Susan McKenna is now permanent CEO of eMoney Adviser, the financial planning software owned by Fidelity Investments.
McKenna has been with eMoney since 2018 and most recently served as head of marketing and sales. During her tenure, eMoney has grown to 100,000 users serving more than 5 million households and $4.6 trillion in assets.
She was named interim CEO in March after former CEO Ed O’Brien announced he was returning to Fidelity to lead institutional technology.
Though McKenna continues to “stay the course” in terms of leading the company, she said industry consolidation and new entrants have evolved the planning market, and the company will need to continue to innovate to remain competitive.
“I think eMoney will continue to be an innovator and continue to move the needle in terms of market share,” McKenna told InvestmentNews.
EMoney Pro is the second most popular financial planning software among advisers, with 28.59% of market share, according to the 2022 T3 Inside Information survey of adviser technology. Envestnet’s MoneyGuidePro Elite leads the market with 32.79%.
While both companies’ market shares declined from the 2021 survey, both also have alternate versions of the software that advisers also use. For example, another 5.52% of advisers are using eMoney Plus.
McKenna was quiet about specific ideas for keeping the company competitive, but she did point to the recent hiring of Tom Sullivan, whose experience includes 10 years at Albridge Solutions, as eMoney’s new head of product to guide future innovation.
“All I can tell you is if the next 4½ years are as great as my last 4½, I’ll be really happy,” McKenna said. “The underlying demand for advice continues to be on the rise, and in the pandemic, we’ve only see that increase more and more.”
O’Brien served as eMoney CEO for six years after the company’s founder, Edmond Walters, departed unexpectedly in 2015. O’Brien was not made available for a comment.
Voya Financial adds private equity, credit and real estate options to its AMA program, building on support for looser federal investment rules in retirement accounts.
Shannon Reid, president of Osaic and the network’s number two executive, has plenty of challenges, industry executives said.
Auditors flagged the commingling. The COO allegedly knew. Investors kept getting the pitch
The advisors on the move include two brothers leading a family practice in Connecticut, and a husband-and-wife tandem working with business owners in the West Coast.
Business owners and their heirs may be making assumptions instead of having conversations, creating challenges for succession planning, according to new research.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.