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Susan McKenna, CEO of eMoney Advisor, joins us to discuss the company’s evolution as it marks its 25th anniversary. She shares her path from tech-focused marketing leader to CEO, and how eMoney has stayed true to its planning-first mission while adapting to changing market needs. Susan reflects on its unique culture, dedication to client service, and the importance of equipping advisors with the tools, training, and support to deliver exceptional experiences. Under Fidelity’s ownership, eMoney has had the flexibility to innovate while maintaining its focus on financial planning.
Susan also looks ahead to trends shaping the next decade, from purposeful AI integration to greater personalization, accessibility, and financial wellness for a broader audience. She highlights eMoney’s ability to support clients at every stage, from foundational planning to advanced estate strategies, and the need to balance technology with the human side of advice. With innovations like the premium client portal and a diverse client base driving development, eMoney is focused on delivering full-spectrum planning that reaches more people and deepens advisor-client relationships.
Register for the eMoney Advisor 2025 Summit, October 20-22: https://emoneyadvisor.com/summit
Related: Automation, Efficiency, and the Future of Custody with Thomas Moore
Transcript:
[00:00:02] Doug Heikkinen: This is Advisorpedia's Power Your Advice podcast and I'm Doug Heikkinen.
[00:00:08] Doug Heikkinen: Today we're joined by Susan McKenna, who is the CEO of Fidelity's eMoney Advisor. Welcome to the podcast, Susan.
[00:00:15] Susan McKenna: Thank you, Doug. Pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:19] Doug Heikkinen: Oh, absolutely. . .
[00:00:28] Susan McKenna: Sure. So I am a tech nerd. I've spent my entire career in technology, mostly on the go-to-market side as chief marketing officer or chief revenue officer of various software and services companies. Some angel invested small companies and some very large names that you'd recognize. But it's been a phenomenal journey.
I have supported financial services in many of those different software companies and I worked for a couple of fintechs, which was my progression into joining eMoney early in 2018.
[00:01:05] Doug Heikkinen: Great. So from head of marketing to CEO. How has the company evolved during your time there?
[00:01:13] Susan McKenna: Yeah. I think part of it is just my own evolution and looking at things through a different lens, right?
As the chief marketing officer, I'm obviously looking at steward the brand, understanding the customer, the client journey, and all of that. And it really doesn't change in taking on sales or even in the CEO capacity. It just changes in terms of the breadth of things that kind of keep you up at night.
One of the other things that I think has changed a lot is this market, right? In the past seven or eight years just watching how the market changes our clients and our clients. We're with them a lot. We get a lot of great feedback, and that helps us stay innovative and stay on top.
[00:01:57] Doug Heikkinen: As eMoney celebrates this 25th anniversary, and I can't believe it's been that long.
[00:02:02] Susan McKenna: Me neither.
[00:02:02] Doug Heikkinen: What moments stand out to you as transformative in the company's journey, and how has eMoney's core mission evolved over the years?
[00:02:11] Susan McKenna: I am going to say maybe in 2019, we took a look at the existing mission and said, should we change it. And we did. But we didn't change its essence. We just simplified it.
I think, back in the day, people used to have paragraphs long missions and visions to try to encompass everything. And we've stayed true to that core, and that is planning. We are planning centric. That is our niche. We don't try to be all things to all people. And so the way planning has changed, we've evolved with that.
Like I said, we take a lot of advice and input from our customers, but I think that's one of the main things that has changed over time.
[00:02:52] Doug Heikkinen: So eMoney was acquired by Fidelity a decade ago.
[00:02:56] Susan McKenna: Yeah.
[00:02:57] Doug Heikkinen: How has that ownership shaped the company's growth or approach to innovation?
[00:03:02] Susan McKenna: I have had the privilege of working for public companies, private companies, PE-backed companies, and Fidelity has been incredibly supportive. Since we are a wholly owned subsidiary, they purchased us because of the value they believe that we add in the market. They're obviously very planning focused as well. But our board is made up entirely of Fidelity and they're incredibly supportive of our journey, and anything we wanna pursue. They really do foster an innovative mindset, and that gives us a lot of flexibility.
[00:03:41] Doug Heikkinen: What do you see as eMoney's most significant contribution to the financial planning industry over the past 25 years you guys have been in existence?
[00:03:50] Susan McKenna: Yeah. First of all, very exciting. I've only been here for eight of them but it's really amazing to be part of a market leading financial technology company.
I think our focus is the biggest and best thing that we give back to this community and the fact that we don't try to be all things to all people. I think releasing our platform and staying focused on this three legged stool that we have of the client portal aggregation and the vault, when we released that 24 years ago, and evolving that with the needs of our advisors and their clients.
[00:04:30] Doug Heikkinen: What do you think makes eMoney truly unique from its culture and people to how it serves as clients?
[00:04:38] Susan McKenna: So I'll answer that a couple different ways. I know everybody thinks their culture is unique. Ours truly is. Our people are incredible. I feel very fortunate to work with this team. Very smart, very focused, wants to do the right things, not only for our clients, but for each other, and that's not always the case. And we've been able to maintain that spirit and that culture even in a remote first environment that we are in. We're in over 40 states. And so we put a lot of energy towards fostering and maintaining and growing that culture. I think from an employee perspective, but from a client perspective, one of the things that really differentiates us is our service and support model.
It's not buy a license and go away. We know that there's a lot involved with onboarding the client to make sure they fully understand the benefits of the solution. There's training, there's coaching. There's support that they can call in. I personally have shadowed folks on our support team and I hear advisors say, I've got a client coming in an hour. I don't know how to run this report, or I don't know how to show this dashboard. And we spend the time to make sure they feel confident in using the technology for their benefit.
[00:05:57] Doug Heikkinen: So everything evolves and so has the advisor client relationship. So how has that evolved and what does that dynamic look like today?
[00:06:09] Susan McKenna: I'm sure there's many different perspectives on this, but I personally feel it's gotten a lot more vulnerable over the years, where our clients' clients feel like they can open up to their advisors, I mean that was taboo. We all know that. There's lots of documentation on how emotional it is to have discussions about your financial situation.
But in talking with our advisors and even the large enterprises that we work with, this is something, the underlying demand for advice has never been stronger. Look at the volatility we've had in the market, whether it's politically, whether it was COVID. That landscape continues to change, but the underlying demand for advice continues to increase.
We look at that as an opportunity and wanting to make sure we're personalizing the experience, we're customizing the experience, and we're fostering that engagement between our clients and their clients.
[00:07:09] Doug Heikkinen: Let's look ahead. What trends do you think will define the next 10 years of financial planning and wow, that's a big question.
[00:07:17] Susan McKenna: It is a big question. I could be on a beach in Fiji in 10 years. I don't know, but,
[00:07:24] Doug Heikkinen: Let's hope.
[00:07:24] Susan McKenna: Yes, I hope so. Maybe, I'd be remiss if I didn't say AI. Yeah. 'cause you have to say that at least once in every podcast right now.
[00:07:35] Doug Heikkinen: Exactly. So
[00:07:36] Susan McKenna: let me put it this way. When we think about AI, of course we're looking at it from a business operations perspective.
I would have to do that. And we are, we're a technology company, so we embrace that opportunity. But we're very purposefully looking at it, in terms of the planning experience, because it will never replace what I just said, the vulnerability of the client and our clients' clients. So the personal aspect of that will not go away.
But there are surely things we can do with automation. There are surely things that the product and technology teams are looking at in terms of driving efficiency for the advisor, serving up the right data earlier so that they can once again increase that engagement. So that's at the fore, right?
That's already here. 10 years? Not sure, but I would say over the next two to five people are really going to be focused on figuring that out.
[00:08:34] Doug Heikkinen: How has eMoney thinking about its role in solving challenges like personalization, access, financial wellness, with all this money changing from one generation to another.
[00:08:45] Susan McKenna: Yeah, it is all about the engagement and we have a platform that starts at the very earliest stages with the most rudimentary needs, all the way up to very sophisticated estate planning, and depending on where you are in your journey. And we feel like that continuum makes us unique. Being able to focus all through the planning journey, not just for the 1%, and sit down and have, a conversation.
Things like the premium client portal, which we released at the end of Q1 this year, which has been met with great demand, which gives people an opportunity to use mobile. And just meeting people where they live and evolving with that and taking that feedback from our clients has enabled us to stay ahead of, I think, what people are wanting and expecting from that financial journey.
[00:09:40] Doug Heikkinen: We've already touched upon this a little bit, but I want to just give you a little more space to talk about how you balance, how you're thinking about balancing the evolving between technology and human advice.
[00:09:52] Susan McKenna: Yeah, I think both are critical.
As I said, we're a financial technology company, not a financial services company, and I always distinguish the two because we believe technology is an enabler that's absolutely critical to being able to facilitate more of that engagement. And so that's where we're really focused, right? When you look at things that we're, the diversity of our client base right now is what kind of inspires us to look at that continuum and make sure that at each touch point in the journey, we're creating that opportunity for collaboration and engagement.
[00:10:28] Doug Heikkinen: All right, last one for you. What can you share about what's next on eMoney's product roadmap? And are there any specific innovations or themes you're excited about?
[00:10:39] Susan McKenna: There are many, and I would tell you we have our annual summit coming up October 20th through 22nd. It is virtual once again, would love for you to join us.
And we're going to unveil the full, product roadmap during that keynote presentation as we always do. I think one thing that I would share is that we are just still focused on the advisor and the end client experience to deliver full spectrum planning. We know the key is still trying to get more plans to more people, and that's the best way to do it.
[00:11:16] Doug Heikkinen: Susan, great stuff. Thank you so much for joining us. Best of luck with the rest of the year.
[00:11:22] Susan McKenna: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Have a great day.
[00:11:26] Doug Heikkinen: You too. To learn more about eMoney, please visit eMoneyadvisor.com. We are on all social media platforms @Advisorpedia. Please give us a follow. For our producer Tory Miller and everyone at Advisorpedia, thank you so much for listening.