EP Wealth Advisors has added a chief financial officer and elevated a longtime executive to a newly created client-solutions role, the latest move by the fast-growing registered investment adviser to shore up its leadership bench as it pushes past $50 billion in assets.
The Torrance, California-based firm announced Tuesday that John McConnell will join as chief financial officer, while Erin Voisin – who has spent roughly a decade at the firm – has been promoted to chief client solutions officer. The appointments come alongside a wider slate of executive, operating and board additions spanning technology, data, growth and regional leadership.
EP Wealth now manages more than $50.4 billion in assets as of August 31, according to the firm, and serves upward of 25,000 clients across all 50 states. The RIA has more than doubled in size since the end of 2023 and now counts more than 650 employees, 230 advisors and 65 offices nationwide.
Chief executive Ryan Parker framed the buildout as an effort to preserve the firm's client-focused model even as it scales. "At this stage of our growth, every investment has to answer a simple question: Will it make us better for clients and the people who serve them?" Parker said in the announcement.
In January, Parker told InvestmentNews he was intent on keeping the RIA from turning into "some big corporate machine where either clients or employees become nameless, faceless numbers."
McConnell arrives with more than two decades in corporate finance across private equity, insurance technology and retail technology. He most recently served as CFO of Crisp, a retail data platform, where he helped scale the finance function through rapid growth and several acquisitions.
"EP Wealth has the momentum of a growth company and the responsibility that comes with national scale," McConnell said. "A strong finance organization can help the firm make disciplined investments, integrate partners effectively and build for the long term."
At EP Wealth, he will oversee finance, resource allocation and acquisition integration as the firm continues to expand organically and through partnerships.
Voisin's new role consolidates oversight of EP Wealth's financial planning, tax, estate planning, family office, retirement plan, client service and investment functions under a single executive, with a mandate to make those capabilities more coordinated for clients and easier for advisors to tap.
"Clients should not have to navigate our organization to benefit from its full expertise," Voisin said. "Our goal is to make planning, tax, estate and investment capabilities feel connected and personal at every stage of a client's financial life, especially in the moments that matter most."
EP Wealth also added two independent directors to its board of managers: Troy Stevenson, formerly of Uber, eBay and Charles Schwab, and Doug Ketterer, founder of Atria Wealth Solutions and a 25-year veteran of Morgan Stanley. EP Wealth management retains the majority of board seats.
On the technology side, the firm named Kate Middagh as chief information security officer, Uma Meyyappan as managing director of AI and data, Elena Stebakov as managing director of technology product, and John Adams as director of advisor technology – additions Parker's team says are aimed at applying automation to meeting transcription, proposal development and client relationship management so advisors spend less time on administrative work.
"Growth changes what a firm requires, but it should not change what the firm stands for," Parker said.
The leadership and board expansion lands against a backdrop of active dealmaking for the firm. EP Wealth closed its fifth acquisition of the year in June, adding Menlo Park's Opes Wealth Management, which serves a client base of Apple and Google employees. That followed a March transaction in the Mid-Atlantic, when the firm added Bethesda-based Divergent Planning in a deal that extended EP Wealth's presence into Maryland for the first time.
More broadly this past summer, EP Wealth rolled out a cash-based incentive plan tied to the RIA's valuation, which is expected to eventually cover 500 to 550 non-equity-owning employees.
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