After hitting $2.7 trillion in RIA assets, Envestnet adds an RIA executive position to expand wallet share with existing wealth clients -- many of them Tamarac users

Envestnet swapped one "RIA" executive for another and got a whole new RIA sales strategy in the bargain.

The Berwyn, Pa., administrator of $6.5 trillion of managed wealth is bidding adieu to RIA channel chief, Phill Rogerson, who will leave the firm after six years, on June 13. 

Envestnet welcomed Sean Meighan as the newly created head of RIA distribution on Jun. 2. For the last six years, he was managing director of advisory services at Altria, which was just acquired by LPL Financial.

“Having led a corporate RIA and supported thousands of independent advisors, I've seen first-hand how the right technology and service model can accelerate advisor growth,” he said in the linked release.

“Sean’s focus is on deepening engagement with our existing RIA clients, ensuring they’re fully supported in leveraging the breadth of Envestnet’s capabilities,” says Andrew Stavaridis, chief relationship officer, Envestnet.

“Over the past two to three years, Envestnet has been aligning our business units, technology platforms, solutions and go-to-market strategy to more effectively serve and help RIAs grow," 

Committed strategy

The release was titled: “Envestnet Strengthens Commitment to RIA Channel” and the move coincides with a rethinking of Envestnet's RIA strategy. 

Envestnet was sold to Bain Capital last year in a take-private deal and is looking for ways to revamp and become more profitable under new CEO Chris Todd, who joined the firm on Jan. 21.

Asked where RIA custody figures in on Meighan's RIA roadmap and whether conceivably Envestnet could roll out its own custody service, Stavardis responded:

"We will continue to approach custody in the RIA market in the way that makes the most strategic sense—serving both the current needs of RIAs and addressing where the market is headed."

"We're still very much committed to our multi-custodial strategy - meaning we're agnostic about who an RIA wants to work with." See: See: Envestnet drops plan -- for now -- to enter RIA custody

New focus

Meighan's job is strictly to cross-sell the existing 2,400 RIAs; Rogerson's job was to attract new RIAs from the outside. 

RIAs – long confined to Tamarac inside the Envestnet ecosystem – are buying SMAs [separately managed accounts] through improved integration with Envestnet, which is a giant SMA clearinghouse, Tom Sipp, executive vice president, business lines, explained in Feb. 2024.

The better news is that Envestnet is “getting real traction” with RIAs, who buy SMAs but are then willing to be cross-sold a host of other Envestnet products, including direct indexing, tax overlay and data and analytics services.

To juice those SMA-model portfolio sales, Envestnet “leans" into relationships with the biggest asset managers, which return the lean-in by marketing the portfolios and SMAs in-house out of mutual self-interest, Sipp explained.

Envestnet, which serves over 111,000 financial advisors, built itself on IBD reps who wanted to outsource fee-based advice to create a fee-based practice. 

Major revamp

RIAs, of course, are inherently fee-based, though many of them do seek to use separately managed accounts and other methods that make IBD reps successful in handling larger client volumes.

Envestnet also just announced a major 18-month revamp of its software, including upgrades to its rebalancing, unified managed account (UMA), CRM (Tamarac), performance reporting, trading, and accounting software. 

Envestnet RIAs have a combined $2.7 trillion of administered assets across the company, or about 40% of Envestnet's total assets.  It serves over 500 of the largest RIAs in the United States, according to Envestnet.

That $2.7 trillion total includes assets administered by Tamarac but excludes MoneyGuidePro AUA, according to the company. See: See: On Bill Crager's last CEO call, Envestnet dangles bright future where Tamarac becomes the mouth of its sales funnel