Cincinnati-based registered investment advisor Bartlett Wealth Management on Tuesday announced new leadership for 2021.
Jim Hagerty assumed the role of Bartlett’s new CEO and Holly Mazzocca was named the firm’s president, effective Jan. 1. The pair succeed Kelley J. Downing, who was CEO and president for 13 years. Downing is now Bartlett’s executive chair.
“We are thrilled to announce this evolution in Bartlett’s leadership team by welcoming Jim and Holly as the new CEO and president of Bartlett, respectively,” said Downing in released comments. “This was a well-thought-out succession plan that will ensure continuity and forward-thinking. The outcome is the result of a great deal of time and consideration—this transition has been in-process for nearly two years, taking into account the interests of both our firm and its valued clients.”
In 1898, Benjamin Bartlett, a partner at a Cincinnati-area private investment firm called George Eustis & Co., purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. A new firm, Bartlett & Co., would eventually replace Eustis & Co. When the Investment Advisers Act was passed in 1940, Bartlett was among the first firms to register as an RIA.
Much of the firm’s history and legacy revolved around investment management as it helped high-earning employees from companies like Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Macy’s and Cintas make key decisions about their portfolios and their financial lives.
Under Downing’s leadership, Bartlett moved away from an investment-focused model towards a planning-centric approach, but the firm prides itself as having offered some form of planning services to its clients for more than a century.
As it grew, Bartlett saw the need to separate the president and CEO roles and allocate different functions for each, according to the firm’s announcement.
In their new roles, both Hagerty and Mazzocca will continue to maintain their pre-existing client relationships.
“Bartlett has a rich history of navigating leadership transitions through the 123-year history of the firm and its predecessors, and our team has been working toward this for some time," Hagerty said in a prepared statement.
Over the past five years Bartlett grew from $3 billion in AUM to more than $6 billion at year-end 2020.
The new leadership team intends to continue serving Bartlett’s clients with investment and planning solutions while pursuing goals of both organic growth and expansion through strategic acquisition, the company said in a press release.