Speakers

View the agenda.

Tony Sirianni

Publisher & CEO

  • Tony Sirianni is a 35 year industry vet, the publisher of two of the most successful Financial Advisor magazines in the industry, and the force behind the AdvisorHub website, the number one news site for Financial Advisors. He is the host of the top rated Tony Sirianni podcast, which features the industry's best  CEOs, advisors, and thought leaders. He created an Advisor focused events business that gives thousands of advisors access and networking opportunities, along with national recognition in his annual 1,000 Advisors to Watch list.

    He is a consultant for Fortune 100 banks and Advisory firms, and a minority interest investor in a portfolio of RIAs. He is a founding partner in Steward Partners and Washington Wealth management, which later became Kestra Private Wealth, and a former Managing Director at 3 Wirehouse firms.

    Tony has a Law degree and a Masters Degree and lives in Virginia with his family.

Harris Nydick

Founder & Managing Partner

  • Harris Nydick is a founding partner and Managing Member of CFS Investment Advisory Services, LLC and has been advising institutions, retirement plans, high net worth individuals and families for over 36 years. He is a featured speaker at national industry conferences on 401(k) and retirement plan subjects and has been featured in television, radio, print and electronic media on a variety of financial topics. Harris is the co-author of Common Financial Sense, an Amazon bestselling book about simple strategies for successful 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plan investing.

Ed Coyne

Senior Managing Partner

  • Ed Coyne joined Sprott in January 2016 and has more than 25 years of investment management and sales experience. Before joining Sprott, he was a Principal and Investment Specialist for 18 years at Royce & Associates, a small-cap value manager located in New York City and the investment adviser to The Royce Funds.

Greg Banasz

Chief Marketing Officer

  • Greg Banasz serves as Director of Business Development, a Wealth Manager, and is a founding partner at Steward Partners Global Advisory. He has 23 years of experience in the financial services industry. Greg most recently held the role of First Vice President of Wealth Management and Complex Business Development Officer for Morgan Stanley.

Scott Danner

CEO

  • Scott crafts the vision and strategies for Freedom Street, balancing roles that involve working closely with financial advisors and clients, and driving recruitment efforts. His leadership has propelled the company’s expansion to seven states, with 40 advisors managing almost $3.5 billion in assets under advisement as of April 2024.

    Before founding Freedom Street, Scott gained invaluable experience in various leadership roles within the financial sector. He holds the Accredited Asset Management SpecialistSM (AAMS®) designation from the College for Financial Planning and was honored in the 2024 Forbes list of Best in State Wealth Advisors.

    A landmark achievement under Scott's guidance was the merger with Steward Partners, enhancing Freedom Street’s industry position and extending its reach.

    Scott’s dedication to community service is profound. He is an active member of the Chesapeake Rotary Club and the founder and chair of the Chesapeake Wine Festival, which has donated over $2.75 million to local charities. Additionally, he serves on the corporate board of The Boys and Girls Clubs of Hampton Roads, demonstrating his commitment to making a positive community impact.

    Scott W. Danner’s leadership, passion, and integrity continue to drive Freedom Street’s success and its commitment to excellence in client service and community support.

Scott McCaffrey

Managing Director, Head of

  • Scott works to provide the firm’s independent advisors with HilltopSecurities’ wealth management capabilities and expertise. He is responsible for maintaining a thriving environment where wealth advisors can build lasting relationships and grow their careers.

Ben Spiker

CEO & Founding Partner

  • Ben co-founded the rapidly growing firm Shore to Summit Wealth Management in 2017 with Scott Brown after a successful career with Merrill Lynch and, prior to that, Smith Barney.  Shore to Summit’s unique business model and culture, through the vision of the founding partners, has grown the firm to 6 locations nationally with 32 current advisors and employees.  Current expectations are that the firm will double again in 2025.  

    Ben has more than 25 years of experience helping financial services clients achieve their goals. He earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and earned the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. Ben also holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor™ designation.

    Ben, his wife Brittany, and their children, Aidan, Rylan, and Annabelle, live in Severna Park, Maryland. Ben enjoys boating, reading, coaching his kids’ teams, and being active with his family. He is also the Vice President of Ghanaian Mothers’ Hope, Inc. and is passionately committed to helping to empower the future leaders of Africa through mission trips focused on education, health programs, and the construction of preschools and medical centers.

  • Simeon Hyman joined ProShares in 2013 and is currently the firm’s Global Investment Strategist and Head of Investment Strategy. Mr. Hyman leads a team of investment professionals engaged in portfolio analysis, product research and development, education, and the delivery of investment strategies using the company’s ETFs. He and his team are also responsible for the development and publication of research, white papers, and other content to present ProShares as a leader in the ETF industry.

     

    Prior to ProShares, Mr. Hyman spent several years at Bloomberg, where he was Chief Investment Officer for Bloomberg’s technology-driven wealth management business, BloombergBlack. He also served as Chairman of the Investment Committee and led the team of investment professionals tasked with the continuous delivery of investment advice, research content, and strategic and tactical asset allocation guidance. Before joining Bloomberg, Mr. Hyman was Head of Investment Strategy and Due Diligence for UBS. There, he established asset allocation and investment strategies for the $300 billion UBS U.S. Wealth Management business and directed due diligence for the $50 billion separately managed account business. Prior to UBS, Mr. Hyman served as the Chief Investment Officer of Lehman Brothers Trust Company.

     

    Mr. Hyman earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He holds Series 7, 24, 63, and 66 FINRA registrations and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Simeon Hyman

Global Investment Strategist,
Head of Investment Strategy

Tim Bello

Managing Partner, Co-Founder

  • At Merchant, Tim is engaged across all aspects of the Firm, with a day to day focus on driving the company’s key growth initiatives and directing the overall corporate strategy. Prior to Merchant, Tim was an early stage Partner at Dynasty Financial Partners, where he was in charge of strategic implementation and advisor identification firm-wide for the Dynasty Network. Prior to Dynasty, Tim was Head of Global Platforms for New York-based alternative asset manager, SkyBridge Capital, where he was in charge of building and managing the Firm’s global platform sales activities.

    Previous to SkyBridge, he was an original member of the Permal Group’s Hedge Fund of Fund US Private Client Platform Distribution Team, where he launched and developed the firm’s US distribution arm and brand. Earlier, he worked on Permal’s Institutional Sales team which involved interfacing with pensions, endowments, foundations and institutional consultants across the Permal product suite. Tim currently serves as Special Advisor to the Board for the Family Office Association in Greenwich, CT and is on the Membership Committee of the Core Club in New York. He is a graduate of St. Lawrence University.


  • As a senior executive with over 30 years of experience, Stan has operated in banking, private wealth management, investment management, fiduciary trust services, fixed income trading, investment banking, retirement services, insurance, financial planning, and public finance. He has also been involved in acquiring and integrating some of the largest and most complicated banking, wealth management, insurance, and capital markets businesses and cultures with a demonstrated track record of increasing productivity, profitability and shareholder value.

    Most recently, Stan was the founder and co-CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald Wealth Partners (CFWP). Under his leadership, CFWP grew to over $5 billion in assets in less than two years through several strategic acquisitions of RIA’s, independent advisors, and wire house teams.

    Prior to joining Cantor Fitzgerald, Stan was the Head of Wells Fargo Wealth Management -Eastern US Markets and President of Wachovia Wealth Markets. He provided executive leadership to the Eastern U.S. Markets and headed up the Wealth Insurance Division overseeing: the private bank, wealth brokerage, investment management, fiduciary trust services, financial planning, and insurance. Stan was responsible for leading nearly 5,000 team members generating revenues of $2.5 billion with $69 billion of investment fee-based AUM, $19 billion of deposit balances, and $16 billion of loans.

    Prior to Wachovia, Stan was CEO of Commerce Capital Markets, where he directed private wealth management, brokerage, asset management, fixed income trading, derivatives, investment banking, retirement services, insurance, and public finance.

    Subsequently, Stan was CEO of Quick and Reilly (Q&R) as one of the visionaries that transformed Q&R from a transactional discount broker to a full-service advisory company. When Q&R was acquired by Bank of America, Stan stayed on as co-CEO of Bank of America Investment Services until 2005.

    Over nearly a decade at Citigroup, Stan had several senior executive level roles leading different divisions including consumer banking, private wealth management, and Citigroup as Northeast Group Executive Vice President.

Stan Gregor

CEO

Bill Coppel

Chief Client Growth Officer

  • Bill develops and leads Advisor Evolution Sciences, TradePMR’s client growth platform. As Chief Client Growth Officer, Bill is focused on delivering insights, services, and solutions to help future-focused RIA firms achieve sustainable growth.  


    Before joining the TradePMR leadership team, Bill held leadership positions across the financial services industry. Most recently, Bill founded a consultancy firm focused on providing strategies and solutions to support the sustainable growth of wealth management firms. Bill has more than 30 years of industry experience, and holds his Series 7, 9, 10, and 63 securities licenses. Bill earned an MBA from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis and is a graduate of the SIFMA Securities Industry Institute at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  


    Formerly a nationally ranked age-group triathlete for more than a decade, Bill developed an extensive background in fitness, wellness, nutrition, human performance, and the mind-body connection. He remains a part of the endurance community, competing across North America with his wife Kathy, daughter Grace, and son Will.

  • Josh Rogers is a Senior Client Portfolio Manager for the Custom Equities team at Invesco. In this role, he is focused on commercialization efforts and serves as a subject matter expert on the firm’s expanding platform of systematically implemented equity separate managed accounts (SMAs), which provide both tax optimization and customization capabilities.

    Mr. Rogers joined Invesco in 2022. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a senior investment specialist for the advisory and beta solutions group at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. In that role, he was dedicated to commercializing both quantitative and core beta ETF and direct indexing strategies. Before that, Mr. Rogers spent a decade at BlackRock in various roles related to the iShares and Blackrock Funds businesses. Most recently, he focused on commercializing long-only factor ETFs with both retail and institutional clients. Mr. Rogers also held roles as a technical expert on the broader range of iShares ETFs and was involved in product development for liquid alternatives mutual funds.

    Mr. Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in business management and economics from Gettysburg College. He holds the Series 3, 7, and 63 registrations.

Josh Rogers

Senior Client Portfolio Manager

Harris Baltch

Managing Director,
Head of Investment Banking

  • Harris is responsible for leading Dynasty’s Investment Banking division. Prior to joining Dynasty, Harris spent nearly a decade at UBS Investment Bank where he was an Executive Director in the firm’s Financial Institutions Group. While at UBS, Harris originated, led and executed over $10 billion of strategic M&A and capital market transactions for companies in the asset and wealth management industry.

    Earlier in his career, Harris worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the Banking and Capital Markets Group. He has over 15 years of financial services experience and earned his M.B.A. from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He also received a B.S. in Accounting at Binghamton University and is a certified public accountant, registered in the State of New York.


  • Katie Stockton, CMT is Founder and Managing Partner of Fairlead Strategies, LLC, an independent research firm and investment advisor focused on technical analysis. She is the portfolio manager for the award-winning Fairlead Tactical Sector ETF (TACK), launched in March 2022. Prior to forming Fairlead Strategies in 2018, Katie spent more than 20 years on Wall Street providing technical research and advice to institutional investors. She served as Chief Technical Strategist for BTIG and Chief Market Technician at MKM Partners, and she has worked for technical strategy teams at Morgan Stanley and Wit Soundview.

    With help from the Fairlead Strategies team, Katie provides research and consulting services to institutions, investment advisors, and individuals. Katie holds the distinction of being the youngest female to have attained the Chartered Market Technician (CMT®) designation in 2001. She has played a significant role in the CMT Association, serving as Vice President from 2012 to 2016.

    Katie graduated with honors from the University of Richmond and now serves on the business school’s Executive Advisory Council. She contributes to her community by mentoring young women, guest lecturing at universities, and serving on the Endowment Investment Committee for her church. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Cary Street Partners, a leading independent wealth management firm.

    As an official CNBC contributor, Katie frequently shares her market perspectives with investors worldwide. She is quoted often by financial news publications like Barron’s and MarketWatch, and she has a wide following on social media.

Katie Stockton, CMT

Founder & Managing Partner

Matt Baum

Partner

  • Matt has represented multiple Fortune 500 financial institutions, in addition to many small and middle market firms. He has also served as counsel to more than 150 financial advisers throughout his career. Matt appears on behalf of clients in arbitrations (including FINRA and AAA) and in state and federal courts. Among other things, Matt has represented clients in 100+ FINRA arbitrations, including both industry and customer disputes.