Page 38 - Investment Advisor September 2021

Josh Crawford, vice president of coaching at ics that can improve their understanding, financial literacy
Matson Money, equips U.S. advisors with skill- and client outcomes.
sets to build robust long-term financial plans
for clients and teaches them how to garner net Justin Castelli, of RLS Wealth, teamed with
new assets and grow organically. He educates Taylor Schulte to found the Advisor Growth
investors on the right allocation strategy. In 2020, Crawford Community, whose sole purpose is to promote
and his team encouraged advisors to keep their clients invest- professional growth for U.S. advisors. In addi-
ed during the sharp market decline and subsequent volatility. tion, he has designed a subscription fee plat-
He also successfully pivoted Matson Money’s business model, form to help younger professionals who don’t have large
built around live events, into a virtual event, bringing to more investment portfolios access to quality financial planning and
people the firm’s American Dream Experience, a group semi- advice. Active on social media, Castelli publishes content to
nar for investors focused on the empirical and behavioral educate both his clients and anyone else who may be interest-
dimensions of wealth creation. ed, for example, in how he views current issues that may affect
their portfolios or how parents can educate their children on
Stacey McKinnon, chief operating officer, the importance of understanding finance early in life.
Morton Capital, enthusiastically advocates for
women in finance and closely mentors several Ross Marino is leader of Transitus Wealth
female team members. She is also an active Partners and Advisor2X, which educates and
writer and regularly speaks on podcasts and trains chief executives of advisory firms and
contributes to leadership training programs. In the past 12 their advisors. At Advisor2X, he is responsible
months, McKinnon wrote two white papers. One encouraged for leadership and strategic planning, and cre-
leaders of organizations to spend time building a hybrid work ates content and oversees programs. Last year, he published
environment for their teams. The other proposed that acting in “Shaping Change: How to Respond When Life Disrupts Your
the clients’ best interest goes far beyond financial advice, and Retirement Plan,” co-authored with Susan Bradley, and launched
is actually dependent on the resiliency of firms, growth, the two podcasts, one for retirement plan advisors who serve plan
employee experience and establishing a culture of learning. sponsors and participants, the other for consumers and finan-
cial planners who want to make better financial decisions by
Greg Friedman, founder and CEO, Private understanding human and financial issues.
Ocean Wealth Management, believes that by
lifting others, everyone wins. In the past 18
months, he helped roll out an all-virtual con- PRODUCTS, PROGRAMS & SERVICES –
tent platform called the Ocean Current that ASSET MANAGEMENT/PORTFOLIO FIRMS
includes interactive events, webinars, resources and a podcast.
He also tapped his experience as the founder of Junxure CRM AllianceBernstein, in early 2021,
to create a customized RIA customer relationship manage- collaborated with experts at
ment platform integrated with Salesforce. Friedman also pub- Columbia University’s Earth
lished “Integrating Culture in Successful RIA Mergers and Institute to open the Climate Change and Investment Academy,
Acquisitions” with co-author Cynthia Greenfield. The book which integrates scientific and academic analysis of how cli-
focuses on work culture, which he has long advocated as one mate change can affect investment risks and opportunities.
of the keys to his success in the industry. The academy was deployed through a learning portal that
combined recordings and live interaction between investors
Rick Wedell, chief investment officer, RFG and faculty over a six-week period. In April, AllianceBernstein
Advisory, built a next-generation investment became the founding member of Columbia’s corporate affiliate
platform to give retail investors bespoke access program at the newly launched Columbia Climate School, the
and customization long available to large insti- world’s first purpose-built school focused exclusively on tack-
tutions and made it available via a dedicated ling climate change and its related challenges.
website, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Called
Steadfast, the platform combines due diligence with account- BlackRock’s Emerging Leader Lab
level customization; it uses a goals-based approach whereby is designed to help advisor clients
every investment is allocated toward either appreciation, build a pipeline for their next generation of leaders, including
income, preservation or opportunistic sleeves. With the tech- CEOs, chief investment officers and senior advisors. The pro-
nology in place, Wedell began using social media to educate gram, which started as a pilot with 54 RIA firms during the
financial advisors, clients and the general public around top- COVID-19 pandemic, includes peer-to-peer learning in small

36 INVESTMENT ADVISOR SEPTEMBER 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com