Edelman Financial Engines has named Tina Wilson as its chief retirement officer, a newly consolidated role that places the firm's workplace retirement, retirement plan services, and employee planning divisions under a single executive. The move, announced Tuesday, is part of the Santa Clara, California-based RIA's broader effort to turn 401(k) participants into long-term financial planning clients.
Wilson brings more than 25 years of industry experience, most recently at Empower, where she served as executive vice president and chief product officer, overseeing enterprise product strategy and innovation. She also held the role of chief executive of Empower Advisory Group, the company's registered investment advisor. Her appointment follows a period of expansion for Edelman, which in September 2026 launched an integrated retirement solution for small and mid-sized businesses through ADP, extending its advisory capabilities beyond the large-employer market. The firm manages more than $336 billion in assets for over one million clients, according to data as of June 30, 2026.
A unified retirement structure
CEO Ralph Haberli said the consolidation under Wilson is a strategic bet on what he calls a critical inflection point in the workplace advice market. "By bringing these capabilities together under Tina's leadership, we are positioning Edelman Financial Engines to serve more workplace savers, innovate faster, and create lifelong advice relationships that extend well beyond retirement planning," Haberli said. "This investment reflects both the strength of our retirement business today and our confidence in the opportunity ahead."
The move reflects a growing thesis among large RIAs: that a defined contribution participant is the starting point of a broader client relationship, not just a captive audience for retirement products. Edelman's workplace-to-wealth strategy—tying plan participation to full financial planning engagement—now has an executive whose career has been built at the intersection of those two businesses.
Wilson's appointment comes just weeks after the firm named Christian Mango, a nearly 30-year veteran of the retirement plan industry, as senior vice president and retirement advisory practice leader. Together, the two hires signal that Edelman is adding senior firepower at the leadership level as it competes for plan sponsor relationships with both large recordkeepers and specialist retirement advisory firms.
Fauerbach exits after nearly two decades
The announcement also marks the end of a long tenure for Kurt Fauerbach, senior vice president and head of workplace, who is retiring after 18 years with the firm. Under Fauerbach's stewardship, Edelman's workplace business grew into a platform serving nearly 600 of the nation's largest employers and more than 10 million retirement plan participants, according to internal data as of June 30, 2026. Fauerbach will remain in an advisory capacity through early 2027 to support the transition.
"Kurt has made an enduring contribution to EFE and to the millions of people we have had the privilege to serve through the workplace," Haberli said. "He leaves behind a stronger business, a lasting legacy, and a foundation that will support our continued growth for years to come."
What it means for advisors
For independent advisors watching the RIA consolidation landscape, the appointment underscores how the largest firms are increasingly treating employer retirement plans as a direct acquisition channel for retail wealth clients. Edelman, which was ranked third among mega-RIAs on Barron's Top 100 RIA Firms list in September 2026, has now placed a former product chief of one of the country's largest recordkeepers in charge of knitting together that pipeline.
Whether Wilson can accelerate that conversion—from workplace saver to full-service planning client—at a meaningful scale will be one of the industry's more closely watched management experiments in the months ahead. The move also echoes similar leadership changes at other firms, such as Mercer Advisors naming a chief platform officer and Hightower bringing in a former Vanguard executive. As retirement assets continue to grow—U.S. retirement assets hit $51.2 trillion in Q2—the competition for plan sponsor relationships is intensifying.
