Nancy L. Skeans has been appointed the second chief executive officer of Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors, a financial services firm with $1.2 billion in assets under management, the firm announced Thursday.
She succeeds Don A. Linzer, who has served as CEO since the practice’s inception in 2001.
Linzer will continue to work with clients in the wealth management practice while serving as CEO of broker-dealer Schneider Downs Corporate Finance.
Skeans, who has been with Schneider Downs since 2003, is a partner in the firm. She previously served as managing director of the personal financial services practice. In that capacity, she managed eight members of the wealth management team.
Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors is a subsidiary of the public accounting firm Schneider Downs & Co. Inc., one of the nation’s 60 largest accounting firms.
The transition is part of the succession planning for the firm, says Linzer. It has experienced solid growth since its inception and plans on additional organic growth in the future.
“Many firms do not have succession plans, but we are very deliberate and want to turn operations over to the next generation,” Linzer says. “We are not looking to acquire other firms. We’ve grown because we have a wide breadth of expertise to offer our clients.”
The move sets the firm up to serve multi-generational families and the private business owners who are returning to a revitalized Pittsburgh, Skeans says.
Growth for the firm will come from referrals for the most part, as it has in the past, says Skeans.