Janine Wertheim

Janine Wertheim spent her entire ~37-year career at Securities America, one of the largest independent broker-dealers in the United States. A South Carolina native, she earned a Bachelor of Science in business from Lander College and began her career at a start-up financial planning firm in Greenville, South Carolina, where she helped two planners build the practice. When one of the firm's principals partnered with the founders of Securities America, she moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1984 to continue in financial services — joining Securities America shortly after its founding.

Over her tenure she performed, in the firm's own words, "almost every role" across the broker-dealer, rising through leadership positions including Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. In 1994 she and a small team founded Securities America Advisors, one of the first dual-registered RIAs in the independent wealth-management industry. She served as its long-time President, growing the RIA to roughly $75 billion in assets under management. An early colleague, Steve Sanduski, recalls the practice growing from zero to nearly $2 billion in assets between 1993 and 1999 under her leadership.

Throughout her career Wertheim was a prominent advocate for women in wealth management, emphasizing a servant-leadership philosophy — "A leader says that other people are the most important people. You're here to serve versus to be served" — and encouraging women in the industry to lift one another up. She retired from Securities America on July 30, 2021, and was publicly thanked by parent company Advisor Group for her decades of contributions. She is married to Bob, who runs his own business, and they have three sons, Andy, Tyler, and Jordan.

• No public evidence was found that Janine Wertheim operates as an angel or venture investor, and no stated investment thesis, check size, or sector/stage focus could be verified.
• Her professional focus was the independent wealth-management and RIA business — advisory services, broker-dealer operations, marketing, and advocacy for independent financial professionals — rather than startup/seed investing.