Sabrina Bailey, the recently named CEO of Fiducient Advisors, says financial wellness capabilities and services for the end client will be a key focus area for the firm as she takes the helm.

Bailey, who officially started July 31, says she is on a listening and learning tour of the investment consultant and advisory that works with plan sponsors, financial institutions and RIAs and directly with individuals.

But in a career that has taken her from heading a retirement solutions division to providing digital investment advice to leading the London Stock Exchange’s investment and wealth solutions division, she remains focused on meeting the needs of the end client.

“We will be actively working on enhancing [financial wellness]—we’re going to prioritize that,” she says. “Each of our clients have different needs, and we will be working to understand those individual clients to set up the right plans for them.”

Sabrina Bailey.

Bailey is succeeding the firm’s founder, Bob DiMeo, who is remaining with the firm as chairman. Her hire was the result of a search DiMeo announced in January for someone to head the advisory with seven locations and $240 billion in assets under advisement.

Bailey, who served for a time as CEO of Northern Trust Asset Management’s wealth technology platform, Emotomy, will also be bringing a data-driven approach to the business, whether in investment consulting or direct asset management.

“Data and analytics are really critical … in terms of the individuals and employees and the services they are going to receive,” she says.

As an example, Bailey notes the need to avoid mistakes like putting a retirement saver into the wrong investment for their situation.

“If a mutual fund is wrong, the data flowing in is wrong, and that could set the employee on the wrong path to reaching their retirement goals,” she says.

Bailey says taking the head position of an advisory that provides investing and retirement solutions brings her back to her “true roots” by working with teams who ultimately serve “millions of individual lives.” Her interest in financial planning, she says, came from growing up in a logging community in Oregon in which she “watched people struggling day to day” and to which financial planning could be like a different language.

“Most people were working until they couldn’t work any longer,” Bailey says, noting that she had not heard of a stock or a bond until she got to college.

In her new position, Bailey says she will focus on offering employees “access to the highest quality” financial services.

When asked about the potential to incorporate artificial intelligence for some of that guidance, Bailey says she sees a place for it in financial wellness, but, ultimately, a human overlay will be critical to make it work.

“I view it as a balance,” she says. “Too often we forget that humans were designed for relationships; there are absolutely benefits that AI will bring in terms of efficiency and effectiveness … but without having someone to talk to, live, you don’t get the benefit of financial wellness.”