RIA Edge Podcast: CEO Rob Mooney On Snowden Lane’s Pivot to a ‘New Chapter’ in 2025
Snowden Lane entered 2025 on a high note. The firm had an active recruiting year, expanding its national footprint and posting record profitability and revenue with approximately $12 billion in AUM.
Yet the highlight for CEO Robert Mooney was the decision to buy back a significant portion of the firm’s equity from its original financial backer, Estancia Capital. The firm also broadened ownership to more employees and managers while letting longer-tenured advisor partners cash in some vested chips at “an attractive valuation.”
Now, 75% of firm ownership is in the hands of managers and employees. Mooney sees the pivot away from outside capital as something to celebrate, particularly as more competitors run toward private equity.
In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong talks with Mooney about the recent changes at Snowden Lane and how his firm is navigating the shifting dynamics in wealth management.
Rob shares insights on:
- Why the wirehouses are still Snowden Lane’s best hunting grounds for talent, though he is starting to see serious opportunities to recruit from other RIAs; the firm recently added Charles Schwab as a custodian alongside its traditional partner Pershing.
- A new proprietary retirement transition plan that offers advisors eyeing the exits an early payout.
- The growing role of alternative investments, where the demand is coming from and how advisors are integrating them.
- Why firm executives are bringing more practicing advisors from the field offices into managing director roles to help with strategic growth decisions.
- The sustainability of current RIA valuations and what firms might be getting wrong.
- The firm’s recent recapitalization and the benefits of broadening ownership in the firm to advisors and home-office employees.
Resources:
Connect With David Armstrong:
- WealthManagement.com
- LinkedIn: WealthManagment.com
- LinkedIn: David Armstrong
- Twitter: David Armstrong
- LinkedIn: Informa
Connect With Rob Mooney:
About Our Guest:
Rob is the Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Snowden Lane. Rob spent 22 years at Merrill Lynch, in New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, and London. He was General Counsel and Chief Business Risk Officer of Global Wealth Management and a member of the GWM Executive and Operating Committees. He previously held senior executive positions in International Private Client and the Asia Pacific Region. Rob started at Merrill Lynch in London (Europe, Middle East, and Africa Region) and before that worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He has a BA from Franklin and Marshall College and a JD from George Washington University. He is Chairman of the Board of Centurion, the oldest organization in the U.S. dedicated to freeing the wrongly convicted, and a founding Board member of the Christina Seix Academy, a residential school for underprivileged inner-city children. He is a former Board Chairman and Board member of the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey
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