Presented by Envestnet
On this episode, Doug sits down with Chris Todd, CEO of Envestnet. With over $6.5 trillion in platform assets and 111,000 advisors, Chris discusses how Envestnet balances innovation and stability at scale. He shares how AI is beginning to reshape advisor workflows, enabling deeper client engagement and efficiency, and explains how private equity ownership through Bain Capital is empowering more agile decision-making and strategic investment.
Chris also outlines his vision for tighter integration of Envestnet’s acquired platforms, a more seamless advisor experience, and stronger partnerships across the wealth management ecosystem. He reflects on the legacy of Envestnet’s founders, the culture they built, and his responsibility to lead the firm through its next chapter. With an eye on smart M&A and continued tech-forward solutions, Chris emphasizes a client-first approach as the key to Envestnet’s future.
Recorded at Envestnet Elevate 2025
Resources: Envestnet
Disclosures:
The information, analysis, and opinions expressed herein are for general information only. The views expressed herein reflect the judgement of the speakers as of the recording date and are subject to change at any time without notice. Information obtained from third party resources are believed to be reliable but not guaranteed. Nothing contained in this document is intended to constitute legal, tax, securities, or investment advice, nor an opinion regarding the appropriateness of any investment, nor a solicitation of any type. Investing carries certain risks and there is no assurance that investing in accordance with the portfolios or strategies mentioned will provide positive performance over any period of time. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Doug Heikkinen: This is Advisorpedia's Power Your Advice podcast, and I'm Doug Heikkinen. We're at Envestnet's Elevate Conference, and we're joined by Chris Todd, the CEO of Envestnet. Welcome and thanks for being with us.
[00:00:11] Chris Todd: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:13] Doug Heikkinen: You now oversee $6.5 trillion in platform assets and have over 111,000 advisors. . .
How do you plan to balance innovation while maintaining stability for such a massive ecosystem?
[00:00:27] Chris Todd: It's a good question, but that's the, that's the art of sort of product management, right? And that's what we have to do to continue to be a leader. And so, in a purely tactical sense, we'll be very rigorous each year when we think about what portion of our budget do we put toward maintaining the existing platform and what portion of the budget goes toward innovation and new projects.
[00:00:49] Doug Heikkinen: So AI. Given your background at UKG and Envestnet, how do you see AI transforming portfolio management?
[00:00:59] Chris Todd: I think it's early days for sure. But I think it's undeniable that AI is going to transform how advisors work with their end clients. And as a key provider of the technology that advisors use, we need to be on the forefront of the work there. But, everything from faster generational reports to quicker access to data, to better insights to, just the sheer less work that advisors can do. AI, in the end, should enable advisors to have a lot more time to spend with their clients.
[00:01:34] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah. So Bain Capital's acquisition closed in 2024.
[00:01:38] Chris Todd: Right. Late November.
[00:01:39] Doug Heikkinen: What operational and cultural challenges and changes are you prioritizing under the private ownership?
[00:01:46] Chris Todd: So, for my last 25 years, I've worked at two different enterprise technology companies.
So Envestnet's my third. For 22 and a half of those 25 years, I've worked under private equity ownership. And so it's a model that I'm sort of very familiar with and a model that I'm excited for in Envestnet to go through. The opportunity for us right now to innovate, to spend money as we see fit, to invest where we want to, to hire where we want to. To do anything that we believe we need to do in order to serve this market more effectively to make Envestnet a better company, we can do, right? We don't have any other shareholders we have to answer to, but for Bain. And the benefits of private equity ownership is, that's not quarterly board meetings, right? Those are weekly calls with the team. We're completely in sync. A number of them are here at the conference today.
And so we will have multiple conversations today. It's a very fluid, very comfortable way to work. and they are completely in sync with what in Envestnet needs to do to become a great company. They are deeply committed to the growth story for Envestnet. That's why they invested in this company.
They've been following Envestnet for well more than half a decade. I have a little bit of insight into the sale process and I would posit that Bain has worked harder to understand Envestnet and understand this market than any other private equity firm has. And they're deeply excited about where this company is going. And they're all in.
[00:03:18] Doug Heikkinen: That's great. So Envestnet has historically grown through acquisitions, but integration is always a challenge. How will your experience solve that in the future?
[00:03:28] Chris Todd: I think you hit the nail on the head, right? Envestnet has a lot of acquisitions in its past. And on my listening tour with clients and partners, what I've heard is what you just posited. You need to do a better job integrating these things, right?
And you need to help deliver on the promise of everything that Envestnet owns. And so that's part of the strategy work that we're doing is to understand what parts of our portfolio enable us to deliver the Envestnet promise to advisors and wealth managers more effectively and where that makes sense, integrate them more, right?
And make sure that that seamless experience is really being delivered. That's what we're going to do with the existing portfolio. As we think about Envestnet going forward, I think the nature of your question sort of begged the answer. If we're going to acquire another business, we need to do it with the integration strategy in mind.
And in the overwhelming majority of instances, the right answer is immediate integration, not standalone. And the firms that I've worked for probably have experienced 30 or 40 acquisitions over the years, and the quick integration answer is always the right answer.
[00:04:39] Doug Heikkinen: Envestnet has always been great at partnerships too.
So moving forward, what role are partners playing in helping you deliver on Envestnet's value proposition?
[00:04:48] Chris Todd: Yeah. We're going to continue to lean into the partner community. I had the opportunity to mention in my keynote comments this morning, that as someone who's newer to this industry, I've been really encouraged.
It's been heartwarming how much the partners have reached out to me to offer to help, right? Can we educate you? Can we show you this? What do you wanna learn? Who do you want to meet? They've been very very comfortable in sharing their views as to how Envestnet could be a better company, how we could serve them more effectively.
And what's been interesting for me to begin to understand better, and I knew it intellectually. But really to begin to experience in a tangible way is how in this market, how connected we all are in this ecosystem and how we all need one another. And, we can't do everything, and we're going to continue to partner with the managers. There will be other technology firms that we'll partner with that will make the ecosystem better. And so it'll continue to be a big part of what we do.
[00:05:47] Doug Heikkinen: You've emphasized a client focused culture. What emerging technologies or services do you believe will most directly improve outcomes for end investors?
[00:05:58] Chris Todd: I can think about this from a couple different directions. We talked a couple moments ago about AI.
I think the better job we do infusing AI principles throughout our products, the more time advisors will have to spend, right, with the people that they serve. And ultimately that will enable them to have better relationships and grow their books of business.
We just spoke about partnerships. We're going to continue to lean into those manager partnerships, right? I think the sort of managed accounts portion of the world continues to be wildly innovative. It will continue to be so in the years to come, we deeply believe that. And we need to be where those managers are. We need to make sure that we're forming those connections between the advisors and the managers so that they have the products that they need.
[00:06:40] Doug Heikkinen: We're seeing rapid consolidation in wealth tech. Do you foresee Envestnet playing a further role in M&A, and what gaps of the market are you targeting?
[00:06:48] Chris Todd: Yeah, I think you will see, over time you'll see Envestnet get back to M&A. We'll have a very well-defined integration strategy around what we purchase and why.
And we will look at M&A opportunities with the lens of, does it make our technology and solutions better? Does it enable us to serve advisors more effectively? And if it does that, it'll be high up on the list.
[00:07:10] Doug Heikkinen: You know, your energy is fantastic. And this is my last one. Judd and Bill built Envestnet into a category defining company. How do you hope to build on their legacy while steering the firm in uncharted territory?
[00:07:23] Chris Todd: I had the opportunity to, this is my first Elevate, obviously, so it's my first opportunity to give a keynote address.
And I thought it was important to spend a few minutes to talk about that legacy, right? What sort of Judd and Bill did together is extraordinary. It is, very hard to start a company. It is very hard to get a company to a hundred million dollars. Most founders can't round that turn.
And they rounded that turn by multiples. And they did that in a complex industry, delivering fantastic technology, while building a real ethos around Envestnet where people in this industry want us to succeed. And they've told me that, right? We're rooting for you. We want you to be great. That's really special.
And that speaks to the culture that they built, in addition to the products and technology and solutions that they built too. That's an extraordinary job by a couple of founders. And so I've, this is the second time that I've followed a founder, and so I do that with incredible respect and admiration and humility, right?
I don't get to have my job here today, but for what they built. And it's a better job for what they built. And so I'm looking forward to taking all the great parts of Envestnet, working with the amazing team here and leading it forward, because they left the company in great shape, in a fantastic industry, with miles to run in terms of market opportunity.
What more could I ask for?
[00:08:54] Doug Heikkinen: Chris, thanks so much for being with us today.
[00:08:55] Chris Todd: It was a pleasure. Thank you.
[00:08:57] Doug Heikkinen: For more information, please visit Envestnet.com. Please follow us on X, LinkedIn and Facebook, all at Advisorpedia. For everyone at Advisorpedia, our producer Tory Miller, and the Power Your Advice podcast team, this is Doug Heikkinen.