Dani Fava Has a New Gig at Envestnet

Envestnet's headquarters are in Chicago, but the firm has other offices on the East and West coasts. The recently formed strategy group, led by Rich Aneser, is based in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

Aneser — who's worked at Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, UBS and Lincoln Financial — joined Envestnet in the first quarter and is tasked with building the group. The strategy team is focused on managing innovation across the company, including external partnerships and M&A.

Envestnet's turnkey asset management platform, technology and other tools are used by some 103,000 advisors and 4,900 companies, including more than 500 of the largest RIAs, U.S. banks, wealth managers and brokerage firms.

Tech Roots 

Fava's former employer created the role she had as director of innovation "because they recognized the need to have an open-ended innovation engine within the company," Fava explained. The job included following trends and creating new products for RIAs. 

"Similarly, Envestnet has created this position for me as the head of strategic development," she said. "But what they've also done is create a whole strategy office."

According to Fava, Envestnet — as it has grown vertically and horizontally over the past two decades — has built an "ecosystem of wealth management." The firm "has all these pieces and now it's working to build a strategy office to kind of be the visionary [agent] of transformative change for the future. That's just music to my ears. … It's really an exciting position for me."

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