Next-gen leadership as $750M wealth firm transitions to 100% employee owned

A wealth management firm in Redwood City, California, is starting a new chapter in its story, forty years after it was founded.

In the decades since Dennis Pettinelli founded Pettinelli Financial Partners it has grown to $750 million in assets under management for more than 500 advisory clients. But a multi-year plan for leadership succession planning and firm ownership has now come to fruition.

Jon Pettinelli becomes the new chief executive officer of the firm having been president since 2019, succeeding his father who has stepped back from day-to-day operations to take on an ambassador role alongside continued mentorship of its employees and advocacy for its clients.

The firm has also transitioned to 100% employee ownership which it believes creates the closest possible alignment of interests between the firm’s financial advisors, staff and clients.

“We’ve always taken great pride in delivering the service experience our clients expect and deserve, and the completion of our strategic repositioning as a 100% employee-owned firm furthers our ability to do just that,” said Jon Pettinelli. “With four new committed owners, we are better positioned than at any other time in our firm’s history to accelerate our growth and success by further elevating the quality and sophistication of the service experience we deliver to seek multi-generational wealth for our clients.”

The four new owners are professionals who make up the firm’s leadership team alongside Pettinelli:

Client relationship manager Hanice Fong has been with the firm for 17 years and her commitment to strong client relationships has been instrumental in supporting Pettinelli Financial’s mission to maintain lasting client connections.

Getting a wealth management firm’s client-facing side of the business optimized is simpler when the team is supported by strong office management and Allison Steele is office manager, having joined the firm in 2016, and looks after business operations and human resources.  

Alos joining the new partners is Rick Rodriguez, one of Pettinelli Financial’s financial advisors, with over a decade of advisory experience.

Finally, Cooper Grady leads the firm’s centralized financial planning team as director of financial planning and hailed for his role in transitioning Pettinelli Financial to its integrated team-based model, which Jon Pettinelli says is central to the firm’s reorganization.  

“We can now mobilize the full spectrum of expertise and skills across our entire firm to provide a comprehensive, planning-based experience for each client,” Pettinelli said. “This model enhances our prior structure and will be a robust foundation for our forward growth vision.”

Last year, the firm switched from Osaic subsidiary Royal Alliance to Stratos Wealth.