Two Women in Wealth Are Shaping the Future

As in past years, Investment Advisor kicks off the year with its focus on Women in Wealth, including the world of wealthtech. This issue’s cover story highlights the views of two veteran industry insiders — Cheryl Nash, CEO of Tegra118 (in above photo on left), and April Rudin (right), who leads the tech savvy marketing team at The Rudin Group.

Nash says that when she talks to college students, she tells them that if they want “a career that’s enriching and that you can be successful in, look at financial services and look at technology.”

There’s “an urgency right now to get more women and people of color into this industry,” she explains. “What a great opportunity for us to lift others up, get them in [the door] and help them grow. Nobody can really do it alone.”

When Rudin was looking at a career change 12 years ago, she went to see a friend at a large bank and trust, who told her she was “too old to be an entrepreneur; banks would never hire outside firms; high net worth individuals would never be on the Internet; and social media is a fad.”

But Rudin listened critically to these views. “Instead of being discouraged by all this, I was encouraged. I thought that if this guy thinks everybody would say those things, then that to me looks like an opportunity,” she explained.

Consultant Angie Herbers zooms in on some of the industry’s latest trends in this month’s “The Fast Track” column. While some of these trends started before the COVID-19 pandemic, “the digital revolution — people working anywhere and clients finding advisors everywhere — caused by the crisis has sped up their development.”

Of course, it’s not yet clear “how fast this revolution will spread within the wealth management industry, but the rate of change does seem to be moving faster than before,” Herbers explains. “Will that rate of change continue at its breakneck pace? If advisors and firms are prepared to embrace the change they want to see in the industry, it will.”

Speaking of change, this year brings with it a new Investment Adviser Marketing rule, which Washington Bureau Chief Melanie Waddell spotlights in this month’s “The Playing Field” column.

“On balance, the new rule as adopted is a huge improvement over the current framework as well as what was proposed in 2019 — both from a compliance standpoint but also from a business marketing point of view,” said Sanjay Lamba, associate general counsel at the Investment Adviser Association, during an early January webcast.

Amidst all this change, we wish you a prosperous and safe start to 2021. We hope this month’s news and analysis helps you to hit the ground running. Thank you for your continued support of this publication.