2024 Letter From Our Founder & President

A Message from Our Founder & President

Dear Alliance Members, Partners, and Friends:

The past year has been nothing short of exceptional, and it fills us with immense pride and gratitude to share the highlights of our continued success. First and foremost, we celebrate the remarkable partnership that has blossomed since joining Schwab roughly a year ago. This collaboration has not only solidified our standing but propelled us to new heights, enabling us to serve you even better.

We welcomed a record-breaking twenty-three new member firms in 2023, further enriching our diverse community and fostering a wealth of new connections and opportunities. Accordingly, we have expanded our team to ensure we continue to serve you at the highest level.

Elaine Chandler joined us as our new in-house Events Manager, Casey Hebert and Katie Larson joined us as Member Experience Managers, and Courtnee Murphy joined us as a Marketing Specialist. Read more about our team here; if you haven’t met these new folks yet, you will soon!

Last year also saw a series of sold-out events, a testament to your unwavering support and enthusiasm for the value of our content. Mark your calendars and register early for our 2024 Signature Events: 

• The Alliance Summit (March 5-7, San Diego), our upcoming members-only executive retreat
• The Alliance Summer Gathering: Elevating Women in Family Wealth (August 1, Boston)
• The Alliance Fall Forum (October 23-25, Chicago) featuring our third biannual Young Professionals Awards

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In December, we held our first Alliance Connects event with a 12-person Family Office Investment Strategy roundtable in New York. In addition to our four ongoing Leader Roundtables, these one-day roundtables provide opportunities for specialty interest groups to connect, learn, and grow together. We are excited to build on this success in the coming year.

A new benefit for FWA member firms – regardless of their custodial affiliation – is access to an exclusive Schwab Resource Center featuring their 2023 RIA Benchmarking Study and Guiding Principles whitepapers, among many other resources. We will regularly update this page as additional materials become available. Many of these resources are otherwise reserved exclusively for Schwab clientele, so we are especially excited to bring them to all FWA member firms.

Finally, we are launching our Community Guidelines. These guidelines codify the values we hold dear and that define our vibrant community: mutual respect, an abundance mentality, and a dedication to industry engagement. 

They also set expectations around participation in peer groups, advisory groups, and Alliance Research surveys. (For example, our one-on-one consulting on fees and pricing, compensation, and other key practice areas will be exclusively available to member firms that actively participate in the associated research initiatives.)