Envestnet Targets Smaller RIAs Under New Leadership
Wealthtech provider Envestnet has been making a push to appeal to more mid- to small-sized registered investment advisors under new leadership that has come in over the past year-and-a-half, according to executives speaking on the sidelines of the firm’s annual conference.
Sean Meighan, who took over as head of RIA distribution in June 2025, said many RIAs he spoke with initially saw Envestnet as “the firm they broke away from on the broker/dealer side of the business.”
Some of those advisors, he said, might even be using Envestnet technology, such as its Tamarac wealth management platform or MoneyGuide financial planning, without knowing they are linked to the firm.
“I hope that we’re changing that now and bringing awareness to what the organization brings and breaking down the silo of our RIA offering from what some folks would know as the broker/dealer offering,” Meighan said ahead of hosting an RIA insights panel at the conference.
Meighan said he has worked to restructure the sales team to accomplish that mission. The moves, he said, have required the firm to be able to cover both the largest RIAs that feel operationally like “mini broker/dealers,” down to the small RIAs looking for just a one-point solution.
“We’ve restructured the RIA sales team, and really it’s a reaction to how RIAs look and feel now than they probably did a few years ago,” Meighan said. “We’re staffed to be able to talk to those COIs and those decision makers at the large mega firms, but also we have the coverage footprint to be able to go see the advisor in an office … that needs to be able to have a conversation, because they can make their own decisions on how they leverage tech.”
Envestnet has a history with many of the country’s largest broker/dealers and insurance-backed advisories, which it continues to foster. During its conference, it announced an expanded relationship with Osaic for Envestnet’s managed investment account offerings. At the main stage opening session, CEO Chris Todd held a fireside chat with Vaughn Bowman, head of MassMutual Wealth Management and an Envestnet client.
But the conference also had mid-sized to smaller advisors strolling the Expo floor watching demos and speaking to Envestnet representatives, and Meighan’s RIA panel session drew a crowd.
Craig Iskowitz, CEO and founder of Ezra Group, said on the sidelines that the smaller RIA space may be tricky for Envestnet to serve, precisely because these firms have limited budgets yet often receive the same level of support as larger firms.
“It’s true they [small RIAs] are an underserved market, but there’s a reason for that,” Iskowitz said. “In my opinion, Envestnet would be better off expanding its capabilities in the higher end of the market where Tamarac already has a strong market share.”
Todd, who took over as CEO shortly after Bain Capital took the firm private at the end of 2024, seems intent on continuing to serve the growing RIA sector, however it takes shape.
Vibhaw Arya, who had been an RIA tech executive, was hired at the same time as Meighen to head strategic relationships for the RIA segment. He said the team is taking a more consultative approach with RIAs to try to cater to their specific needs.
“We’re asking them where they have challenges, where is the friction, or where do we need to improve,” he said at the conference. “We were just talking to a client this morning where we’re about to have an onsite next month, and what I said was, ‘let’s set up four different sessions, and let’s just talk through your workflows literally from prospecting to onboarding to investment management to trading.”
RIA distribution head Meighan said that, especially for smaller firms, shifting some business functions to Envestnet may ultimately raise their valuation if they are looking to sell.
“Outsourcing that portfolio management on a tech platform that has 35% market share of all the big firms makes them more attractive than if they were just trying to do it themselves in spreadsheets,” he said.
He also said he hoped RIAs at the conference were learning about options they may not have had before and engaging with enhancements Envestnet was unveiling for later in the year.
Iskowitz, whose firm, Ezra Group, has provided strategic consulting advice to Envestnet in the past, said he liked what he saw at the conference regarding enhancing existing functionality with artificial intelligence. But he said success will be determined by their ability to execute on their product roadmap.
“It depends on their ability to roll out new features like their Wealth Trading platform, Proposal Studio and Quick Account Onboarding tool by the end of the year, as they said on stage,” he said. “These are the kind of promises that clients expect them to deliver on.”