Allison Felix has been promoted to president and principal of Cassaday & Co., an independent wealth management firm with $2.7 billion in assets under management based in McLean, Va.
She previously was chief operating officer of the firm and will retain those duties. She succeeds Stephan Cassaday, the organization’s founder and current president, who will transition to chairman and remain as CEO.
Felix joins current Cassaday & Company principals, Christopher Krell, Justin Harris and Christopher Young, as a shareholder of the firm. She is among a minority in an industry where only 16 percent of wealth management partners are female.
“Steve has always placed females in leadership roles. Six of our eight department heads are female. It makes sense for us culturally to have female leadership reflected in our ownership structure as well,” Felix said.
Felix said her rise in the company seems, in some ways, like it happened overnight and yet she has been with the company for 17 years.
“We are in a bit of a bubble at Cassaday with 60 percent of our leadership and 46 percent of our firm being female. Two other female leaders have been here more than 20 years, so I don’t think we have had the same struggle other women may have had,” she said. “Technology is going to be the next big issue for everyone.”
Many think financial advising is “all about data and numbers, but it is really about problem solving and relationship building. As that becomes better known, it might attract more women to the profession,” Felix said.
Felix joined Cassaday as an executive assistant. Upon acquiring her MBA in 2011, she became the firm’s first chief operating officer, having previously served as director of business management. She has overseen the formation of the firm’s leadership team, the establishment of a formal succession plan, the founding of several key service departments and the creation of a successful client advisory board.