Edelman Financial Services Edelman Financial Services, a
financial advisory firm, was founded in 1986 by married couple Jean and
Ric Edelman. Sanders Morris Harris Group, a publicly traded
wealth management firm, purchased a majority stake of Edelman Financial Services in 2005. Sanders Morris Harris Group changed its name to Edelman Financial Group in March 2011, and Ric Edelman was named co-CEO of the company with George Ball.
Private equity firm
Hellman & Friedman purchased a controlling stake in Edelman Financial Services in October 2015, at which point the company was managing $15 billion in assets.
Financial Engines Financial Engines was founded in 1996 by
Nobel Prize-winning economist
William Sharpe,
Stanford Law professor
Joseph Grundfest, and attorney Craig W. Johnson. In 1998, it offered its first retirement planning and fund picking software. The company launched its managed accounts offering to a small number of employers in September 2004. By December 2004, it had $1 billion in
assets under management. By 2018, the company managed $160 billion in assets and was the largest provider of managed accounts in the
defined-contribution market. The company provided
401(k) investment advice managed by a proprietary technology platform with access to human advisers.
Edelman Financial Engines Hellman & Friedman acquired Financial Engines in 2018 for $3 billion and merged it with Edelman Financial Services. The new firm became the largest independent
registered investment adviser in the United States, managing $191 billion. One objective of the merger was to combine the companies' workplace retirement and financial planning services. For six consecutive years between 2018 and 2023, ''
Barron's'' ranked Edelman Financial Engines as the #1 registered financial advisory firm in the United States. Former
Department of Labor assistant secretary
Phyllis Borzi joined the company's board in November 2018. As of December 31, 2023, the company managed more than $270 billion in assets for more than 1.3 million clients, mostly in 401(k) plans. In March 2021, Edelman Financial Engines announced that
Warburg Pincus would be taking a minority stake in the company. The transaction represented a valuation of $7.3 billion, a 62% increase in the company's value since its formation in 2018. In June 2021, Edelman Financial Engines announced that Ric Edelman would step down from his role as chairman of financial education and client experience but stay on as a strategic adviser and board member. He also remains the firm's largest individual shareholder. In January 2022, Edelman Financial Engines launched
Everyday Wealth with Soledad O’Brien and Jean Chatzky, a financial and investment advice podcast hosted by
Jean Chatzky and
Soledad O’Brien. The weekly episodes covered
personal finance, the economy, wealth management, and other financial topics. The podcast ended in early 2024. ==Services==