Aiming to turn its hybrid arm into a destination for “purpose-driven” advisors, financial services firm Thrivent picked 30-year industry veteran Carolyn Armitage to lead the RIA.
Thrivent Advisor Network spans 180 advisors managing $6.5 billion in client assets. It launched in 2019 with 130 former representatives from the fraternal benefit society’s legacy insurance broker-dealer, Thrivent Investment Management. The Minneapolis-based hybrid RIA uses Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments as its BD, and it recruited advisors and hired seasoned industry executives ahead of appointing Armitage the head of TAN on June 14.
Although its parent firm began as a Lutheran organization, its charter now encompasses all Christian denominations, according to Armitage, who notes she was raised Roman Catholic in the Minneapolis area. Prior to joining Thrivent, she spoke at its conferences as an investment banker and consultant with Echelon Partners. Armitage’s four years at Echelon followed tenures as a financial advisor, branch manager and executive with several large IBDs.
Thrivent Advisor Network
“We’re not a household name yet for the financial advisor community, and I look forward to changing that over the next year,” she says of her new firm. “This was really breaking the mold to have an insurance organization create an independent RIA.”
Armitage praises the firm’s charitable giving and community service, saying its culture attracted her to the role. She also points out that the firm’s leadership displays gender diversity rare in the industry, with CEO Terry Rasmussen and at least eight other women serving on Thrivent’s board or in C-suite roles. Just 31% of executives, senior officials and managers at insurance or financial firms are women, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data shows.
In addition to her time with LPL Financial and the forerunners of Cetera Financial Group, Voya Financial Advisors and Avantax Wealth Management, Armitage founded True Circle Organization, a nonprofit which provides food and supplies to homeless people.
“The goal of Thrivent Advisor Network is to attract and serve purpose-driven advisors who are deeply committed to their clients, and to achieve that we need to attract leaders that embody that mission of service and also bring extensive industry experience and credibility,” Luke Winskowski, former head of TAN and Thrivent’s current senior vice president of advice and wealth management, said in a statement.
“Carolyn has all those qualities. She is someone who really thinks about how she can impact others and bring fulfillment to them,” Winskowski said. “In a very natural way, Carolyn puts mission and purpose into her life which makes her a perfect fit with Thrivent.”
The firm’s hire drew positive reactions from across the industry. Echelon CEO Dan Seivert called Thrivent’s goals and Armitage’s skills “a great match” and said in an email that he’s expecting big accomplishments in coming years.
“Carolyn is a pro when it comes to helping clients overcome vexing challenges and achieve important strategic goals,” Seivert said. “She has an incredible knowledge of the many facets of this industry, combined with a great network, amazing consulting skills and a sincere care for her clients. All this will translate very well into her role at Thrivent.”
Under Armitage’s leadership, Thrivent may join firms fueling record levels of M&A transactions in wealth management, given her experience at Echelon and because a growing number of older advisors are looking for succession plans, says recruiter Jodie Papike of Cross-Search.
“She really has such a dynamic background,” Papike says. “She understands the industry from so many different angles.”
Erinn Ford, the executive vice president of advisor engagement with Advisor Group, met her six years ago when Armitage “established a great reputation” as LPL’s business consulting lead executive for its major offices of supervisory jurisdiction, Ford said in an email. Despite the dominance of wealth management giants in the space, smaller upstart firms can still compete in the industry, Ford notes.
Granting that “scale and resources are obviously mission critical for firms that want to be able to continuously reinvest in the technology, resources and tools,” Ford says: “The real opportunity set for firms to succeed is in balancing scale and resources with a truly personalized service experience for the advisor. Size and scale alone won’t cut it, and that applies to every firm out there today.”
The hybrid RIA is something of a startup, but its parent certainly has substantial scale: as of Dec. 31, Thrivent worked with more than 2.3 million clients in some capacity across its funds, insurance products and other business lines, adding up to $152 billion in assets under management or advisement. At $2.27 billion in sales in 2020, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans was the No. 14 variable annuity issuer, according to the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.
Thrivent is clearly deploying those resources to the new RIA. Earlier this month, TAN tapped former Private Client Services COO Ryan Armock as its director of operations. Last year, the firm added two recruiting executives, Matt Sines and Gary Foster, each with some two decades of industry experience to their name, plus two compliance and advisor support managers, David Belotte and Don Williams, from Rockefeller Capital Management and LPL, respectively.
“We really want Thrivent Advisor Network to be the destination for like-minded advisors,” Armitage says. “It’s not intended to be a stepping stone on to other endeavors. I think our sense of community really lends itself to that environment.”
Armitage declines to share specific growth targets for the firm, noting that her first two main tasks will be to ensure team members are headed in the same direction and to gather more input from the firm’s advisors. Building the team over the next decade is “the quintessential way to sunset my career,” Armitage says.
“Much like financial advisors are doing as they’re aging in the industry — going back to what got them into this business and what they love to do — I’m changing my career path to go back to what I love,” she says.
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