Daren Blonski is the co-founder and Managing Principal of Fermata Advisors and its family of brands, including Sonoma Wealth Advisors, Homer Stenger & Co. Tax, and Fermata 401k. A nationally recognized wealth strategist and speaker, Daren is known for his candid, values-based approach to financial planning and legacy leadership.
Daren leads Sonoma Wealth Advisors’ work in agentic Al, one of the most closely watched initiatives of its kind among independent RIAs. Over the past year, the firm built and put to work its own Al agent, a system that logs CRM notes, produces client deliverables, runs daily market reports, and answers compliance questions against the firm’s own manual, not a demo, but a working system inside a real practice. Daren set the behavioral standards, business rules, and governance philosophy behind the system, drawing on a broader team effort to build out the technical architecture. His focus is the question every advisory firm now faces: how to capture the leverage of Al automation without compromising fiduciary duty, compliance posture, or client trust.
On the retirement plan side, Daren is spearheading the launch of 401k Scaler, a proprietary system built to automate the full 401k plan lifecycle, from recordkeeper and fee benchmarking to plan onboarding and ongoing administration. The tool is designed to give plan sponsors faster answers and give the firm’s advisors more time for the strategic work that actually moves a plan forward.
With over two decades of experience, Daren brings a rare combination of academic grounding and real-world practicality to the financial industry. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Davis, and a Master’s degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University. His work blends behavioral finance, family dynamics, and disciplined investment strategy to help business owners, inheritors, and rising-generation leaders build both financial wealth and the mindset required to sustain it.
Outside of wealth management, Daren hosts the It’s All Money podcast, which has generated more than 19,000 YouTube views and continues to grow across major audio platforms. He is a frequent speaker at financial industry conferences and leadership events nationwide and has been featured in national publications including CNBC, Time, and USA Today.
As an author, Daren has written both fiction and nonfiction. His leadership parable Clarity: A Leadership Succession Tale has been praised for making complex strategic concepts accessible and memorable. His book Broken Dealer, co-authored with Carmine Corino, became an Amazon bestseller in Financial Services and established him as a candid voice advocating for fiduciary financial advice. Currently, he is working on The Inheritor’s Dilemma, which examines how to navigate wealth you didn’t create and transform it into a legacy that reflects your purpose, not just your portfolio.
Across all of his work, Daren bridges technical expertise with a deep understanding of human behavior, making him uniquely equipped to guide audiences through the emotional and financial complexities of inheritance, leadership, legacy, and the responsible use of Al in an advisory practice.
Kevin Lum, CFP®, is the founder of Foundry Financial, a retirement-focused advisory firm dedicated to helping frugal savers retire with confidence. His YouTube channel, Retirement Made Simple, has reached millions of viewers and is known for breaking down complex financial topics into clear, practical guidance. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter, where he splits his time between advising clients, creating content, and searching for the perfect cup of coffee.
Anshul Sharma is Chief Investment Officer at Savvy Wealth, where he oversees the firm’s investment strategy, portfolio design, and platform innovation. He partners across product, marketing, and operations teams to deliver portfolios that take a methodological approach to balance customization with scalability for advisors and their clients.
Before joining Savvy, Anshul spent nearly two decades at Bank of America, where he managed the Chief Investment Office’s Sustainable Model Portfolio Suite, launched new proprietary offerings, and, as Head of Alternative Investment Strategy, provided guidance and thought leadership to advisors around hedge fund, private market, and real asset strategies. He began his career as an Investment Strategist at U.S. Trust, designing multi-asset portfolios for high-net-worth and institutional clients.
Anshul holds a Master of Financial Engineering from UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from Lehigh University.
Advait Kulkarni is Senior Vice President of Technology at Signature Estate & Investment Advisors (SEIA). With more than 25 years of experience leading technology transformation across wealth management and enterprise software, he leads SEIA’s enterprise technology strategy, AI initiatives and platform evolution. He oversees the development of the firm’s data infrastructure and AI capabilities, integrating intelligent automation into advisor workflows to enhance productivity, streamline operations and elevate the client experience. Prior to joining SEIA, Advait held executive technology leadership roles at AssetMark, Skedulo and Cetera Financial Group, where he led enterprise-scale digital transformation, cloud modernization and AI initiatives.
Michelle Winkles is a Partner and the Chief Marketing Officer at Mission Wealth, where she leads the firm’s national marketing strategy, brand, digital marketing, public relations, and marketing technology initiatives that support both organic and integration-driven growth.
With more than 20 years of marketing leadership experience, Michelle is helping redefine how AI can accelerate growth for RIAs. She has led the integration of AI across Mission Wealth’s marketing organization, building AI-powered workflows that enhance content creation, advisor enablement, search visibility, analytics, and operational efficiency while preserving the authentic human relationships that drive trust. Her work focuses on helping firms adopt AI responsibly to create more personalized client experiences, strengthen advisor marketing, improve business development, and drive measurable results.
A nationally recognized thought leader, Michelle frequently speaks at industry conferences, leadership events, webinars, and podcasts on AI, marketing innovation, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), digital strategy, advisor growth, and the future of wealth management. She is known for sharing practical, real-world frameworks that help firms confidently implement emerging technologies while keeping people at the center of the client experience.
Michelle is the co-founder of the CMO Collective, the RIA industry’s first peer community for chief marketing officers, and founder of the Marketing Leaders Meetup, where marketing executives collaborate on AI, leadership, and the future of wealth management marketing.
Michelle was named RIA Chief Marketing Officer of the Year by the WealthManagement.com Industry Awards and has been recognized by the Pacific Coast Business Times as both a Top Woman in Business and 40 Under 40 honoree. She holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management, and Nonprofit Social Business from Antioch University Santa Barbara.
Anthony Lancaster is Senior Vice President and Chief Data Officer at Osaic, where he leads enterprise data, analytics, and AI strategy. With more than 25 years of experience across data, technology, AI, and business transformation, he helps organizations move AI from experimentation to governed, scalable, and outcome-driven adoption. His perspective centers on translating AI ambition into measurable business value and sustainable enterprise impact.
Anna Chaiken is Vice President at Ritholtz Wealth, where she has spent the past eight and a half years helping build one of the fastest-growing RIAs in the country. Anna helps oversee the firm’s technology and operations, including developing standard operating procedures and firm-wide training, as well as hiring, recruiting, and talent retention.
With Ritholtz Wealth’s rapid expansion, Anna’s focus is ensuring the firm grows the right way: building scalable, repeatable processes and infrastructure that support growth without sacrificing quality or client experience. Known for turning vision into measurable operational results, she brings a systems-thinking approach to everything from technology adoption to team development, and has built deep trust across advisors, executives, and staff.
Joe McCuine is President and Principal at Modera Wealth Management, a fee-only, comprehensive wealth advisory firm serving individuals, families, business owners, and nonprofit institutions. In his role, Joe shapes Modera’s strategic vision and growth priorities, advancing client-centric solutions and operational excellence across the firm.
A veteran financial services executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience, Joe has a strong track record of aligning business strategy with enterprise operations and scalable systems. Before joining Modera in 2023, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Landon Capital Partners and earlier as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of SCS Financial Services, where he helped grow the organization to more than $20 billion in assets under management and led enterprise-wide functions across wealth management, investments, finance, compliance, and human resources. At these firms, Joe built integrated platforms supporting trading, reporting, and client service capabilities, and played a key role in operational due diligence and complex transactions.
Joe is an active voice in the registered investment advisor community and regularly speaks at industry conferences and is quoted in industry publications on topics including firm growth, organizational culture, and strategic integration.
He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Joe is known for his dedication to mentorship; one of the most rewarding parts of his career has been guiding colleagues through professional growth and complex decision-making. Outside of work, he volunteers at his church, and teaches business fundamentals to students through Year Up, a national nonprofit that prepares young adults for careers in business and technology. He operates out of Modera’s Boston office.
Mac O’Brien is the Chief Growth Officer of Rothschild Wealth Partners, a $8+ billion wealth management firm, where he leads the firm’s strategic growth initiatives across mergers and acquisitions, organic growth, enterprise relationships, and innovation. In addition to driving the firm’s expansion strategy, Mac spearheads Rothschild’s artificial intelligence initiatives, helping integrate AI into advisor workflows, client experience, and operational efficiency.
With more than 20 years of experience in financial services, Mac has built a career helping investment and wealth management firms accelerate growth. Prior to joining Rothschild Wealth Partners, he served as Head of U.S. Investment Distribution at Morningstar Wealth, where he led national distribution efforts and partnered with leading broker-dealers, RIAs, and financial advisors across the country to execute the firm’s growth strategy.
Earlier in his career, Mac held Managing Director positions at Zacks Investment Management, Dearborn Capital Management, and Astor Investment Management. Throughout his career, he has led teams spanning sales, marketing, national accounts, and business development, while contributing to firm strategy, product innovation, and organizational growth. He began his career in equity research, developing a foundation in quantitative modeling and portfolio construction.
A frequent speaker on the future of the wealth management industry, Mac shares practical insights on M&A, advisor growth, artificial intelligence, and the evolving competitive landscape for RIAs and hybrid firms. His focus is helping firms leverage emerging technologies and strategic growth initiatives without losing the personal relationships that define exceptional client service.
Mac earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan.
Stuart Feld is a Senior Vice President and the firm’s Chief AI Officer. He oversees the firm’s advanced technology initiatives and leads Carillon Labs, a dedicated research and development team focused on artificial intelligence and exploring emerging technologies to drive innovation and enhance advisor and client facing solutions. He also serves as the firm’s Head of Front Office Technology.
Stuart brings over three decades of technology experience at major Wall Street firms. Prior to joining Raymond James, he was a Managing Director at JPMorgan, where he led global teams supporting Wealth Management, Audit, and Corporate Technology. Earlier in his career, he held the role of Managing Director at UBS, leading Wealth Management Investment Solutions and Banking Technology teams. He began his career as a software engineer at Prudential Securities, where he held multiple leadership positions in the technology organization, including Divisional CIO at Prudential Financial.