Savvy Wealth builds legal foundation with former Pathstone general counsel

Savvy Wealth, the digital-first wealth platform with a professed mission to modernize human advice, is strengthening its legal and compliance core with another veteran addition to its leaderhip.

The firm announced Wednesday that it has hired Lisandra Wilmott as its first head of legal and compliance, a move aimed at strengthening the company’s operational foundation as it expands its national RIA affiliate, Savvy Advisors.

Wilmott, who most recently served as general counsel at Pathstone, will oversee the firm’s legal and compliance functions, including policy design, regulatory oversight, and legal infrastructure across departments.

Her appointment marks the latest in a string of leadership hires at Savvy Wealth this year, following the additions of Eric Hurkman as chief technology officer and David Weiner as chief growth officer.

“This is a massive opportunity for me to leverage my vast experience in the wealth management industry and build a legal and compliance operation from the ground up,” Wilmott said.

Savvy Advisors, the RIA under Savvy Wealth’s umbrella, recently passed a key milestone as it expanded more than 50 financial advisors. Having achieved that scale, the firm is now moving to formalize legal operations to better support new recruits and advisor transitions.

With Wilmott in place, Savvy Wealth aims to remove administrative and compliance bottlenecks, aligning its legal strategy with broader business goals, particularly around recruiting.

The firm’s founder and chief executive, Ritik Malhotra, said Wilmott’s background made her an ideal fit for the company’s next growth phase focused on empowering advisors.

“We believe Lisandra will play an integral role in this effort – especially in supporting new advisors as they join Savvy,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

During her nearly five-year tenure at Pathstone, Wilmott helped lead the firm’s legal and compliance team as the company scaled its assets from $25 billion to nearly $200 billion. She also played a key role in guiding the firm through a series of acquisitions.

Earlier in her career, she held legal leadership positions at LPL Financial and J.P. Morgan, advising on corporate governance and regulatory matters.

Savvy Wealth has been positioning itself as a technology-forward platform for financial advisors, with an emphasis on streamlining advisor workflows and digital engagement. To support that, Savvy recently brought on Eric Hurkman – a decades-long fintech veteran who previously led engineering efforts at Carta, focusing on its venture capital software products – hiring him as its first-ever chief technology officer in February. 

That same month, the company named David Weiner as chief growth officer, another inaugural C-suite position. Weiner, a veteran of several technology startups including Compass and Electric, is leading advisor recruitment and network expansion for Savvy Advisors.

Savvy is not the only firm to bolster its legal bench this year. Earlier this month, Osaic brought on Saumya Bhavsar as chief legal officer and general counsel. Bhavsar previously led legal for Meta FinTech and will now be tasked with navigating regulatory strategy as part of Osaic’s executive leadership team.