Lawrence Raffone

Larry Raffone is a financial-services executive with more than three decades in the wealth-management and fintech industry. Before joining Financial Engines, he served as Executive Vice President of Fidelity Investments' Institutional Brokerage Group (IBG), a division of Fidelity Investments, where he helped grow the unit into the second-largest player in the registered-investment-advisor custody/brokerage business.

He joined Financial Engines — a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup co-founded in 1996 by Nobel laureate economist William Sharpe — in January 2001 as Executive Vice President, Distribution and Institutional Services. He was named President in November 2012 and became Chief Executive Officer and a board member in January 2015. Over more than two decades at the firm he helped transform it from a 401(k) advice provider into America's largest independent registered investment advisor.

Raffone led two of the company's most consequential moments: the buildout of its retail advisory capability, and the 2018 merger with Edelman Financial Services. That deal — in which private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman acquired Financial Engines for roughly $3 billion and combined it with Ric and Jean Edelman's advisory business — created Edelman Financial Engines, the largest independent RIA in the U.S. Under his leadership the combined firm grew to manage more than $246 billion (later $270+ billion) in assets for approximately 1.3 million clients, predominantly in workplace retirement plans.

On August 18, 2023, Raffone transitioned from President & CEO to Chairman of the Board, handing the CEO role to Jay Shah while remaining a meaningful shareholder. He holds an MBA from Babson College and a bachelor's degree in marketing from Bryant University.

• His "investing" footprint is as a senior operator and equity owner in a large RIA, not as a documented seed-stage angel; no public record of independent startup angel checks, check sizes, or a personal thesis was found.
• Professional focus areas, based on his career: workplace retirement (401(k)) advice, independent fiduciary wealth management, and financial technology that scales personalized advice.
• In his own words on the EFE transition: *"Having the opportunity to lead EFE through such incredible transformation has been the highlight of my career."*
• The "Angel Investor / Seed Round" labeling appears to originate from a third-party contact database and is not corroborated by primary sources; treat it as unverified.