The IA 25 All Stars

Mark Tibergien, 2003-2011

CEO, Pershing Advisor Solutions

When Mark Tibergien first appeared on the IA 25 back in 2003, he was a principal at the Seattle-based accounting firm Moss Adams. IA's then-Editorial Director William Glasgall wrote of Tibergien's optimism for the industry, a sentiment that Tibergien hasn't lost in the nine years since. 

"The good news is that [this is] a terrific business, and those enterprises that are built to endure through difficult environments and can achieve scale are in a great position to flourish," he told Investment Advisor in 2011.

"We are fundamentally dealing with a collection of small businesses who are continually conflicted between growing and managing their businesses, and growing and serving their clients," Tibergien said, adding that it will be interesting to see in five years "how many practices transform into businesses."

Read Mark Tibergien's extended profile from the 2011 IA 25.

Deena Katz, 2003, 2004, 2006-2010

Chairman, Evensky & Katz Wealth Management

"Ninety-five percent of planning is the ability to explain complex things in an easily understandable way," Katz told Investment Advisor in 2003. Katz says the greatest challenge ahead will be managing expectations–not just clients', but her own, and the industry's expectations for its future. "It's a fine line between coach/counselor and shrink," she said, "and I'm not sure we're educationally prepared."

In 2010, Katz was still a strong supporter of education, but had added to her equation for advisors' success. Three things the profession would need to stay on course, she said, were regulatory guidance, education and research. "We have the body of knowledge and we're starting to get regulatory guidance around what we do," she said.

Read more about Deena Katz in the 2010 IA 30.

Mary Schapiro, 2006-2011

Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission

Mary Schapiro has appeared on the IA 25 every year since 2006, and in that time she has proven herself as a regulatory powerhouse. From the pre-recession days of 2006 when she said the biggest challenge facing advisors was making sure baby boomers had enough income to "live comfortably in retirement," to the contentious fiduciary debates of 2011, one thing is clear: Schapiro is not one to back away from a challenge. As we wrote in the 2011 IA 25, "if anyone knows how to handle being on the hot seat, it's Mary Schapiro." She's been grilled by members of Congress multiple times over the SEC's mishandling of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, funding shortfalls that she argues are vital to maintain the agency's ability to oversee the industry, and the heavy regulatory burdens that came out of Dodd-Frank.

It appears she's well-suited to meet those challenges though. In 2007, Schapiro told Investment Advisor that she missed the "nitty-gritty" of policy decisions after moving up to head FINRA and being less invloved in the details of policy-making.

There is a tremendous desire among the public for advice and for solutions to their financial problems," she argued then. "The challenge is going to be developing products that are very sound–I'm not talking about taking the risk out of investing; we'll never do that nor should we even attempt to do that–but tapping into these changing demographics with products that are in the investors' best interests and ensuring that they are sold appropriately."

Read Mary Schapiro's exclusive interview from the 2011 IA 25.

Dale Brown, 2007-2011

President/CEO, Financial Services Institute

Dale Brown's been so effective managing the Financial Services Institute that he now has to figure out how to manage its growth. Since his first appearance on the IA 25 in 2007, FSI's rapid growth gave it the influence to put its "fingerprints all over" the Dodd-Frank legislation. "We didn't get everything we wanted," he conceded in 2011, "but then again no one did."

Brown has been an advocate for the advisory profession for more than 20 years, first with the IAFP, then the FPA, and since 2003 as president and CEO of the FSI. In 2007, he said "navigating the increasingly complex and burdensome regulatory environment" was the industry's greatest challenge, adding that the future of the independent BD was "very bright."

Read Dale Brown's extended profile from the 2011 IA 25.

Sheryl Garrett, 2003-2006, 2010

Founder, Garret Planning Network

As if it weren't enough to build a successful firm based on the untried idea of offering financial advice by the hour for a fee to middle-income clients, we wrote of Garrett in 2003, she created the Garrett Planning Network to serve middle-income clients for an hourly fee. She provides the coaching, templates, resources, and sample documents to get advisors started and keep them going in their own practices.

As of 2010, Garrett had stopped seeing clients personally, but the Garrett Planning Network had expanded to about 310 advisors in 43 states, Thailand, China and Kenya. She described the planning process for clients as "like going to the dentist, but hopefully not as painful."

"I am extremely proud of helping to change the financial services industry by proving the viability of working with Middle America and do-it-yourselfers on a fee-only basis," she said in 2004. "What was once deemed impossible is now the talk of the town at many industry conferences and with many financial journalists."