Tag: Leadership
RIA Edge Podcast: Cresset’s Eric Becker on the Power of Purpose-Driven Growth

RIA Edge Podcast: Cresset’s Eric Becker on the Power of Purpose-Driven Growth

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Cresset’s rise from a family-led vision to one of the nation’s leading multifamily offices shows how purpose and culture can shape enduring organizations.

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Eric Becker, co-founder and co-chairman of Cresset, about the firm’s mission to build a 100-year wealth management business focused on families, not just finances. Eric shares how Cresset was designed by clients, for clients, to combine investment excellence with family governance, education and community.

David and Eric explore how RIA principals and executives can avoid short-term thinking, especially amid the frenzy of day-to-day operational planning and the quest for the elusive “personalization with scale” client service model. Eric suggests lessons other RIA leaders can learn from his study of the world’s longest-surviving companies, which he captured in his recently published book The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies. 

David and Eric discuss:

  • How Becker and his co-founder started Cresset because they couldn’t find a wealth management platform that met their own family’s needs, making them their own first two clients and fundamentally shaping their client-centric approach
  • The goal to put the “family back into family office,” moving beyond investment management to include governance, education, health resources, concierge services and community
  • Becker’s belief in pursuing “just the right amount of growth” and his four-pillar framework for managing expansion without sacrificing service quality or burning out teams—that includes culture, people, numbers and business model.
  • Cresset’s unique employee-ownership model (60% employee-owned, 30% client-owned, 10% strategic investor) and how this structure aligns incentives for long-term thinking
  • 100-Year Business Thinking: Drawing from his book The Long Game, Becker explains why building for longevity actually creates more valuable, attractive businesses and better serves clients who are also thinking generationally about their wealth.

Resources:

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With Eric Becker:

About Our Guest:

Eric Becker is the Founder and Co-Chairman of Cresset, an award-winning multi-family office with more than $70 billion in assets under management. Alongside Founder and Co-Chairman, Avy Stein, Eric was one of Cresset’s first two clients. He and his team designed the firm to meet a specific need, and also for growth and sustainability; His desire to build a “100-year-old” firm led him to study some of the longest-running companies across different industries, and recently published The Long Game: A Playbook of the World’s Most Enduring Companies, which captures his observations on what they all have in common. 

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RIA Edge Podcast: The Balefire Wealth Journey with Jason Hester and John Hoffman

RIA Edge Podcast: The Balefire Wealth Journey with Jason Hester and John Hoffman

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Balefire Wealth’s transformation from two thriving RIAs into a unified enterprise business with national ambitions showcases the strength of shared vision and cultural alignment.

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong talks with Jason Hester and John Hoffman, co-CEOs of Balefire Wealth, a new RIA born earlier this year from the merger of their two established firms. The episode explores how the duo combined their complementary businesses—one focused on ultra-high-net-worth clients and the other serving the mass affluent/HNW market with a strong corporate retirement plan business—to create an integrated wealth management enterprise designed to be greater than the sum of the parts. The discussion reveals their strategic approach to building a comprehensive service platform while maintaining a collaborative leadership structure that prioritizes both client outcomes and advisor growth, and their plans to accelerate the firm’s growth trajectory in 2026.

The three discuss:

  • Why it took two years of discussions before the Hester and Hoffman formally combined their firms, followed by a “32 second” decision to serve as co-CEOs, and how they make the partnership work.
  • How they built an infrastructure that brings advisors into a team-based practice designed to serve the diverse needs of clients, from mass affluent to UHNW, under one roof. This includes their unique approach to financial planning, how they developed their client segmentation strategy and how they envision client services evolving to sustain and manage family wealth.  
  • How they launched the firm with 16 advisor-owners, a pathway to ownership for recruits and—as of yet—no outside capital.
  • Why they feel the future belongs to hybrid advisors who don’t focus only on AUM as a measure of success, and how that approach reshapes client relationships for the better.
  • What their plans are to transition from recruiting like-minded advisors to approaching the M&A market as acquirers in 2026, and their thoughts on potentially working with the “smart money” investors who have entered the RIA space to support that growth.
  • What their approach is for the firm’s corporate retirement plan business, with approximately 130 companies and around 45,000 participants, and how it sees the qualified and unqualified retirement plan market not as investment advisors but as strategic HR partners helping companies meet talent and retention challenges.

Resources:

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With Balefire Wealth:

About Jason Hester:

As Managing Partner and Co-CEO of Balefire Wealth, Jason Hester leads the firm’s strategic vision and oversees its multi-division growth across a national footprint. With 25 years of experience in organic growth, strategic leadership, and private wealth frameworks, he guides the development of holistic planning solutions for affluent families and corporate clients. Jason is deeply involved in capital strategy, advisor acquisition, post-merger integration, and platform optimization, while mentoring leadership and cultivating a culture of clarity, accountability, and innovation. He works closely with the Executive and Organic Growth Teams to ensure Balefire continues to set a new standard for enterprise advisory firms.

Jason and his wife, Brandy, have been married for 25 years and have three children—Henley, Hayes, and Bryce—who are each launching careers of their own. They live on a farm in Central Mississippi, where they enjoy gardening, outdoor sports, and traveling together. Jason also spends his free time reading, playing golf, riding motorcycles, working with his hands, and tackling home projects.

About John Hoffman:

With over 25 years in the financial industry, John Hoffman leads with a bold vision of growth and transformation.

For 20 years at Principal Financial, he excelled as an Advisor, Managing Director, and ultimately Regional Managing Director—roles where he shaped strategy, developed high-performing teams, and attracted top talent.

Now, as Managing Partner of Balefire, John is responsible for the firm’s inorganic growth and has built a “one-team” culture in an industry that often operates in silos. He has created team-based values aligned with a bold new vision, ensuring talent thrives in an authentic and collaborative environment. His leadership centers on finding the right team players, creating alignment, and scaling the organization as a unified company.

Beyond Balefire, John is deeply engaged in his community. For over three years, he has served as a Board Member at Bolder Options, a nonprofit that provides wellness-based, activity-centered mentoring for youth. For the past 10 years, he has also chaired the Finance and Investments Committee at Portico Benefit Services, a nonprofit ministry of the ELCA that provides health, retirement, and investment benefits to faith-based organizations and their leaders.

John currently lives in Dallas, Texas.

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RIA Edge Podcast: John Bunch on Scaling Up Allworth Financial

RIA Edge Podcast: John Bunch on Scaling Up Allworth Financial

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Scaling growth isn’t just about getting bigger; it’s about vision, discipline and striking the right balance between legacy and innovation.

So how does a $30 billion-plus RIA navigate the complexities of rapid acquisitions, evolving culture and the disruptive promise of AI?

In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong sits down with John Bunch, CEO of Allworth Financial, to unpack how he’s guiding a founder-led firm into a professionally managed enterprise. From people and strategy to the smart use of technology, John shares what it takes to shape the future of advisory services at scale.

John discusses:

  • The evolution of Allworth from a founder-led practice to a $30 billion-plus RIA with a national footprint
  • His leadership philosophy in transitioning firms from founder-driven to professionally managed organizations
  • How acquisitions, large and small, fit into Allworth’s growth strategy and culture
  • Why investment management, tax planning and estate services are central to serving today’s high-net-worth clients
  • How the firm is using AI and why it is being employee-driven

Resources:

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With John Bunch:

About Our Guest:

John Bunch is the Chief Executive Officer at Allworth Financial. Universally recognized within the wealth management industry, he has accumulated an extensive 30-year history of successfully leading and expanding award-winning organizations that serve both retail and institutional clients.

Before coming to Allworth, John spent over three years as the Chief Financial Services Director at Evelyn Partners (formerly Tilney Smith & Williamson), a leading integrated wealth management and professional services firm headquartered in the United Kingdom. Prior to that, he was the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Edelman Financial Engines – where he oversaw 130 branch offices – and the Chief Executive Officer of The Mutual Fund Store. Before that, he held several key institutional sector leadership positions, including Executive Vice President at TD Ameritrade and Divisional Senior Vice President at Charles Schwab & Co.

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From Practice to Platform: Strategic RIA Growth With Stan Gregor

From Practice to Platform: Strategic RIA Growth With Stan Gregor

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With more investors seeking out financial advice than ever before, RIAs are in a position to capitalize on an evolving mix of investing, planning and technology developments that can create long-term business growth.  

In this episode of RIA Edge, Mark Bruno, managing director at Informa Wealth Management, speaks with Stan Gregor, CEO of Summit Financial. Stan shares details on Summit’s growth trajectory in recent years – while offering advice on how other firms can create scalable, repeatable growth strategies and transform their practices into truly unique advice platforms. 

Specifically, Mark and Stan discuss:

  • Balancing organic and inorganic growth strategies
  • How to identify the right types of acquisition, recruiting, and partnership opportunities
  • The difference between growth and “good growth”
  • The most valuable technology and communication lessons learned in the past 18 months

Connect With Mark Bruno:

Connect With Stan Gregor: 

About Stan Gregor:

As a senior executive with over 30 years of experience, I’ve operated in banking, private wealth management, investment management, fiduciary trust services, fixed income trading, investment banking, retirement services, insurance, financial planning and public finance. I’ve been involved in acquiring and integrating some of the largest and most complicated banking, wealth management, insurance, and capital markets businesses and cultures with a demonstrated track record of increasing productivity, profitability and shareholder value.

At Summit Financial, I apply these decades of financial services experience every day to ensure our firm continues to fully align client and advisor needs. Through SummitVantage, our fully integrated suite of advisor resources, we create legacy partnerships with leading advisors looking for full support–and full flexibility–to thrive in a crowded market.

 

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