The founder of publicly traded advisor-support giant Envestnet died yesterday.

Judson Bergman

Jud Bergman, chairman and CEO of Envestnet, was killed early yesterday morning in a two-car accident early yesterday morning in San Francisco. Mary Miller, Bergman's wife and managing partner of Hanover Hill Capital Partners, also died in the wreck, as did the drivers of both cars. According to multiple reports, Miller, 57, and Bergman, 62, were passengers in a taxi that was struck by a car going the wrong way on the highway lane.

Mary Miller-Bergman

Envestnet's board of directors has appointed Bill Crager as interim CEO and Ross Chapin as interim chairman, the Envestnet team confirms in a statement. Crager already serves as president of the firm and CEO of its wealth solutions arm, while Ross is its lead independent director.

Mary Miller-Bergman, an alumna of the University of Chicago and of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, founded Hanover Hill in 2012. The RIA specializes in financial planning and wealth management for individual investors.

Judson Bergman, an alumnus of Columbia University and of Wheaton College, served as managing director of mutual funds at Nuveen before founding Envestnet in 1999. He has led the firm ever since, and Envestnet has grown to be the biggest turnkey asset management platform (TAMP) in the business, supporting more than 88,000 advisors and more than $2.6 trillion in advised assets. The firm IPOed in 2010.

"Jud was a giant as a businessman and human being," Chapin states. "We will miss him immensely."

"He led the movement to independent advisors leveraging technology to deliver managed accounts," Chip Roame, principal of Tiburon Strategic Advisors and board member at Envestnet, tells RIABiz.

"He was absolutely a unique and phenomenal person," Joshua Rogers, CEO of Arete Wealth Advisors, tells Crain's Chicago Business.

CBS, the Chicago Tribune, FA, InvestmentNews, NAPA-Net, and ThinkAdvisor also covered the accident. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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