Investment advising in the AI era
When wealth advisers and clients meet these days, it’s likely an AI tool will join in some capacity. As seems true of every industry right now, artificial intelligence is transforming wealth management and, by virtue, the adviser-client relationship. It might be tempting to predict — as some analysts have — that AI could put advisers […]
Virginia advisers outline 2026 investing strategies
One of the great ironies of investing is that even as the stock market notches record highs as it has this year, investors know the good times inevitably cannot last. If 2025 overpromised on uncertainty stemming from a new presidential administration, it also underdelivered on volatility. Aside from a steep — albeit short-lived — stock […]
Virginia 500 Spotlight: WAYNE F. WILBANKS
FIRST JOB: I worked in a Baskin-Robbins in downtown Chicago. Lost my appetite for ice cream for at least a decade. ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADS: Several items of advice: Choose your business environment or partners very carefully as it will reflect directly on your success. Take entrepreneurial risks early in your career as you have […]
California business acquires Falls Church wealth management firm
Beacon Pointe Advisors has acquired Falls Church-based Hemington Wealth Management, adding $1.2B in assets.
JOSEPH W. ‘JOE’ MONTGOMERY
MANAGING DIRECTOR, INVESTMENTS THE OPTIMAL SERVICE GROUP OF WELLS FARGO ADVISORS WILLIAMSBURG
Banking | Finance 2025: CASSADAY, STEPHAN Q.
Since Cassaday founded his Northern Virginia firm in 1993, it has grown from $40 million in assets under management to $6.3 billion. Today, Cassaday & Co. has 93 employees advising more than 3,100 households. Cassaday ranked No. 52 on Barron’s Top 100 Financial Advisors list. Last year, Cassaday & Co. was one of 10 financial […]
Banking | Finance 2025: SPROWLS, RYAN C.
In April, after 25 years with Wells Fargo Advisors, Sprowls founded 114 Private Wealth, which has 11 team members managing $2.5 billion in assets. The firm is affiliated with Wells Fargo Financial Network, an independent broker channel. Ranked third among Virginia’s top wealth advisers, according to Florida’s SHOOK Research, Sprowls is also included on Barron’s 2025 list of t[...]
Banking | Finance 2025: MONTGOMERY, JOSEPH W. ‘JOE’
Montgomery went to work at an investment firm in December 1975 — meaning he’s enjoying his 50th year in an industry for which he is ranked as Virginia’s top wealth management adviser on Forbes’ 2025 Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list, with $1.6 billion in assets under management by his team. He credits the power of relationships and […]
Banking | Finance 2025: GOETZMAN, NEIL
Goetzman’s father worked for Merrill Lynch for nearly four decades before retiring in 2000, according to AdvisorHub. At first, it seemed the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree. Goetzman started with Merrill Lynch in 1987. But, in 2020, he took a different path. That year, Goetzman, along with partner Jeffrey A. Nau, left Merrill’s […]
Wealth advisers reveal ways to avoid bumps
Financial markets have been remarkably resilient this year, with various stock indexes notching new record highs, even as a dizzying number of headlines from Washington, D.C., seem poised to whipsaw investors. Uncertainty persists about how the economy — and, by virtue, financial markets — will fare, given President Donald Trump’s moves to aggressively slash federal […]
A new era
The days of decades-high interest rates are over, as the Federal Reserve is ushering in a new era for financial markets — and, in turn, shaking up some of the advice money managers are offering their clients. During one of its regularly scheduled meetings in September, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee lowered the […]
DALAL SALOMON
When Dalal Salomon first went to work in the financial sector in the 1980s, compensation was strictly on a commission basis. That meant no vacation, no sick leave and no paycheck unless she could drum up clients. At her first firm, where she was a novelty as the first and only female financial planner, she […]





















