AssetMark, one of the largest turnkey asset management platforms, or TAMPs, has promoted two employees to replace Charles Goldman, the president and chief executive officer.
Natalie Wolfsen, who was previously an executive vice president and the chief solutions officer at AssetMark, has been named the company’s new CEO. Michael Kim, another executive vice president and the chief client officer, was named the new president. Both appointments will be effective March 3, the company said in a statement late Tuesday.
Goldman will be leaving his current roles at the publicly traded company (ticker: AMK) and no longer be a member of its board of directors, but he will assist in the transition and serve as a consultant to AssetMark for one year.
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The executive is not departing for personal reasons. Goldman and the board of directors made a “mutual decision that it was time for a change in leadership,” an AssetMark spokesperson told RIA Intel. But the company is “very excited” that he will be staying on as a consultant, the spokesperson added.
Wolfsen, AssetMark’s new CEO, joined the TAMP seven years ago after a stint as head of marketing for the New York City-based asset manager First Eagle Investment Management. Prior to that, she worked in product development at BNY Mellon’s Pershing and Charles Schwab. Wolfsen also serves on the board of directors of the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning.
“Natalie is a proven, high-performing leader who the Board of Directors unanimously believes is the right executive to lead AssetMark moving forward,” Xiaoning Jiao, chairperson of AssetMark’s board of directors, said in a statement about the changes.
“She brings to her new role a deep knowledge of AssetMark, a track record of successfully developing and leading teams and a forward-looking approach that promotes holistic advisor-client conversations, innovative technology and greater diversity and inclusion in the wealth management industry. We look forward to her continued contributions to AssetMark’s growth.”
Kim has been an employee at AssetMark for more than 10 years. He previously was an executive at Fidelity Investments where he oversaw RIA sales management, relationship management, and practice management.
“While I am sad to leave AssetMark, I am excited to see Natalie and Michael take on their new roles. The company has exceptional leadership and a team of people who are 100% focused on serving advisors. They are in great hands,” Goldman said in a note to RIA Intel Wednesday.
As CEO of AssetMark, Goldman led the company through its initial public offering in 2019 and acquisitions that followed. The mountaineer has been outspoken about opportunities to acquire smaller, “sub-scale” TAMPs but told sell-side analysts not to model deals into their forecasts because they are too serendipitous.
Goldman and others have said there is plenty of organic growth opportunity in the TAMP industry — a critical, little-known corner of finance that suddenly became lively last summer — as more financial advisors focus on financial planning and outsource investment management.
Before joining AssetMark, Goldman was the president of Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions. He also previously worked at Charles Schwab, where he was a member of the executive committee and served as the head of Schwab Institutional and head of Strategy, M&A, and Venture Capital.
He is still on the boards of Personal Capital and Mercer Advisors (whose CEO also happens to be Goldman’s neighbor).
Michael Thrasher (@Mike_Thrasher) is a reporter at RIA Intel based in New York City.
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