Steward Partners, the employee-owned registered investment advisor, has appointed Joseph Glick as its new chief operating officer. Glick, who previously served as both COO and CFO at Sequoia Financial Group, will oversee operations, technology, and finance as the firm seeks to build infrastructure commensurate with its growth.
Glick reports to Steward Partners' senior leadership and will focus on standardizing technology and artificial intelligence capabilities, refining financial planning and capital allocation, and identifying margin improvements to support both organic expansion and future acquisitions. The firm, founded in 2013, now manages more than $53 billion in client assets, a milestone President Hy Saporta described as a validation of the firm's ownership model.
“We built Steward Partners on the belief that the right people, given the right ownership stake and the right culture, would outperform every time,” Saporta said. “That thesis has produced $53 billion and a top-10 Barron's ranking. Joe comes in as we enter the phase where infrastructure has to match ambition.”
Glick's background includes 14 years at Deutsche Bank, where he held senior operations roles in London, continental Europe, and New York, focusing on governance and large-scale transformation. He also spent nine years at management consultancy Newry Corp. and was seconded to the William J. Clinton Foundation's Climate Change Initiative, helping deploy low-carbon technologies across 40 major cities.
“Steward Partners is at a genuine inflection point,” Glick said. “Having surpassed $53 billion in client assets, the firm is ready to build the kind of standardized, scalable infrastructure that supports the next leg of growth, whether that's reaching the next AUM milestone, expanding margins, or developing a more powerful growth engine in partnership with advisors across the firm.”
Over the past year, Steward Partners has added advisors managing nearly $8 billion in combined client assets. The firm's growth trajectory mirrors broader trends in the RIA space, where firms like Clearstead and Wealth Enhancement have also scaled through strategic hires and acquisitions.
Glick's appointment comes as the RIA sector continues to consolidate, with firms investing heavily in technology and operational efficiency. A recent study found that top-quartile advisors outpace peers by 24 points in organic growth, underscoring the importance of infrastructure in retaining and attracting talent.
Steward Partners, which has consistently ranked among Barron's top RIA firms, now faces the challenge of maintaining its culture while scaling. Saporta emphasized that Glick's track record in building operational frameworks at Sequoia and Deutsche Bank made him the right fit for this phase of the firm's evolution.
