Corporate Roundup: CFP Board CEO Announces Retirement, HSA Bank Updates Logo

This week, CFP Board’s CEO announces his retirement in 2026, HSA Bank unveils a new branding identity, T. Rowe Price announces a strategic partnership, SS&C Technologies acquires FPS Trust, and more.

CFP Board CEO Announces Retirement

The CFP Board today announced that Kevin R. Keller, CAE, will retire as chief executive officer on April 30, 2026, after serving nearly two decades as the organization’s leader.

“Kevin’s visionary leadership has transformed CFP Board and the financial planning profession,” said Liz Miller, chair of the board of directors of CFP Board. “Under his stewardship, CFP Board has achieved unprecedented growth and awareness while elevating the standards of the financial planning profession. The organization is well-positioned for its next chapter of leadership and continued success.” 

“It has been the privilege of my career to serve the CFP professional community as CFP Board’s CEO and work alongside our dedicated board of directors, thousands of volunteers, stakeholders and staff to expand access to competent, ethical financial planning,” said Keller. “CFP Board is stronger than ever, with robust leadership, clear strategic direction and momentum that will carry the organization forward. I am confident that the board of directors will select a successor who will lead CFP Board to even greater heights.”

The board of directors has established a Search Committee and will engage an executive search firm later this year to assess internal candidates and conduct a national search.

“Our next chapter builds on a legacy of transformation and growth at a time when the financial planning profession stands at an exciting crossroads,” added Miller. “As client needs, wealth demographics and technology continue to evolve, CFP Board’s strong foundation and forward-thinking approach will continue driving financial planning forward as a trusted, accessible profession that makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.”

HSA Bank Unveils New Branding

HSA Bank is launching a new visual brand identity and logo, in an effort to modernize the brand and its marketing resources.

“Our new visual identity reflects our dedication to consumer engagement and driving confident financial healthcare decisions,” said Stephanie Meyer, chief marketing officer at HSA Bank.

“To achieve this, our enhanced customer experiences make it easier for members to understand and make the most of their benefits and healthcare finances.”

The new logo comes as more firms recommend non-traditional financial benefits, including emergency savings accounts, student loan benefits, and healthcare features.

“With new product offerings, like emergency savings accounts, and the integration of emerging technologies, HSA Bank’s new brand signals greater opportunities for members to maximize their healthcare spending, saving and investments,” said Chad Wilkins, president of HSA Bank. “We’re excited about these recent advancements and we look forward to helping our customers accelerate and protect their retirement readiness.”

The new brand and logo are now live across online channels and marketing materials with further updates including partner collateral rolling out throughout the year.

T. Rowe Price, OHA and Aspida Announce Partnership

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., its alternative credit subsidiary Oak Hill Advisors (OHA), and life insurance and annuity company Aspida Holdings Ltd. are forming a partnership to support the growth of their respective businesses.

T. Rowe Price and OHA expect to manage certain Aspida public and private assets. In addition, T. Rowe Price, OHA, and Aspida will explore product development and other growth initiatives.

T. Rowe Price is an existing equity investor in Aspida, having previously taken a minority interest to support the long-term growth of the business.

“We are excited about the potential of this strategic partnership with Aspida and its implications for our broader growth in insurance,” said Rob Sharps, chair, CEO and president of T. Rowe Price. “The partnership highlights our continued commitment to the expansion of our insurance business and to delivering innovative investment opportunities for our clients with our customary high-touch service. We look forward to the opportunity to develop tailored solutions with Aspida and other insurance partners over time.”

“This announcement marks another significant step in our commitment to delivering exceptional financial security and service to our clients,” said Lou Hensley, chief executive officer and president of Aspida. “The deep investment and retirement market experience brought by T. Rowe Price and OHA, combined with the continued support of Ares, position us to develop even stronger, more innovative solutions, tailored to the needs of those we serve.”

Mercer Advisors Hires First Client Dev Head

Mercer Advisors, a national registered investment adviser (RIA), has hired Alisa Maute to the newly created role of executive managing director, head of client development.

Maute joins Mercer Advisors to lead and expand its client development team, comprising more than 100 team members.

Maute joins Mercer Advisors from LPL Financial, where she was an executive vice president. At LPL, Maute was head of advisor growth, partnering with firms across the country to drive their organic expansion. Most recently, she served as head of investment product management and retirement, overseeing the firm’s investing solutions. Prior to LPL, Maute spent 14 years at WisdomTree Asset Management in various roles. She served on the firm’s operating committee and held key positions, including head of strategic partnerships and head of U.S. distribution.

“Over the past two decades, I’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of the nation’s top independent advisory firms, large and small. And even among that group, Mercer Advisors clearly stood out to me,” said Maute. “Being able to deliver this level of family office services for clients across the country, including for some of the most sophisticated and demanding clients, is distinct and compelling. I am thrilled to join this incredible leadership team to uphold that commitment to the families that have entrusted us with their livelihoods–and to help thousands more find their way to Mercer Advisors.”

The appointment of Maute is Mercer Advisors’ third hire in the past twelve months. In September, the firm appointed Elizabeth Hioe as its chief people officer, responsible for aligning talent strategy and human resources programs with the company’s strategy. And last February, the firm appointed Gün Keresteci as its chief financial officer.

“Mercer Advisors is a partnership of professionals who have decided to work together because we believe that we can deliver better outcomes to clients by working as a unified team,” added Welling. “Alisa is an extraordinary leader who shares our client-first approach and brings a depth of expertise in leading and building client development teams. We are committed to getting better as we get bigger, and Alisa’s leadership will undoubtedly be instrumental in enhancing our ability to serve more families with excellence.”

SS&C Technologies Acquires FPS Trust

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. has acquired FPS Trust Company, a non-depository trust company, from IPX Retirement. FPS Trust focuses on providing services to banks and institutional retirement plan providers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Based in Centennial, Colorado, FPS Trust offers high-volume beneficiary distributions, paying agent services and tax processing solutions to institutional trustees and retirement plan administrators. FPS Trust will operate within SS&C Innovest. Previously, SS&C Innovest partnered with FPS Trust to provide paying agent services to their existing clients on the SS&C InnoPay high-volume employee benefit payment processing platform.

“We are excited to welcome the FPS team to SS&C,” said Glenn Schmidt, general manager of SS&C Innovest. “The acquisition allows us to build on an already strong partnership as part of a single organization. Together, we can further enhance the managed services we provide to our institutional customers as we support them in delivering excellent, scalable service to their clients.”

“The integration of FPS Trust and SS&C will enable SS&C to extend its range of services, particularly those offered to wealth managers issuing taxable distributions on the SS&C Trust Platform,” said Bill Mueller, CEO of IPX Retirement. “SS&C is now well positioned to further expand on the synergies with SS&C Managed Services and optimize their custodial offerings to institutional trustees and bank trust companies.”

The Standard Hires Employee Benefits Chief of Staff

The Standard welcomes Elizabeth Cushing as second vice president and chief of staff for Employee Benefits.

Cushing joins The Standard with more than 25 years of experience in organizational and leadership development, performance management and executive coaching. She previously held roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, Slalom and Korn Ferry.

At The Standard, Cushing will serve as advisor and strategic partner to the Employee Benefits executive team, monitoring initiatives across various functions and departments as well as overseeing designated operational decisions and implementation.

“Elizabeth’s proven track record, diverse experience and people-centered approach will help our organization move swiftly as our scope and scale continue to grow,” said David Payne, vice president of Employee Benefits at The Standard.

Cushing graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in history and earned a master’s degree in strategy from Georgetown University.

Pacific Life Promotes Key Leaders

Pacific Life is promoting Karen Neeley to senior vice president of the Institutional Retirement Solutions Group and Patricia Thompson to senior vice president and chief compliance and ethics officer.

“I’m pleased to congratulate Karen and Patricia on their well-deserved promotions. Both have demonstrated distinct leadership qualities and accomplishments that extend beyond their own functions,” said Pacific Life President and CEO Darryl Button. “Their efforts have made a significant impact on our business, driving results and helping us achieve our strategic goals.”

In her role as senior vice president of the Institutional Retirement Solutions Group, Neeley oversees the management and growth of the pension risk transfer (PRT) and defined contribution lifetime (DCLI) businesses, including responsibility for distribution, product development, operations, and customer engagement.

Neeley joined Pacific Life in 2023 as vice president with a goal to build a high performing sales team focused on growing market share in PRT and DCLI. In 2024, her role expanded to include operations with a focus on scaling capabilities.

She was recently elected to the executive committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) and serves as vice chair of the Retirement Income Committee. With nearly two decades in financial services, she has held leadership roles in distribution, strategy, and actuarial at several Fortune 500 companies.

In her role as senior vice president, chief compliance and ethics officer, Thompson oversees all compliance, ethics, and privacy activities across the enterprise, including the maintenance and oversight of the Code of Conduct, ethics helpline, and ensuring alignment with international data privacy laws and regulations.

Thompson joined Pacific Life in 2014, serving in various roles before being promoted to chief compliance officer in 2022. Additionally, she is responsible for embedding the company’s values into the daily operations and culture of the organization.

Thompson serves as co-leader of the Legal & Compliance Section of the American Council of Life Insurers, the life insurance industry’s principal trade association.

Savvy Welcomes Chief Growth Officer

Savvy Wealth Inc. has named David Weiner as chief growth officer. Weiner will lead recruitment and continued expansion of Savvy Wealth’s registered investment advisor affiliate Savvy Advisors.

In his new role, Weiner will focus on bringing experienced, independent advisors and advisory teams onto the Savvy Wealth platform.

Weiner brings more than two decades of experience in sales, growth and marketing leadership roles across the startup and SaaS sectors, including positions at Compass, David Energy, Electric and Tekmetric. Throughout his career, he has proven his ability to guide companies through key thresholds of growth and achieve scalability across multiple industries.

“Savvy is at a crucial phase of growth. Connecting with advisors who want to leverage technology to evolve the ways they support their clients is crucial to their growth trajectory,” Weiner said. “From my earliest conversations with [Founder and CEO] Ritik Malhotra, we were tightly aligned on specific, tangible paths forward to build connections with advisors. I look forward to contributing to Ritik’s vision of streamlining the advisor space through innovative artificial intelligence applications and our firm’s proprietary technology offering.”

Savvy Advisors has also onboarded a wealth advisory team led by Robert Barone and Joshua Barone, who bring nearly $300 million in AUM to the firm. They are the founders of Universal Value Advisors (UVA), and collectively have over 70 years of experience in investment management. The team joined Savvy after departing Farther in 2024, drawn by Savvy Wealth’s proprietary technology platform and its ability to provide a seamless financial planning experience for clients.

“Savvy Wealth’s advisor-driven product roadmap was really attractive to us as we sought a new home for our business,” saidBarone. “Working with Savvy’s management, product, and engineering teams–who truly value our experience as advisors–provides us with the requisite solutions to deliver memorable client experiences and take our growth to a new level.”

In addition to recruiting the UVA team, Savvy has also welcomed Wichita, Kansas-based Jason Craine to the firm. Crainespent the last decade at Mariner Wealth Advisors, where he managed over $100 million in client assets. Working with high-net-worth families across the country, Craine offers holistic financial planning services across multiple family generations, while providing tax-conscious customized investment strategies.

Carnegie Buys Eagle Ridge

Carnegie, a registered investment advisor managing approximately $5 billion in assets as of December 31, 2024, is acquiring Eagle Ridge Investment Management. The acquisition, effective as of February 4, 2025, grows the firm’s AUM and personnel by over 25%, bringing in an additional $1.3 billion in AUM and integrating 14 experienced employees.

“We’re honored to welcome the team at Eagle Ridge to our organization,” says Richard Alt, CEO and principal for Carnegie. “Carnegie has built a rich history of outstanding service and a commitment to developing a team of effective and experienced advisors. Growth has always been essential to our success, and this acquisition represents an exciting next step in our firm’s development. The experience and capabilities coming from the Eagle Ridge team will be a valuable asset as we foster our continued growth and expand our reach to new markets across the Northeast.”

Under the terms of the deal, Eagle Ridge’s leadership and full staff will remain in place.

“Our dedication has always been about making client satisfaction a top priority,” says David Laidlaw, Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager for Eagle Ridge. “By joining forces with the premier team at Carnegie, we’re able to grow our resources and offerings to better serve those clients while maintaining the high-touch, personalized approach they have come to expect. Carnegie’s reputation for client service and accountability is in natural alignment with our mission, and we look forward to partnering with their established team.”

Berkshire Global Advisors served as financial advisor, and Alston & Bird acted as legal counsel to Eagle Ridge Investment Management in the transaction. Carnegie Investment Counsel was advised by Schneider Smeltz Spieth Bell LLP as legal counsel.

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