Edelman Financial Names Former Personal Capital Head Jay Shah as CEO

Edelman Financial Engines announced Wednesday that Jay Shah, the former president of Empower Retirement’s Personal Capital, will become the firm’s CEO as of August 18.  

EFE’s current CEO, Larry Raffone, who had held the position since January 2015, will transition to become chairman of the board while remaining a meaningful shareholder, the firm announced. 

Shah takes the new post about five months after leaving as head of Empower Retirement’s Personal Capital on December 31, 2022. Shah had been running Personal Capital since 2017, including after Empower, the nation’s second-largest recordkeeper, acquired the company for about $1 billion in June 2020.  

“I have long admired Edelman Financial Engines, and I see incredible opportunity in pairing the distribution opportunities of the workplace business with the best financial planners in the industry,” Shah said in a statement. “We have an incredible opportunity to deliver world-class, face-to-face, phone-based, and digital financial planning experiences to help more people lead better lives—from their first paycheck through retirement.” 

Raffone has been with EFE for more than two decades, including as president of Financial Engines since November 2012 and as CEO and a board member since 2015. He led the company through the buildout of the Financial Engines retail capability and the merger with Edelman Financial Services in 2018, resulting in what is now EFE. 

At the time of the merger, Financial Engines was the country’s largest independent investment advisory, and Edelman Financial Services was an independent financial planning and investment management firm. The firms were combined via an acquisition by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.  

“Having the opportunity to lead EFE through such incredible transformation has been the highlight of my career,” Raffone said in a statement. “As we continue to evolve for our clients, I am confident in Jay’s leadership and look forward to my new role where I can support Jay and the team as they pursue the firm’s strategy for the future.”  

Santa Clara, California-based Edelman Financial Engines is the wealth manager option for more than 10 million retirement plan employees, according to the firm, and is the largest managed account provider for defined contributions plans as of the end of 2022, according to the latest data from consultancy Cerulli Associates. 

In March, Empower announced a new Empower Wealth Division headed by Carol Waddell. The division, which includes Personal Capital, will focus on providing retirement plan participants with “the next generation of advice through people and technology,” Waddell said at the time. 

This story corrects EFE’s headquarters.