Meet The Founding Members of RIADAC
Ric Edelman
Edelman Financial Engines
All three leading trade publications – Investment Advisor, RIABiz and InvestmentNews – have named Ric Edelman one of the most influential people in the financial planning and investment management profession.
Ric Edelman, Founder, RIA Digital Assets Council
All three leading trade publications – Investment Advisor, RIABiz and InvestmentNews – have named Ric Edelman one of the most influential people in the financial planning and investment management profession.
Ranked three times as the nation’s #1 Independent Financial Advisor by Barron’s and among the Top 10 Wealth Advisors by Forbes, he’s in both Research magazine’s Financial Advisor Hall of Fame and Barron’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, Ric received the IARFC’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ric is the founder of the nation’s largest independent RIA, with 350 advisors in 170 offices nationwide, managing $230 billion for 1.2 million individuals and households. The firm is also the nation’s largest independent provider of advice to 401(k) plans, serving thousands of companies, including 150 of the Fortune 500. The firm is also ranked #1 for quality by Consumer Reports. He is the firm’s largest individual shareholder, serves on its board and remains actively engaged in the firm’s investment management and financial planning strategies.
Widely known in the financial services industry for his thought leadership, Ric founded the Funding Our Future Coalition with the Bipartisan Policy Center. With more than 50 academic, non-profit, corporate and think-tank members, it’s now the largest coalition ever formed that focuses on attaining financial security for all Americans. Ric was behind the creation of the first exponential technologies ETF and has been awarded two patents inventing a product that allows newborns to save for retirement.
Ric is also a leading financial educator and champion of improving financial literacy for all Americans. TALKERS magazine named him among the 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in the country; his show has been on the air for nearly 30 years, currently airing on 80 stations coast-to-coast, and Ric is the only licensed financial advisor and one of just two weekend-only hosts on TALKERS’ “Heavy Hundred” ranking.
Ric has also produced award-winning specials for Public Television, and he’s a #1 New York Times bestselling author of 10 books on personal finance, including a best-selling children’s book on money.
Ric taught personal finance for 9 years at Georgetown University and currently is Distinguished Lecturer at his alma mater, Rowan University, which awarded Ric an Honorary Doctorate in 1999. In 2020, Rowan named its communications school the Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts.
Ric and his wife Jean live in Northern Virginia. They serve on a variety of nonprofit boards and are benefactors of the Edelman Center for Nursing at Inova Hospital Foundation, the Edelman Indoor Arena at Northern Virginia Therapeutic Riding Program, and Rowan University’s Edelman Planetarium and Edelman Fossil Park.
Jamie McIntyre
FOUNDER & CEO
Rewire Capital
For 20 years, I have been on a mission to define what’s next in wealth management with a band of fellow entrepreneurs, software developers, researchers, agile contributors, and makers.
Jamie McIntyre - Founder and CEO, Rewire Capital
PRIOR ROLES THAT PROVIDE CONTEXT
Corporate Highlights
- Co-founded four different companies in the wealth management and technology industry with aggregate values in the $100 millions.
- Served roles as CEO, President, CTO, COO, and all others.
- Built the first and only High Net Worth focused asset management platform.
- Delivered solutions to over 100 of the best independent wealth management companies in the industry.
- Constructed investment performance systems that reported on over $80 billion in assets.
- Certified in investment performance measurement (CIPM)
Personal Highlights
- Have backed over 200 Kickstarter projects; from Pebble to Potato Salad
- Published article on equity crowdfunding.
- Helped fund a film for a friend not interested in the Hollywood version of his vision
- Wrote and recorded a duet with my daughter
- On a continuous quest to rewire myself:
- Landmark Education
- Jim & Kaley Warner
- Vistage
- Majored in Computer Science at Virginia Tech
- Minoring today in small batch bourbons and single malt scotch
- Rewired a financial thriller with my father
- Log enough hours in each installment of Call of Duty to Prestige at least twice. Platinum on Overwatch.
Paul Pagnato
CEO & FOUNDER
PagnatoKarp
Paul A. Pagnato is Founder PagnatoKarp, Co-Chairman Cresset, a top family office and private wealth management firm with over $10.2 billion assets under management. Paul is a top advisor with more than 27 years of industry leadership.
Paul Pagnato - CEO Founder, PagnatoKarp
Don has spent the last 25 years investing in the equity markets which led to an ongoing 18 year career creating and producing “first-of-its-kind”, buyside investment professional-focused finance conferences, webinars and roadshows as well as creating and running a conference company.
Purchased by RIADAC in in July 2020, Don founded Joint Venture Events Group in May 2014 by creating a unique conference format which immediately catapulted the firm to the top of investment professionals’ “must-attend” events list with “best-in-breed” programs such as Liquid Alternative Strategies Summit, MLP Strategies Summit, Smart Beta Strategies Summit, ETF Strategy Summit & Digital Asset Strategy Summit (DASS).
From 2007 – 2014, Don served as Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President and Board Member of ETF.com (formerly IndexUniverse). The company achieved record revenues throughout his tenure, while hitting or coming in under budget on the cost side.
In parallel, as Co-Founder & President of ETF.com’s Events division, Don developed and ran all of the firm’s conferences and was responsible for selling the sponsorships that sustained it. By the end of 2013, the Events division consisted of 7 events (5 in the U.S & 2 in Europe), 20+ webinars and 1 roadshow per annum. Of particular note, Don was responsible for creating Inside ETFs (the world’s largest ETF conference), Inside ETFs Europe (Europe’s largest ETF conference), Inside Commodities (the largest institutional-focused US-based commodities conference), and Inside Fixed Income (the world’s largest independently run fixed-income conference).
Prior to ETF.com, Don worked at Strategic Research Institute (SRI), a leading New York-based conference company, where over a five-year period (2002-2007) he rose through the ranks from temporary worker to conference producer to managing director. In addition to creating and producing the world’s largest hedge fund conference (Blue Ribbon Hedge Fund), Europe’s largest secondaries conference (Saving Private Equity), and the world’s second largest indexing conference (The Art of Indexing), he was also charged with running the firm’s Alternative Investments Group, a segment that generated 40% of the company’s revenues.
Don is a lifelong “Wildcat” having received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the University of Arizona. Don is also an avid runner, with three marathons to his credit and has skydived once. He and his wife and two daughters live in Milton, GA.
Ray Sclafani
ClientWise
After 20 years at AllianceBernstein, Ray Sclafani founded and heads ClientWise, the premier coaching and training company exclusively serving the financial services industry. Ray’s expertise is recognized and sought out by leaders within the profession.
Ray Sclafani - Founder, CEO, ClientWise
Ray’s experience as a seasoned specialist in coaching and training in the financial sector mirrors his long and profitable history in the industry. In his 20 years at AllianceBernstein, Ray was one of the company’s top sales professionals and executive leaders. His knowledge of how to create and execute on highly successful sales plans and build long lasting client connections was later utilized as founder and Managing Director of the Advisor Institute at AllianceBernstein. In that role, he developed and directed an extensive series of programs that proved invaluable to advisors in creating improved and sustainable motivation, sales, and client relationships. Ray completed his transition to founding ClientWise through significant coaching education and practice that led to his recognition as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) from the International Coach Federation, the leading independent professional association for coaches. As a complement to his coaching skills, he also holds a Master’s Certification in Neuro-Linguistics from the International Association for Neuro-Linguistic Programming and has participated in The Strategic Coach® Program for 17 years.
Ray’s expertise as a coach and trainer is recognized and sought out by leaders within the profession. Through ClientWise, he has provided coaching or created and presented workshops for, among others, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, LPL, Raymond James Financial, Ameriprise, and Northwestern Mutual. In addition, he has spoken on request to major industry conferences and company events for firms such as Merrill Lynch for their Diversity & Training programs, LPL, Morgan Stanley Institutes Conferences, Raymond James, FSC Securities, as well as the FPA National Conference, John Hancock Funds Wholesaler Conference, Nationwide Financial Summit Sales Conference, MetLife Presidents’ Conference, Northwestern Mutual Forum, Northwestern Mutual Annual Meeting, Barron’s Winner’s Circle Summit, and Barron’s Top Advisory Teams Summit. He has been interviewed and quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Planning magazine, and Registered Rep, to name a few. Ray’s book, “You’ve Been Framed: How to Reframe Your Wealth Management Business and Renew Client Relationships,” was published by Wiley in 2015. Ray holds a BA from Baylor University. He lives in Flower Mound, Texas with his wife and true life partner, Beth, and their two sons who continually inspire his work and his passion for excellence.