Page 32 - Investment Advisor - November 2021

needs of their clients with lower costs and increased trans- Kelley Downing, executive chair, wealth advi-
parency. Under Lau’s leadership, DPL has introduced a new sor, principal, Bartlett Wealth Management,
model for RIA practices that lets them compete by better was the first woman to hold a leadership posi-
serving clients with a comprehensive suite of retirement tion at Bartlett & Co. when she was promoted
income and insurance products. He also has helped DPL to president and CEO in 2007. She has used her
secure $26 million in equity capital from Eldridge and Atlas platform to lift the next generation of female leaders inside
Merchant Capital. Bartlett and in the community. During her tenure, Bartlett
became a partner firm of Focus Financial Partners. In 2019,
Sheryl O’Connor, CEO & co-founder of Downing led the search and merger with a $1.5 billion Chicago
IncomeConductor, has two decades’ experi- firm to become a $6 billion company. As executive chair on the
ence in building companies and teams that has firm’s management committee, she developed a team approach
taught her to look beyond the day-to-day chal- to client service, creating greater continuity with multi-gener-
lenges of her startup and build a large network ational client relationships.
of associate executives, experts and associates across the
industry. Not long after co-founding her firm in 2017, a retire- Shannon Eusey, CEO of Beacon Pointe Advisors,
ment income platform that provides a suite of support to advi- since founding it in 2002, has led the firm
sors who want to redefine their value proposition as retirement through two major recessions. When the pan-
income professionals, she received first prize in the FFiT demic struck, she oversaw a 24-hour immedi-
Female Founders in Fintech global competition. O’Connor ate transition to a fully remote work
received further recognition as one of the Top 50 “Inspiring environment with no disruption to clients and a minimal
FinTech Females 2020” by NYC FinTech Women. adjustment for employees. Eusey, a strong advocate for gender
diversity, founded Beacon Pointe’s Women’s Advisory Institute
to promote financial education. The firm consistently exceeds
INDIVIDUALS – RIAs industry averages for gender diversity, with women holding
senior or executive positions in every department and women
Jonathan Straub, founder and principal of making up more than 45% of employees.
AdvicePeriod, pioneered a strategic initiative to
engage next-generation leaders within the Hamesh Chawla is chief product & technology
company called Project+. AdvicePeriod tapped manager of Edelman Financial Engines. In
12 teammates to engage in the initiative’s devel- 2020 Hamesh completed the firm’s unified
opment through a series of working-group sessions. They cre- digital experience for all planners, clients and
ated goals for five key areas of the business, then shared these prospects. The planner platform was built
with the entire team. The upshot is a firmwide sense of inclu- mainly in-house, including its own financial planning soft-
sion, whereby the entire team can provide ideas, take the lead ware. The team also customized Salesforce to create the
on projects and offer insights into areas outside their regular firm’s own customer relationship management system.
job duties. Also due to the pandemic, Straub proactively Through improvements in machine learning and cloud com-
migrated AdvicePeriod to a cloud-based tech stack, enabling puting, clients can complete basic paperwork more efficient-
seamless work-from-home functionality. ly, allowing the advisor and client to get to meaningful
conversations more quickly. Early in the pandemic, Chawla
James Maher is CEO and founder of Archford, helped advisors become comfortable with remote work,
which offers a suite of wealth management deploying tools such as DocuSign and Genesis Cloud to
services, reflecting Maher’s background as an reduce the administrative effort.
attorney, financial advisor and CPA. Recently,
the firm launched its Archford Accounting Larry Miles, president and CEO, Freestone
division by acquiring two local accounting companies to assist Capital Management, galvanized his team to
its clients with records and tax management. Its Archford transform the firm into a digitally integrated
Family Library organizes data in a Dewey Decimal-type sys- wealth services provider focused on what truly
tem managed by a personal librarian to help clients keep matters, which is embodied in the “TEAM”
important documents organized in a secure online portal. In initiative: ‘T’ for technology, which is an investment, not an
anticipation of tax changes in 2021, Maher has hired tax and expense; ‘E’ for expanded services, which will allow Freestone
accounting experts to help businesses and families position to proactively deliver what truly matters to clients as their
themselves and their finances accordingly. needs evolve; ‘A’ associates, the firm’s most important asset;

30 INVESTMENT ADVISOR NOVEMBER 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com