Larry Raffone Becomes Aligned Wealth Executive Chairman
Last month, two former NewEdge Wealth executives, Gregory Pool and Pat Dwyer, co-founded Aligned Wealth, a tech-forward registered investment advisor affiliated with NewEdge, which is providing its operational, administrative and tech support services. Nick Raffone, the former CFO at Vise, was appointed president and CFO.
Now, Nick’s father, Larry Raffone, the chairman of the board and former CEO of Edelman Financial Services, has joined Aligned as a founding partner and executive chairman.
“I spent more than two decades at Edelman Financial Engines, and I started my career at Fidelity,” Larry Raffone wrote on LinkedIn. “Both taught me how firms grow, how they change, and what clients need from them.”
In a video interview, Larry Raffone said he met Dwyer at an industry conference in Napa, Calif., while he was in retirement. He then went down to Miami to meet with Pool, and in those conversations about using artificial intelligence and their visions for the future of the business, he found they were on the same page.
“We’re not building a better version of what exists,” he said. “We’re building what families should expect, now the technology has caught up. Fair pricing in writing with nothing underneath. Every decision explained. No products of our own to sell.”
Larry Raffone said Aligned Wealth is differentiated in its planning approach.
“When you sit with an advisor right now, the first thing they ask you, ‘What do you own? How much do you need? What’s the number you got to get to?’ We ask the most important question. ‘What’s the money for?’ Your faith, your family and friends, your health, your purpose. We build your plan around the pillars of happiness. So, none of that works if the firm needs something from its clients.”
Another differentiator is that the firm has not taken any outside capital.
“Outside money puts another voice at the table with another vote. And more importantly, it runs on a clock because investors need a return,” he said. “We’re not building a firm to sell it. We’re building a firm to last.”
The Aligned team also includes Travis Aldridge, head of portfolio engineering; Cristina Pratt, head of marketing and private wealth advisor; Cara Vazquez, head of private markets and wealth advisor; Travis Lazaroff and Andrew Draft, private wealth advisors; Elias Colorado, director of operations; and three client service associates.
Aligned uses two systems to power its portfolios. Vise handles the direct indexing and ongoing tax management, while it uses Arch for investment and tax reporting.
