With appointments at firms such as RBC Wealth Management and Key Family Wealth, November turned out to see a few significant moves, even as market players kept a wary eye on the US presidential election results.

CommunifyFincentric, a fintech firm, appointed former InvestCloud senior figure Jennie Wang as chief client solutions officer. Most recently Wang, a technology and product leader, was chief experience officer for InvestCloud.

Citi Wealth, part of Citigroup, appointed Kate Moore as chief investment officer, reporting to Andy Sieg, who is head of wealth. Steven Wieting, who had been interim CIO, became chief investment strategist and economist inside the CIO organization of the US bank. Wieting previously held the CIS and economist position before taking on the interim role. Moore joined from BlackRock, where she most recently served as head of thematic strategy.

Former Citi Private Bank figures, Lauren Stuhmer and Phillip Edwards, joined Bank of America Private Bank in Palm Beach.

Bart Schulte joined Cetera Investment Advisors, using its RIA Blueprint platform to support his business as an investment advisor representative. Schulte, in the financial services sector for 24 years, is based in Camdenton, Missouri.

B Capital, an international investment firm, appointed Timur Akazhanov as general partner. Akazhanov is based in New York and partners on strategy with Sami Ahmad, GP and deputy chief investment officer. Previously, he was a managing director at H I G Capital, where he focused on technology and tech-enabled services.

Newport Beach-headquartered Beacon Pointe Advisors hired former Advisor Group (now called Osaic) figure Jon Frojen as its new chief financial officer. Since 1985, Frojen held leadership positions, including CFO, vice president and managing director, across various companies. The previous CFO was John Gray, who is now the firm's chief accounting officer.

Elevation Point, a wealth management firm that also works as a partner for RIAs and advisors seeking independence, appointed Jenna Bloomgarden as head of marketing and advisor experience. It also named Brian R Terraciano as head of operations. Previously, Bloomgarden served as director of marketing and advisor development at Summit Financial. Terraciano was previously senior director, wealth solutions middle office at BNY Pershing. 

EP Wealth Advisors appointed veteran wealth industry figure Jorge Bernal as chief operating officer. Bernal, based in the firm’s Seattle office, has more than 30 years of experience leading advisors and other client-facing and support functions. Prior to this, Bernal was COO and head of wealth management at SageView Advisory Group.

UBS Wealth Management appointed Ryan Lurie, an Accredited Portfolio Management Advisor™ (APMA™), to head the firm’s Arizona offices. Lurie is based in the Scottsdale office. He reports to Justin Frame, UBS market executive for the Pacific Desert market.

State Street elected Patricia Halliday, a senior figure in the sector, to join its board of directors. Halliday has more than three decades of financial services experience across a range of organizations covering investment, corporate and retail banking, and across markets in the UK, Europe and the US. 

RBC Wealth Management in the US welcomed Julie-Anne Lewis to its Tysons, Virginia branch. Lewis, who was registered with Kestra Private Wealth Services, directs Middleburg Wealth Management at RBC Wealth Management.

The organization also welcomed The Quarry Lake Group in Maryland. The team, which joined from Morgan Stanley, includes Avigail Rosemore, managing director – financial advisor, senior portfolio manager; Avi Greenlinger, MD, financial advisor, SPM; Aaron Forker, associate vice president, senior financial associate; Yitzi Teichman, AVP, financial advisor; Alan Wolfe, AVP, senior business associate; and Sharon Wunder, branch service manager.

Pennsylvania-headquartered private markets investment manager Hamilton Lane expanded its direct equity investment team. Nelda Chang, Kyle McGinnis and Jenny Zhang are based at Hamilton Lane’s headquarters in Conshohocken. Prior to joining Hamilton Lane, Chang was a principal at GCM Grosvenor, responsible for evaluating and executing private equity co-investments. She previously served in roles at Headlands Capital and American Securities. McGinnis was at Onex Partners, where he served as a principal, responsible for the evaluation and execution of private equity investments. Zhang joined from Two Sigma, where she was a vice president on the private equity team.

Benjamin Kalter has joined the firm’s impact investment team, where he deals with the origination, evaluation and management of direct equity impact transactions. Kalter served as a vice president on the private equity impact investing team at Nuveen, executing growth equity investments across developed and developing markets. He is based in Conshohocken and reports to Dave Helgerson, head of impact investments. Based in London, Aljoscha Dudek was appointed as principal in the firm’s direct equity investments team. Chang, McGinnis, Zhang and Dudek all report to Ken Binick, co-head of direct equity investments. 

Nasdaq-listed Principal Financial Group appointed president and chief operating officer Deanna Strable as its next president and CEO. Strable succeeded Dan Houston, who continued to serve as executive chair of the board. Prior to her president and COO role, Strable was its chief financial officer from 2017 to 2024.

Wealth|KC brought in financial advisor Lucas Fender to join its practice. Fender worked for nine years at Edward Jones.

Key Family Wealth, the multi-family office division of Key Private Bank, appointed Lisa Maurer, Nilufar Barak, and John Jezowski to join its team. They report to Doug Banbury, head of Key Family Wealth’s client development and strategy business.  

Maurer serves as the primary point of contact for all new UNHW opportunities (clients with greater than $25 million in overall net worth) nationally working with KeyBank’s institutional banking partners to identify, develop, and lead family relationships. She is based in KeyBank’s Boston office.

With more than 20 years of experience in serving UHNW clients, Maurer was the head of multiple single family offices; she also worked as a senior family office executive at Citi Private Bank and UBS Financial Services in New York City. Barak works with regional Key Private Bank and Key Commercial Bank colleagues. She is based in the firm’s New York City office. Barak joined from Morgan Stanley, where she served UHNW and HNW families in a variety of capacities during her 15-year tenure. Jezowski, at Key Private Bank for four years, was named as a family wealth strategist and is based in the bank’s Hartford, Connecticut office. Prior to this, Jezowski served as a senior wealth advisor with Key Private Bank. 

The CEO of Cetera Financial Group, aka Cetera, Adam Antoniades, stood down, completing more than three decades at the firm and its affiliated organizations. He was in the post for over 10 years. Antoniades continues to serve on Cetera’s board of directors. Mike Durbin, CEO of Cetera Holdings – the parent organization – retained that role and became chief executive of Cetera Financial Group.

Cyndeo Wealth Partners, based in St Petersburg, Florida, welcomed Shawn Jiles as a Central Florida-based advisor. Before this, Jiles was a private wealth advisor and partner at Bison Wealth, a firm operating in Orlando. 

Raymond James appointed Tampa, Florida-based financial advisor Paul Elliott to join its independent advisor channel. Elliott. who founded Iron Rock Wealth Management, serves clients such as families, business owners, pre-retirees and retirees, as well as corporate retirement plans. Elliott had managed about $105 million in client assets at Edward Jones. 

Former Morgan Stanley financial advisors Dale Grubb, Matthew Grubb, and Corbin Hoffner, who managed more than $514 million in assets, joined the employee advisor channel of Raymond James. Based in Sebring, Florida, they were joined by practice business manager Joella Libero and senior client service associate Leighann Hylan. 

Infranity, an infrastructure specialist investor, part of Italy-headquartered Generali Investments, bolstered its presence in North America. It opened its first office in New York and appointed three new experts in that market. It hired Paul Colatrella, Katherine McElroy, and William Kim who have been active on the strategy Infranity pursues in North America.

Franklin Templeton appointed George Stephan to the newly-created role of global chief operating officer for its wealth management business for alternative investments. Stephan reports to Adam Spector, the firm’s executive vice president and head of global distribution. Prior to this, Stephan spent five years at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co as the head of strategy and business development for the firm’s global client solutions business.

Compound Planning, a digital family office based in New York, added a team of five financial advisors: Mark Patzer; Alec Montoya; Todd Rowe; Joe Perna; and Scott Hedgcock.