Mentorship and career development will be among the key themes discussed by Merit's Sarah Mouser during the Women Advisor Summit hosted by InvestmentNews on Nov. 5 in New York City.
Mouser joined Merit Financial Advisors in May as EVP of financial planning following her previous stints with Maryland-based Verdence Capital Advisors and Virginia-based RIA Cassaday & Company. Joining Mouser on her panel about advisor talent development will be Francis Financial CEO Stacy Francis and Modera Wealth Management's chief people officer Laurie Vitali.
"With Merit, there is a really big focus on developing our talent, not just from an advisor perspective, but also from a leadership perspective to support that infrastructure," Mouser said. "Technology can start to serve as a mentorship piece to help advisors scale. When you think of advisor development or leadership development, a lot of it is a lack of capacity within those senior leaders or senior advisors to be able to put the time into developing that talent. And we're starting to see technology can serve as a support for that."
Around Mouser's hire at Merit earlier this year, the Atlanta-based RIA partnered with advisor training and leadership development company ClientWise. Part of that partnership entails a 12-month leadership development program for the entire leadership team at Merit, which as of March 2025 said that women represent more than 50% of nearly 300 employees within the company.
"We know that women are going to continue to play more of a significant role in decision making," said Mouser. "They're going to continue to play an even larger role as we look at what wealth transfer is going to continue to look like, and how women can continue to be a stronger presence in our industry to connect with clients."
Cerulli estimates that $124 trillion will change hands in the so-called Great Wealth Transfer through 2048. That total includes $54 trillion that will first pass to surviving spouses, more than 95% of whom are expected to be women. Mouser has been encouraged by the rise of financial advisor education programs on college campuses and how that can result in more women entering the industry.
"We're continuing to see more and more of a trend of women focusing their education development in wealth management and financial planning, and I think that's a great sign to what's to come in having more women continue to find their way into wealth management to support that wealth transfer that we're going to see," said Mouser.
The Women Advisor Summit will conclude with the Women to Watch Awards honoring the most influential women in the wealth management industry. Mouser is looking forward to spending the day with her peers and learning about how they approach shared challenges across succession planning, technology integration, and talent development.
"The conversations are really the most important thing. That's really where I always say the magic happens, when you're able to have those conversations. Not just hear from panel perspectives, but also be able to have the conversations one-on-one," said Mouser.
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