, retirement income veteran David Scranton’s Sound Income Group launches, integrating three retirement-focused companies: Sound Income Strategies, the Retirement Income Store and Advisors’ Academy, and appointing Patrick Farrell as President & COO and Rana Chander as Chief Operating & Information Officer.

• Goldman’s making waves – as an independent advisor custodian. In a third story in Newsmakers & Roundups, $1 billion Merrill Lynch breakaway Beverly Hills Private Wealth selects Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions as custodian. Goldman says it will serve independent RIAs with investment solutions previously only available to institutional clients.

• How do you build the ideal client persona? Also in Upmarket, Josh Harris, Managing Director of Corporate Development at Coldstream Wealth Management, says go beyond labels based on career or net worth and ask lots of questions about the ideal clients, their needs and how you add value.

Please let us know your suggestions, ideas and questions on this week’s articles or what you’d like to see us cover next.

Sharing your congratulations for Pathfinder Award winners or a helpful article with a colleague just takes seconds on LinkedIn!

Have a great week!

Cheers!

Larry Roth, CEO

Wealth Solutions Report