Fidelity shifts course -- and gears -- on RIA leadership by naming a head of the RIA and a head of clearing business to fill the role held singly by departing, technology-focused Rohit Mahna
The Boston company's clearing custody grew to $5.1 trillion from $3.5 trillion under Mahna's leadership as head of client growth, where technology took priority, but two relationship managers are taking his place.
5 min readAfter a period of lackluster growth in its third-party “wealth” business, Fidelity Investments is promoting two longtime staffers to absorb the duties of Rohit Mahna, 49, atop the RIA business.
Mahna was poached from Salesforce in Dec. 2021 and is now exiting.
The Boston company is promoting Marc Squires 51, and Trevor Norton, 54, to the leadership team of Fidelity’s Institutional Wealth Management Services while also maintaining their existing responsibilities.
Squires is currently head of clearing sales and relationship management, and Norton is currently head of custody sales and relationship management.
“Marc and Trevor possess deep knowledge of the wealth management space,” a spokesperson says by email.
"They bring a combined 50+ years of experience leading our strong relationship management and sales teams, offering a unique understanding of our clients’ needs.
“Fidelity is deeply committed to its clearing and custody business and remains an industry-leading firm with $5.1 trillion of assets under administration [as of Sept. 30].”
Future preparation
Fidelity nabs a top LPL RIA executive for new ultra-affluent unit
Mahna joined Fidelity in January 2022 and Canter departed in July of 2022. At the time Fidelity reported that Canter's group would report into Mahna on an interim basis.
In that respect, Mahna came to be known as “head of RIA,” though he had a different title and operated at a more senior level of leadership. Norton ended up performing duties more like Canter's, though not under the same title.
Promoting Norton and Squires is a good move by Fidelity to people its RIA leadership with executives more like David Canter who headed RIA custody pre-Mahna-- and was beloved by the industry, says Timothy Welsh, president of Nexus Strategy.
“It's amazing it took Fidelity four years to replace [Mahna]. I never saw him at events or shaking hands.”
In Mahna's role as head of client growth, he oversaw all sales and relationship management for Fidelity's clearing and custody businesses. Under Mahna, Fidelity updated its Wealthscape advisor technology. See: Fidelity touts renewed Wealthscape, but departs from the AI hype with low-key launch; it's 'part of the larger story, not necessarily the story,' company says
Norton had served as head of RIA and Family Office since 2022 and was poached from LPL Financial in 2011. See: Fidelity nabs Norton, a top LPL RIA executive for new ultra-affluent unit
Story Timeline
He spent two-and-a-half years helping LPL get its RIA custody business off the ground, and worked with Fidelity for more than 10 years before that. He started with Fidelity in 1998.
Squires has been with Fidelity for 28 years and started out as a trading assistant in the Merrimack, N.H. branch office, according to his LinkedIn page.
Shaking things up
Fidelity Institutional makes biggest hire in years -- a very familiar face in RIA technology -- in a play for software and data 'interoperability,' something Salesforce 'got right' before it lost its RIA mojo
Mike Durbin, then Fidelity's head of institutional, said in a 2021 release that Mahna was being hired to be a different kind of wealth services head.
"Rohit’s experience at that intersection of fin+tech – and Fidelity's focus for the past several years of investing heavily in solutions that will meet those clients’ needs – are how we will play a key role in
helping our advisors prepare their firms for the future and grow their businesses,” he said.
Welsh questioned Mahna's 2021 hire at the time because it seemed like a mismatch.
“Wow – that is a BIG job Rohit got,” Welsh said. “Fidelity must be keen to shake things up, if they go to there to bring in an outsider.”
Welsh added: "Rohit was NOT an RIA guy – that was his underling Steve Mooney. Rohit was financial services, mostly banks and wires, so he has very little domain knowledge in the fiduciary space."
Market split
Though Fidelity's $5.1 trillion is a substantial asset base for advisors, it grew modestly under Mahna's sales leadership. He started at $3.5 trillion [start of 2022] for a bump of about 46% over the four-year stretch. The S&P 500 rose about 40% over the same time. Note: The starting amount of $3.5 trillion was lowered after publication because it had previously included non-clearing & custody assets, which depressed the percentage growth.
By comparison, Schwab's RIA custody assets surpassed $5 trillion after ending 2021 at $3.2 trillion, a leap of around 60%.
Fidelity declines to break out RIA custody assets from its clearing assets, though a Barron's article quoting Cerulli almost two years ago said Fidelity holds about 22% of the total and Schwab holds about 54%.
Schwab currently holds about $5 trillion of RIA assets, which, all things equal, would put Fidelity well over $2 trillion, today.
Citywire first broke this story earlier today, citing sources “with knowledge of the matter.”
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