Tag: Employee Ownership
RIA Edge Podcast: How a Focus on Process, Service and Scale Built a $4.2B AUM RIA

RIA Edge Podcast: How a Focus on Process, Service and Scale Built a $4.2B AUM RIA

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What does it really take to grow an advisory firm without losing control of culture or client experience?

Growth can look attractive from the outside, but building something sustainable requires discipline, structure and long-term thinking.

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong interviews JC Abusaid, president and CEO of Halbert Hargrove, about building a $4.2 billion RIA through disciplined organic growth. He shares how centralized operations, a well-structured internship pipeline and flexible minimums fuel sustainable expansion. JC also explains his employee-ownership model, his perspective on private equity pressure and how AI and technology investments are shaping the firm’s next phase.

Key takeaways:

  • Why centralized operations create scale, consistency and firm-wide efficiency
  • How lowering minimums for younger advisors drives long-term client growth
  • Building a structured internship program that becomes a hiring pipeline
  • Managing teams without advisor-led management to protect culture
  • Using AI and technology as productivity accelerators, not cost controls

Resources:

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With JC Abusaid:

About Our Guest:

JC Abusaid is the CEO and President of Halbert Hargrove, a wealth advisory firm founded in 1989. JC earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Finance emphasis from the Colegio de Estudios Superiores de Administracion in Bogota, Colombia, and his MBA from the University of Redlands School of Business. He was awarded the ACCREDITED INVESTMENT FIDUCIARY designation by the University of Pittsburgh-affiliated Center for Fiduciary Studies. In 2016, JC earned a LEAD Certificate in Corporate Innovation from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and in 2021, he took part in BlackRock’s first Emerging Leader Lab.

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RIA Edge Podcast: Scaling an RIA Through Talent and Ownership with Tom Orecchio

RIA Edge Podcast: Scaling an RIA Through Talent and Ownership with Tom Orecchio

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Growth can mean very different things depending on how a firm is built and who it is built for.

What does it really take to evolve from a small advisory practice into a professionally managed firm without losing culture, client focus or identity?

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Tom Orecchio, CFA, CFP, ChFC, AIF, chief executive officer, wealth manager and principal at Modera Wealth Management, about building an employee-owned RIA designed for long-term growth. He shares how leadership, ownership alignment and disciplined M&A shape Modera’s growth approach. 

Tom also explains how service expansion, technology investments and organic growth planning support advisors while keeping clients at the center.

Key takeaways:

  • Identifying the growth trajectory inflection point where advisor principals need to become, or hire, professional managers
  • His firm’s experience with employee equity ownership
  • What Modera looks for in acquisition partners (beyond location or size)
  • Why a technology revamp set the firm up to support future growth, retain operational consistency and the client experience
  • His firm’s approach to organic growth

Resources:

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With Tom Orecchio:

About Our Guest:

Tom’s career began at Heritage Financial where he worked as a financial planner. In 1995, he joined the firm Greenbaum and Associates where he later became a partner. His role as a principal and wealth manager continued as the firm grew and evolved into Greenbaum and Orecchio and then into its current entity, Modera Wealth Management, LLC.

Tom received his B.A. in government and law from Lafayette College and went on to earn some of the most recognized credentials in the industry. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional. He is also a Chartered Financial Consultant, a Chartered Life Underwriter® and an Accredited Investment Fiduciary.

Tom is a National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) registered financial advisor. He has demonstrated his leadership and commitment to fiduciary standards in the industry by serving as NAPFA Chairman (2007-08) and as a national board member (2004-08). In 2013, Tom was the recipient of the NAFPA Robert J. Underwood Distinguished Service Award. He is an active member of the CFA® Institute, the National CEO Study Group, and the 20/20 National Study Group.

Tom is actively involved in the community as director of the Modera Wealth Management Scholarship Fund and is on the board of directors for the Modera Charitable Foundation. He also sits on the Northeast Advisory Board for Lafayette College. Tom has served as a board member of the finance committee for the Cathedral of Saint John the Theologian and also Northvale PAL, Inc. In addition, he has served as NV Eagles Youth Football president, Bergen County Junior Football League treasurer, and has sat on the board of directors for the youth baseball league in his town. Tom loves spending time with his family and three sons and often can be found on the football or baseball field coaching his sons’ teams.

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RIA Edge Podcast: Building Wealth Firms That Last with Mark DeLotto

RIA Edge Podcast: Building Wealth Firms That Last with Mark DeLotto

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What makes a financial advisory firm truly sustainable in the competitive world of wealth management?

Join David Armstrong as he engages with Mark DeLotto, partner and corporate development officer at Simon Quick Advisors, on the firm’s distinctive growth journey and his roadmap for future growth. Mark offers insights into cultivating a culture of broad ownership, team collaboration, and strategies for organic growth driven by deep expertise in trusts and estate planning, and his ambition for more dealmaking in the RIA space. 

David and Mark discuss:

  • The transformation of Simon Quick Advisors from an early focus as a family office, to advising a few institutions, to becoming a full-service wealth management firm for HNW and UHNW clients.  
  • How broadening the number of next-gen employee owners has aligned the team around the firm’s goals and incentives, and the impact that decision has had on the firm’s growth trajectory. 
  • Why the firm decided to bring estate planning intelligence in-house.
  • The firm’s first three M&A deals, and how Mark and his partner believed in the mission to the point where they made personal guarantees to the bank to raise the capital to pursue a deal. 

Resources:

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With Mark DeLotto:

About Our Guest:

Mr. DeLotto joined Simon Quick in April 2007 and currently serves as the Partner and Corporate Development Officer, with primary responsibility over the areas of finance and operations. He also oversees human resources, legal, compliance, technology, and infrastructure, and, as a member of the Management Committee, contributes to the firm’s strategic direction, business development, and business planning. He also sits on the firm’s Operating Committee. In early 2013, Mr. DeLotto became an equity partner of Simon Quick.

Mr. DeLotto began his career with Fleet/Quick & Reilly as a Financial Advisor. At the Bank of America Investment Services, he managed and serviced client assets. He earned Series 7, Series 66, and New Jersey Life and Health Insurance Producer Licenses and was selected to partner with a successful team of advisors in 2005.

Prior to joining Simon Quick, Mr. DeLotto supervised, mentored, and coached over forty financial advisors and sales assistants as a licensed market principal at Bank of America Investment Services, Inc.

Mr. DeLotto has a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Villanova University School of Business. He is an active member in the Morris/Somerset Chapter of the Villanova Alumni Association and was an active member of The Villanova School of Business and served as a mentor in the Commerce and Finance Counselor program. A graduate of the Delbarton School in Morristown, NJ, he currently serves on the Board of the Alumni Association and is the Co-Chair of the school’s annual fundraising effort. Mark currently sits on the Technology Advisory Board for both Pershing LLC (an affiliate of BNY Mellon) and Fortigent LLC (an affiliate of LPL Financial). Mark sits on the Board of Directors for the ARC of Morris County, an organization dedicated to people affected by intellectual and related developmental disabilities and their families in Morris County.

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RIA Edge Podcast: CEO Rob Mooney On Snowden Lane’s Pivot to a ‘New Chapter’ in 2025

RIA Edge Podcast: CEO Rob Mooney On Snowden Lane’s Pivot to a ‘New Chapter’ in 2025

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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:

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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