Temperatures in New York City reached triple-digits on Tuesday, June 25, but not even a heat wave could damper vibes for the second-annual InvestmentNews awards inside the Edison Ballroom where the financial services industry celebrated alongside a red carpet and twirling dancers.
“We're all joking about the heat, but I think everybody's just loving being here,” said Jeff Vivacqua, whose Cambridge Investment Research won the Thrivent Award for Employer of Choice. “Nobody's on the floor talking about the markets. Everybody is out there just seeing people that we all know. It's too small of an industry, and an event like this you get to see people that you work with and their peers. It's a friendly competition, but it's fun.”
The ballroom’s suspense was palpable for attendees like Emily McGrath of the investment management firm Pimco, which won Wholesaler of the Year. “I'm blown away by it. The energy in the room, people are just electric,” she said. “I love that no one knows they're gonna win. The build up behind it drives a lot of excitement.”
InvestmentNews' own Gregg Greenberg emceed the evening, which crowned four regional Advisor of the Year winners, including The Wealth Planner’s John Lloyd in the Southwest. “I think one of the things that we kind of stand out for is just my knowledge, if you will. I have a pretty strong tax background, so I work with relatively wealthy people and all those folks are typically concerned about two things - getting sued and minimizing taxes. We try to help minimize that for them.”
Dave Alison of Alison Wealth Management won Advisor of the Year in the Southeast, while Dennis Morton of Morton Brown Family Wealth in Allentown, PA. winning for the Northeast.
“I'm really excited to take this [trophy] back to our community,” Morton said. “There's a lot of good work being done here and there's an opportunity to do more. The community needs us, so we'll be really excited to take it back to Allentown.”
Midwest Advisor of the Year winner Sam Huszczo of SGH Wealth Management shared the same sense of community pride. “I'm in Detroit, which is kind of a flyover destination for a lot of people. So to get this recognition of what we're doing there, it's pretty special,” Huszczo said. “I've been doing this for 22 years with no M&A, no shortcuts, all organic growth from zero. I don't have family connections or anything like that.”
Sam Huszczo, SGH Wealth Management (c) Becky Yee
A firm who has seen succession through M&A is Merit Financial, which won RIA Firm of the Year. CEO Rick Kent said the $16 billion firm has made eight acquisitions this year and could hit as high as 18 by the end of 2025.
“It’s difficult to bring those people in, get them focused and marching in the same direction. There's something magic going on in Merit that allows us to do that,” Kent said.
Another powerhouse to come away victorious was Broker-Dealer/Custodian of the Year LPL Financial, whose big year has spanned an Anna Kendrick commercial on top of its $2.7 billion acquisition of rival broker-dealer Commonwealth Financial Network.
“We're really excited about the acquisition, because what it's going to enable us to do is introduce capabilities and features that are obviously important to our Commonwealth advisors, but they're going to improve the advisor experience as a whole,” said Kristie Edling-Day, CIO of advisor technology at LPL. “Every advisor is going to benefit from this acquisition, and we're going to bring features that clients have been asking us for years to deliver.”
Another theme of the night was advisors championed for leading social causes, including learning disability advocate Jordan Toma of Prudential Advisors, who won the Excellence in Philanthropy and Community Service award after speaking at over 150 schools in the past year.
“A lot of kids come up and told me they're weren't suicidal anymore because of things that I spoke about. Saved a lot of lives, that's what it's all about,” said Toma, who has millions of social media followers. “When I meet my clients, I get connected with their community and I get connected with their schools, so it all comes together. Prudential Advisors has been a big part of me connecting with communities all over the country.”
Winning the award for DEI Organizational Effort of the Year was Janus Henderson Investors. Ashton Private Wealth advisor Cary Carbonaro, who won DEI Trailblazer of the Year, is the author of the book released earlier this year called Women and Wealth: A Playbook to Empowering Clients and Unlocking Their Fortune.
“My life's work is to change the industry for women, to make it female friendly, and to make men understand that women are different,” said Carbonaro. “You need a playbook for women that’s different to what they did with men. The industry was built by men for men. It's changing, and the future of wealth management is women.”
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