People moves: Mercer Advisors hires Wealth.com, Meta alum as VP of data. In other moves, a technology veteran takes a new client experience role at Envestnet, Truist hires a new compliance chief, Fiduciary Trust hires a national trust lead, and DriveWealth promotes five. Alex Ortolani, Senior Reporter, Wealth Management November 3, 2026 Want a quick summary? Mercer Advisors, a Denver, Colo.-based registered investment advisor with $114 billion in client assets, has continued to build out its technology and artificial intelligence leadership team by hiring away Wealth.com's chief technology officer. Kyle Pounder, who also worked at Meta, will lead Mercer's core data team, which underpins Aspen, its wealth technology platform, and the firm's broader AI strategy. Pounder, who holds a PhD in mathematics, joins after five years at Wealth.com, where he was most recently chief technology officer. At Mercer, he will report to Chief Platform Officer Cynthia Loh. "Kyle knows how to turn complex data into something a team can act on," Loh said. "His work can put the right insight in front of the right client at the right moment, and that's how we scale keeping our promises to those we serve." Pounder's appointment follows the hiring of Loh as chief platform officer and the promotion of Ehsan Lavassani, founding engineer and chief engineering officer of Empower's Personal Capital, to head of artificial intelligence. At Wealth.com, Pounder guided engineering, security and data teams through the company's Google Ventures-led Series A and Charles Schwab-led Series B funding rounds, according to the announcement. Before Wealth.com, he was the sole data scientist on a cross-functional team at Meta. "Data is only valuable when it helps someone do something better for a client," Pounder said in a statement. "Mercer Advisors takes that seriously." Mercer Advisors is majority-owned by private equity firms Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital and Altas Partners. It has 1,770-plus employees, including 460 financial advisors operating at more than 110 locations in the U.S. Envestnet hires Jane Graham to lead advisor experience. Envestnet, a wealth technology provider to RIAs, banks, and brokerages, has hired Jane Graham as senior vice president, client experience, a newly created role aimed at "elevating" the advisor experience across the firm's platforms, the Berwyn, Pa.-based firm announced. Graham, who will be part of the executive committee, will lead client success and retention, service delivery, enablement, support operations and renewals functions, according to the announcement. The role is included in Envestnet's $1 billion five-year investment plan in its platforms. Graham comes with more than 15 years of experience building service, client success and retention organizations for technology businesses, including workforce technology firm UKG and software and payments firm Blackbaud. "Jane joins Envestnet at a pivotal time in our evolution as we continue to modernize our platforms, invest in AI, and integrate our recent acquisition of Vestmark," CEO Chris Todd said in a statement. Part of Graham's mandate is to bring together onboarding and support for the wealth management platform Tamarac and the financial planning software MoneyGuide under a single strategy and operating model, according to the announcement. "My focus is on making it easier for advisors to get the most from Tamarac, MoneyGuide and Envestnet's enterprise platforms, with one team accountable for their success from onboarding through renewal," Graham said. Before joining Envestnet, Graham spent nine years at UKG, most recently as group vice president of specialty sales, and earlier led a global relationship management organization of more than 500 employees that supported more than 20,000 customers and generated over $4 billion in recurring revenue. Envestnet has nearly $8 trillion in platform assets and is used by more than a third of financial advisors across banks, wealth managers, brokerages and RIAs. Truist hires Stratos, Hightower alum Charis Jones to lead compliance. Truist has hired Charis Jones as chief compliance officer for Truist Investment Services and Truist Advisory Services, according to a post on LinkedIn. Jones joins Truist after about a year as chief operating officer for Stratos, an umbrella firm for a network of RIAs and broker/dealers. At Truist, she will lead compliance for over 2,400 financial advisors and more than $77 billion in assets under management, according to the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank holding company's most recent counts. Prior to Stratos, Jones held compliance leadership roles at Hightower Advisors for about a year and a half, following an eight-year run in compliance leadership roles at LPL Financial. Franklin Templeton's Fiduciary Trust hires head of trust administration. Fiduciary Trust International, a global wealth manager headquartered in New York and a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Templeton, has hired Jeffrey Danile as national director of trust administration. Danile will be based in the firm's New York headquarters and report to Leslie Gillin Bohner, chief fiduciary officer and general trust counsel. He will manage trust officers and administrators across the organization and focus on delivering trust and estate planning services to clients. Danile joins from JPMorgan Private Bank, where he was executive director and regional trust team leader. Earlier in his career, he was managing director and market trust director at Bank of America Private Bank/U.S. Trust, and practiced trusts and estates law for 15 years, first at Wiggin and Dana and then as a partner at Blair & Potts and Berkowitz, Trager & Trager. "He has an impressive track record of generating growth at financial institutions while maintaining a proper risk and compliance framework, and we look forward to working with him to achieve our client and business goals," Bohner said in a statement. Fiduciary Trust had more than $119 billion in assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2026, according to the firm. DriveWealth names technology, product and digital assets leaders. DriveWealth, a New York-based brokerage-as-a-service platform for investing and trading, announced promotions across its technology, product and digital assets teams on Tuesday, a little over a year after CEO Naureen Hassan came out of retirement to lead the firm. Aaron Sokasian was promoted to president, technology and product, which expands his responsibilities to lead the development of new technology partnership opportunities. He will continue to report to CEO Hassan. Former Chief Information Officer Rob Corti will now be co-chief technology officer for trading and platform, where he will oversee technology, delivery and execution, and account services. He will report to Sokasian. Bhavesh Khator will also get an expanded role from SVP, engineering, to co-chief technology officer, brokerage and data, where he will oversee engineering, data, regtech and partner onboarding. He will report to Sokasian. Another two Sokosian reports with promotions include René Kim and Mohsen Shaikh. Kim is now chief product officer, where she will lead DriveWealth's product organization and technology delivery team. Shaikh will be head of digital assets, which expands his role from VP of product. "Strategic partnerships are essential to our growth strategy, and Aaron Sokasian has been instrumental in building our partner ecosystem across the industry," CEO Hassan said in a statement. "With Rob, Bhavesh, René, and Mohsen alongside him leading our technology and product teams, we are well positioned to build the next era of investing for our clients." DriveWealth's goal has been to make trading global and available around the clock, while also providing access to a broader range of assets, including cryptocurrency and tokenized securities. Senior Reporter, Wealth Management Alex Ortolani is a New York-based senior reporter with Wealth Management with a focus on deals, moves and trends in the registered investment advisor space. In addition to financial and business reporting, he has worked in media relations and corporate communications for tech firms and Fortune 500 companies.

Mercer Advisors completes $1.9 billion debt refinancing. Mercer Advisors has completed a $1.9 billion debt refinancing and secured a $340 million revolving credit facility, marking its first entry into the broadly syndicated loan market. The seven-year term loan replaces the wealth management firm's existing private debt financing. Mercer said the transaction lowers financing costs, extends debt maturities and broadens its lender base. The five-year revolving credit facility will support investments in client services, staff and its platform. Founded in 1985, Denver-based Mercer Advisors reported $111 billion in client assets as of July 31, 2026, with more than 1,730 employees and over 110 locations. Its services include investment management, financial planning, tax and estate planning, and insurance. Through Mercer Advisors Insurance Services, the firm places individual life, disability, long-term care, and property and casualty coverage. Mercer Advisors is majority owned by Altas Partners, Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital and GIC. Get Coverager to your inbox. A really good email covering top news.

The newly Minted client will not find your listing. They will find your advisor. Realm Global's Minted white paper explores how wealthy buyers choose real estate advisors and why personal relationships matter more than brokerage brands. Realm Global's Minted white paper is the clearest map of the high-net-worth buyer published this year, and its central claim should unsettle every brokerage and MLS built around the listing. The paper claims that new wealthy choose agents before they choose brands, and they choose through personal introduction. Who Realm Global is. Realm Global is an invitation-only, brand-agnostic network of luxury real estate advisors. Founder and CEO Julie Faupel launched it in 2020 on a simple premise: the advisor, not the brokerage brand, is the enduring trust relationship. Today, the network counts roughly 600 members across 23 countries, more than 40 U.S. states and more than 150 brokerage brands, responsible for over $50 billion in annual sales. Realm never replaces a member's brokerage. It is designed to make the advisor more effective inside the firm they already work for. The network's value rests on four pillars. REALM Match uses proprietary technology to connect properties with buyers through their trusted advisors, not through open exposure. REALM Intelligence gives each member a market diagnostic and a wealth-movement analysis by market. The Community connects advisors across markets, so a client who relocates is introduced personally, advisor to advisor. Events, anchored by the REALM Global Collective, form one of the most substantive education calendars in the real estate industry. Realm also partners with firms such as Mercer Advisors in wealth management, Pacaso, Rivian, Beretta and Denison Yachting, and publishes the REALM Journal and the Luxury Report with WealthX and Altrata. The client decides early, and without you. The paper's most important finding for brokerage leadership concerns timing. The advisor who meets new wealth first is the advisor who keeps it. Liquidity events such as tender offers, IPOs and inheritances turn paper into capital quickly. The first major real estate decision often follows within months. By the time most listing agents are called, the wealth manager, the estate attorney and the family office have already shaped the outcome. Loyalty is also no longer inherited. The paper quotes Capgemini's research that finds that 81% of next-generation inheritors plan to leave their parents' wealth firms. The family's advisor of 30 years is not automatically the heir's advisor. For a brokerage, the revenue base built on a principal's relationship is a depreciating asset unless the firm deliberately earns the next generation. Permission, not price. Realm's sharpest insight is that these buyers are not constrained by money. They are constrained by meaning. Their objection is rarely I can't afford it. It is I'm not sure I should. The report frames three tests that govern every significant purchase: is it rational, is it practical, and does it fit who I am becoming. Realm's own survey data shows 47% of affluent buyers weigh future regret before committing. No discount answers that objection. Only counsel does. Brokerages that compete on commission or volume are competing on the one variable this client has stopped weighing. What this means for brokerage recruiting. A top producer who carries the trust relationship can move to a competitor with the client in tow. Realm calls this the trust premium, and it compounds when the advisor earns both the principal and the heir. The profitable response is investment in what the advisor brings: cross-border referral capability, market intelligence, wealth-manager relationships and discretion protocols. Brokerages that spend the same dollars on volume advertising are paying for a channel these buyers have stopped trusting. Strategic recommendation. * Fund advisor authority, not brand advertising. Reallocate marketing spend toward cross-border referral networks, intelligence products and events that place advisors in front of wealth managers and attorneys. * Institutionalize the gatekeeper channel. Establish standing relationships with the financial and legal professionals who meet new wealth first, and make that channel a documented business line with owners and targets. * Protect the advisor relationship economically. Build compensation and succession structures that keep the trust premium inside the firm, including a plan to earn the heir before any transition. * Engage with the standard-setting work. The REALM Global Collective 2027, scheduled for May 17-19 in Austin, will bring 250 invitation-only participants into working councils. Brokerages and the MLS community should send participants and shape those positions. Read the full white paper: REALM · Minted · White Paper · Oct 2026. Figures are Realm's aggregation of third-party research as of October 2026.