Key leaders from some of the United States’ largest financial-adviser firms are featured speakers at the fourth annual Wealth and Asset Management Research Conference Aug. 22 and 23 at Knight Hall’s Emerson Auditorium on the Washington University in St. Louis campus.
The speakers represent roughly one of every six advisers in the country, and some hail from firms partially founded or based in St. Louis. Register here for the conference, subtitled “Finance: Today, Tomorrow and in the Future.”
The event kicks off the academic year for students in Olin Business School’s master’s program for wealth and asset management (WAM). It includes leading academics discussing their research; panel discussions with industry experts; and a candid conversation with David Booth, who in 1981 with Rex Sinquefield founded Dimensional Fund Advisors, which today manages $500 billion-plus in assets.
The headline speakers and panelists are:
- Aug. 22: A panel discussion with Peter J. deSilva, president of retail at TD Ameritrade; Penny Pennington, managing partner at Edward Jones; Ronald J. Kruszewski, Stifel board chairman and CEO; and John Alexander, head of integrated brokerage at Wells Fargo Advisors.
- Aug. 23: A conversation between Booth, executive chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors, and Dean Mark Taylor.
“WashU, Olin and our students are very fortunate that this year’s WAM Research Conference has attracted such a great lineup of academics and practitioners,” said conference chair Rich Ryffel, professor of finance practice, market manager for J.P. Morgan Private Bank and founder of the WAM master’s track at Olin. “David Booth is a luminary in the asset management world. And to gather the leaders of four of the biggest wealth management firms in America, all with deep roots in St. Louis, and put them on the same stage at once is a rare and notable occurrence.
“In its fourth year, to see both the WAM program and the conference grow in size and prominence the way it has, speaks volumes about the ability of Olin to serve as a convener of industry and academic leaders.”
Read more on the Olin Blog.
