The industry’s best and brightest were honored at a glitzy red-carpet ceremony on Tuesday night in New York City.
For the second year in a row, InvestmentNews harnessed the amazing energy of the wealth management industry’s luminary advisors, asset managers, CEOs, and stakeholders for an evening of celebration. The 2025 edition of the InvestmentNews Awards was another roaring success, honoring those leaders who have paved the way while celebrating the next generation of all-star financial advisors. The elegant affair was as much a family reunion as an awards ceremony.
You can find the full list of award winners and excellence awardees here.
The evening was overflowing with talent from the wealth management industry, and recognition came from all directions. “Recognizing the industry that we’re in, recognizing the hard work of those advisors, it’s really important to recognize the hard work that they do over the course of the year,” said Justin Herndon of Thrivent, whose firm sponsored the Award for Employer of Choice.
“This is unlike any other event,” said Ric Edelman, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Wealth Management Industry, pictured above. “This event is an opportunity for the best and the brightest in the industry to come together, to frankly relax and celebrate the accomplishments that we have achieved, which are serving so many Americans across the country. It is a very exciting evening. The vibe is intense. There is a lot of excitement in the room as people are being acknowledged and rewarded for their hard work and sacrifices, and it’s really an honor to be part of it.”
“There’s no straight paths to success in this industry, I feel like everybody in our firm has gone through some meandering path to get here, it’s not linear. I’m really excited to take this trophy back to our community,” said Morton Brown Family Wealth’s Dennis Morton after winning Advisor of the Year for the Northeast region.
InvestmentNews extends its heartfelt thanks to Thrivent and all of our event sponsors: Apriem Advisors; Ashton Thomas Private Wealth; Bentley Manhattan; Calamos;Cambridge; Chicory Wealth; Destiny Family Office; Independent Financial Group; LourdMurray; Mercer Advisors; Osaic; Park Avenue Securities; Prudential; SEIA; The American College of Financial Services; Thrivent; U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors.
While the public recognition is valuable, the focus remains on the people the industry serves. “I think it’s because of what we do for our clients,” Apriem Advisors CEO and president Rhonda Ducote said after her firm won RIA Team of the Year for the 10 Advisors or More category. “Relationships are first and foremost, we make sure they know that they’re part of our family. We’ve been to funerals, we’ve been to weddings. We’ve been invited to do so many things for our clients that makes us like part of their family.”
As any attendee at the event would tell you, this industry revolves around advisors and their clients, the returns they seek to drive and the wealth they seek to preserve on behalf of clients.
You can find the full list of award winners and excellence awardees here.
Merit Financial Advisors CEO Rick Kent and COO Chrissy Lee celebrate being named RIA Firm of the Year at the 2025 InvestmentNews Awards.
