Meet the Winners: LUMINARIES in Executive Leadership and Dealmaking & Growth, 2021

"Executive leadership is an aspect of financial services that needs to be elevated as a respected discipline," explained Tibergien, who was recently named by the accounting firm EY as its financial services advisor in residence. "This is especially true as we experience the fastest consolidation of this business that we've seen in decades, particularly at the RIA level," he said, and also among broker-dealers.

"As firms become more complex, more widely distributed in terms of their geography and have larger populations of employees, the need for dedicated leadership, not just management but leadership — meaning those who can inspire, steer, motivate and teach others — is really critical to the business," Tibergien explained.

At the same time, there's "a physical limit to how much time that someone has to focus on business growth [in the financial advice industry] because they are busy with clients, so elevating [business growth] as a discipline" should be seen as a positive step, he added.

The LUMINARIES' focus on excellence in business growth "really recognizes that we are going through another transformation … , which involves taking control of your destiny." In addition to financial advisors, the following organizations and the programs, products and services that they offer are being recognized as part of the LUMINARIES:

• Asset/portfolio management firms
• Broker-dealers
• Clearing/custodial firms
• Consulting firms
• Corporate RIAs
• Fintech firms
• Partnerships
• Retirement product companies
• Retirement planning firms
• RIA firms/IAR teams
• TAMP platforms & providers

(Illustrations by Daniel Hertzberg)