RIA executives who defined $5.5 trillion, 12-year growth run in RIA biz represent new resource -- 'on-tap' senior advisory talent

The CEOs and executives who defined the RIA business over the last 12 years are settling into a new ecological niche – on-demand senior consultants to both start-ups and the biggest firms in the industry they helped transform.

From Eric Clarke in Omaha, Neb., to Walt Bettinger in Westlake, Texas, once leading CEOs are choosing to stay involved in the industry.  

They are doling out wisdom learned when they oversaw a remarkable leap in the size, value and cachet of the RIA industry, which manages just under $8.5 trillion today. See: Seven 'RIA' chief executives are stepping aside for CEO ‘operators’.

Indeed, of 19 noted CEOs who have relinquished the top job since Feb. 2023, 16 now serve in advisory positions at dozens of firms, from Charles Schwab Corp. to McKinsey & Co., and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). 

They also advise start-ups as disparate as Vise, a tech-powered asset manager, and Elevation Point, which supports and invests in RIAs.  See: Walt Bettinger joins CD&R just four months after Schwab retirement.

In short, the Mom-and-Pop era is over.

“We’ve entered a new phase where the RIA space has matured to the point that there’s a deep bench of seasoned leaders now available in more flexible advisory and board roles,” says former Orion CEO Eric Clarke, who holds four board roles, and an advisory position at Orion.

“That 'on-tap' senior talent model, especially among folks like Karin [Risi, formerly of Vanguard] and Kathleen [Murphy, formerly of Fidelity], really reflects the evolution of the industry,” Clarke adds.

Guns for hire

Risi, Vanguard's managing director for strategy until late 2024, is now an independent director at $143 billion AUM alts manager HarbourVest.

Murphy, the former president of Fidelity's personal investing, who recently joined BlackRock's board, also represents a further evolution. See: Karin Risi, an odds-on ‘next in line’, and founder of Vanguard's $312-billion 'RIA,' exits the company.

It's not just industry CEOs who are opting to stick around, rather than quietly retire; leading executives – many once touted as CEO material – are choosing to become advisory gunslingers, too. See: BlackRock adds Fidelity's retail legend and Morgan Stanley ex-retail chief, sparking belief Larry Fink is eyeing wealth channel.

Former Schwab Chief Financial Officer Peter Crawford has joined Bettinger at CD&R; former Cresset President Liz Nesvold is now vice chair of Emigrant Bank and former Schwab Chief Operating Officer Joe Martinetto is now executive chair of Schwab Bank. See: The upper RIA echelon mass-exit is now at 25 and counting.

Surging tide

The sheer scale of the RIA industry certainly may play a part in the decisions of top executives who stay in the industry. 

The issues they are asked to advise on are those of complex mega-businesses operating in a dizzying network of relationships.

As a result, top talent that came of age in the RIA industry, Clarke included, is increasingly in demand.

In the last 12 years, the value of assets managed by RIAs has almost trebled, growing 182% from $3 trillion at year-end 2012, to $8.47 trillion at year-end 2024, according to data from Boston consultancy Cerulli Associates.

The number of RIAs has also surged by 2,529 to 18,684 today from 16,155 at year-end 2012. See: What exactly is an RIA?

The average RIA AUM is up too, from $185.7 million, year-end 2012, to $453.3 million today; and the number of advisors RIAs employ leaped from 51,727 to 83,433 over the same period, Cerulli reports.

Even the level of capital available to companies in the RIA industry is surging, with leading private equity and venture capital shops investing in every part of the ecosystem, including directly in RIAs themselves.

Financial technology companies alone have raised $31.3 billion in the last two years, and in just one week in May, financial technology companies, including Addepar, pulled in a combined $1.1 billion in fresh funding.

Staying sane

Once you've held the top job in a top industry, it's also difficult to replace the adrenaline, which provides an extra incentive for retiring executives to stay involved, according to consultants Navio Kwok and Rebecca Slan Jerusalim, who lay out their case in a 2024 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article.

The pair cite Jeffrey Sonnenfield's 1980s study of top CEO departures, in which Sonnenfeld writes that "in contemplating their own retirement, [CEOs] see only losses." 

Bill George, executive fellow at the Harvard Business School, says board roles can help stave off post-retirement blues.

"Many former CEOs find that this period of generativity is very fulfilling," George wrote in a 2019 HBR article.

The loss of camaraderie can be an issue, too.

“If there’s anything I miss, it’s probably the camaraderie that comes with leading a team through the grind,” says Clarke.

“But the trade-off has been more flexibility and perspective, which I’m really enjoying,” he adds.

‘Absolute blast’

Yet if the RIA business now makes such demands that top executives are less suited to simply sailing off to chart the links and sip clubhouse cocktails, the positive side is equally undeniable, according to Clarke.

“I’m having an absolute blast these days, serving on a handful of boards, working with a few early-stage startups, and carving out more time to travel with my family,” he explains.

“The variety and the chance to help shape things without being deep in the day-to-day execution has been both energizing and refreshing,” he adds.

Of the 19 CEOs and 26 executives considered in this article, only two - former Vanguard Chair and CEO Tim Buckley and former LPL CEO Dan Arnold – hold no roles in wealth management.

Buckley left Vanguard in July 2024. He now serves on the boards of Boeing and Pfizer.

Arnold left LPL in October 2024. He has yet to take on a new role, although his LinkedIn profile states he is chief executive of the eponymous Arnold Enterprises. See: Dan Arnold steps down as LPL CEO, under a cloud, effective immediately; Steinmeier steps in as interim CEO.

Six more former RIA industry CEOs have also launched new businesses, including Aaron Klein's Contio, and John Wise's Communify Fincentric. See: Aaron Klein is back in the game with a new startup, a Nitrogen wrinkle, 'hall of fame' RIA backers and a plan to build a better meeting for Advisors.

Hands-on, or hands-off?

Clarke also recently lifted his board role tally back to four, after losing his fourth when the company he founded, Orion, moved him upstairs to its new advisory council – a role the firm claims will help him get more, not less, hands-on.

Yet Clarke took less than two months to pick-up a new board position at Jim Dickson and Mark Penske's minority RIA investor Elevation Point.

Clarke also serves as a senior advisor to McKinsey & Co. and as an operating advisor to Karl Heckenberg's Constellation Wealth Capital.

He lost his Orion seat as part of executive chair, Charles Goldman's April downsizing of the firm's board – from 11 to eight. See: Sleeping giant McKinsey & Co. hires Eric Clarke.

Goldman moved Clarke, ex-Brinker Capital CEO Noreen Beaman and ex-RedTail CEO Brian McLaughlin off the board and onto Orion's "advisory council" to address a too-many cooks dilemma and make the board group more “manageable,” he told Citywire.

At least nine current and former Orion executives now hold positions on Orion's advisory board, including Goldman; CEO Natalie Wolfsen, former Orion Executive Chair Jonathan Baum and Genstar Capital advisory board member Lori Hardwick. All hold full board seats, too.

Getting stuck in

Yet Goldman insists that Clarke, McLaughlin and Beaman are far from hanging up their spurs. 

Instead, the board changes simply remove fussy ‘high-level’ issues like analyzing the firm's financial performance from their in-trays, leaving them fresh to contribute their expertise, he explains, in an email exchange.

It's “a natural evolution of Orion's governance structure, designed to leverage the deep expertise of this incredible group of operators in a more hands-on, operational capacity,” he says.

The board “focuses on high-level strategy and financial oversight with our private equity partners … [whereas] the advisory council is focused on providing hands-on guidance to enhance Orion’s technology, wealth and service offerings,” he continues.

"The group dives into operational details, industry trends, and client needs – areas where Eric, Brian, Lori, Jon and Noreen’s expertise really matter[s]. 

It allows engagement “with our management team on strategy, operational and industry-specific initiatives, at a level of depth that we weren’t able to accomplish at regular board meetings,” he adds.

Indeed, the council's "work complements the board’s strategic oversight, ensuring we’re both forward-thinking and grounded in practical execution," he concludes.

Strategic vision

Yet if Clarke is a case study of a former RIA CEO shifting post-retirement career path, Risi and Murphy, equally, are examples of leading executives in the RIA industry – operating a tier below CEO – who have also refused to exit stage left, after wildly successful careers.

Risi, 52, once the heir-apparent to the Vanguard CEO spot, has joined forces with HarbourVest.

“Karin is recognized for her leadership and strategic vision … [and her] knowledge and experience will provide invaluable insights and perspective," says HarbourVest CEO, John Toomey, in a release.

Risi left Vanguard in Dec. 2024 after almost 28 years, with little explanation given beyond a positive but detail-light LinkedIn post. One source linked her departure to a philosophical clash with Salim Ramji, who took over as Vanguard CEO last July. See: Salim Ramji takes Vanguard CEO helm.

HarbourVest recently suffered an abrupt status change in its own relationship with Vanguard, according to a May 29 release. See: Vanguard Group's private equity retail push gets real as it launches buyer-beware products this summer.

It lost its exclusive status as Vanguard's alts provider of choice, when Vanguard called in bigger guns and a bigger brand by signing a new partnership with BlackStone, April 16. See: Vanguard and Blackstone disclose joint ‘initiative’.

Case 3:

Meanwhile, Murphy, 61, who retired early from Fidelity due to a bereavement, is a significant coup for BlackRock, even if her board role precludes her from any involvement in the firm's day-to-day business – a fact not lost on BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

Prior to her retirement, Murphy took Fidelity's then-ailing 2009 retail side-business and by 2016 turned it into the company's largest division, transforming it into a $4-trillion-plus force on a par with Charles Schwab & Co.

She “brings a deep understanding of the needs of individual investors … [and a] demonstrated ability to drive better and greater opportunities for this segment … she will add immediate value,” Fink said, Mar. 27.

* Orion disputes the characterization of Clarke et al.'s role change as a “removal” from the board, stating that the change is better characterized as a “transition,” or “natural evolution.” See: Orion names 'left-brained' Natalie Wolfsen as CEO to replace Eric Clarke.