The Money Management Institute (MMI) has announced the winners of the 2025 MMI/Barron’s Industry Awards, honoring the most innovative and influential firms across the investment advisory solutions industry. The awards, now in their 17th year, highlight and celebrate firms that have raised the bar in delivering superior solutions for financial advisors and investors over the past year.

Craig Pfeiffer, MMI President and CEO, said, "The MMI/Barron’s Industry Awards spotlight the creativity, leadership, and dedication that continue to shape our industry. This year’s winners stand out for their ability to anticipate client needs, embrace innovation, and raise the bar for excellence. We’re proud to celebrate these firms for their accomplishments and the impact they are making.”

Jack Otter, Global Head of Wealth & Asset Management at Dow Jones, the publisher of Barron’s, added, “Year after year, we are excited by our collaboration with MMI in honoring firms that are pushing the boundaries and redefining success in wealth and asset management. This year’s honorees exemplify forward thinking and a commitment to progress. We congratulate and applaud them all.”

The winners in the 12 award categories this year are:

Digital Innovation: Honoring a new technological innovation (or specific enhancement to an existing platform or tool) that enhances the investor or advisor experience with advisory solutions.

• Morgan Stanley – Streamlining Advisor Desktop: SMA Matching Tool and Transition Analysis – Morgan Stanley’s SMA Matching Tool and Transition Analysis Report provide an integrated solution that revolutionizes how Financial Advisors analyze and transition client portfolios by reducing multi-day processes to under a minute, while maintaining institutional-quality risk analytics. This innovative solution, which has already been adopted by a significant portion of the firm’s wealth management professionals and generated more than 20,000 transition analyses, exemplifies Morgan Stanley’s commitment to empowering advisors with user-centric technology that enables them to deliver solutions that best serve the needs of their clients.  

Disruption: Honoring a groundbreaking new product, service or process that will fundamentally alter the future delivery of advisory solutions.

• Bank of America Merrill Lynch – Quantifying the value of the Tax Efficient Management Overlay Services – Merrill’s Tax Efficient Management Potential Tax Savings Analysis report helps clients proactively address the impact of taxes on their investments by providing them an easy way to understand the potential tax savings, in dollar terms, from the firm’s suite of Tax Efficient Management Overlay Services—a service that has delivered more than $1.4 billion in tax savings to clients.

Distribution Excellence: Honoring firms that provide exemplary and innovative advisor sales support both in the field and from the home office.

• Blackstone – Blackstone Private Wealth – Blackstone Private Wealth is acknowledged for being a leading innovator in private markets distribution, empowering financial advisors with unmatched education, resources, and client servicing. With $270B in assets under management from the private wealth channel across Blackstone funds and a proven ability to scale private markets adoption globally, Blackstone continues to set a standard for excellence for private markets investing in the wealth industry.

Doing Good: Honoring firm-wide initiatives that actively contribute to the betterment of our communities and address specific needs within them.

• Raymond James – Back to School – Building on a longstanding commitment to education is one way advisors and associates play a part in motivating students, supporting families and helping communities prosper. Ready for School is a community impact program, designed to help students prepare for brighter futures, by investing time, resources, and expertise into helping students achieve their unique goals inside the classroom, outside the classroom, and beyond.

Investment Innovation: Honoring groundbreaking, innovative, and impactful investment strategies and product innovations shaping the industry.

• InvestCloud – PMA Network – InvestCloud is a global leader in wealth and asset management technology, delivering cloud-native platforms that power the world’s most sophisticated financial institutions. With its groundbreaking Private Markets Account (PMA), InvestCloud is redefining how private and public assets are integrated and managed within modern client portfolios.

Marketing Campaign of the Year: Honoring the most innovative, creative, and impactful marketing campaigns that have elevated brand visibility and made an impact on the industry.

• Invesco – Invesco QQQ Recipe for Innovation – Invesco QQQ’s Recipe for Innovation platform “Recipe for Innovation” is a content, paid media, and event series in which the world’s most innovative chefs rethink what’s possible by creating 25 unique dishes inspired by 25 companies in the QQQs. It transformed Invesco QQQ ETF product content into an engaging, sensory-driven gastronomic experience—reaching millions of new investors and its core financial advisor audience in a fresh and unexpected way.

Thought Leadership/Education: Honoring new programs, research, educational campaigns, or content that meaningfully advance industry knowledge and understanding of topics key to the future of advisory solutions.

• Nuveen, A TIAA Company – nextAdvisor: Strategies from leading retirement plan advisors – Nuveen's nextAdvisor has transformed retirement plan advisor education by creating an authentic peer-to-peer learning platform focused on implementing lifetime income solutions. Through innovative content formats and practical toolkits, nextAdvisor has helped drive industry adoption of lifetime income solutions while building a community of forward-thinking advisors committed to improving retirement security.

Wealth Manager Platform of the Year: Honoring a wealth manager platform that exemplifies innovation in delivering better outcomes for investors and financial advisors.

• SMArtX Advisory Solutions – SMArtX Unified Managed Account Platform – SMArtX Advisory Solutions was recognized for its next-generation UMA platform, which combines tax-aware automation, multi-sleeve portfolio flexibility, and enterprise scalability. The platform enables advisors and firms to deliver personalized, tax-efficient portfolios within a unified infrastructure built for the future of managed accounts.

Asset Manager of the Year (Retail Advisory AUM less than $25 billion): Honoring a smaller asset manager that exemplifies innovation in delivering better outcomes for investors and financial advisors.

• F/m Investments – F/m Investments; RBIL, ZTOP & Dual Share Class Platform – F/m Investments was honored for its leadership in reshaping fixed income investing for advisors and investors through the launch of innovative ETFs like RBIL and ZTOP and a pioneering SEC filing to enable mutual fund and ETF dual share classes. With over $8 billion in ETF AUM, F/m continues to deliver practical, category-defining solutions that simplify access to Treasuries, credit, and inflation protection.

Asset Manager of the Year (Retail Advisory AUM $25 billion-$500 billion): Honoring a mid-size asset manager that exemplifies innovation in delivering better outcomes for investors and financial advisors.

• AllianceBernstein (AB) – AB Muni Capabilities – AllianceBernstein (AB) is a leading global investment-management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals, and private wealth clients in major world markets. It is one of the largest investment-management firms in the world, with $121.9 billion in US Retail Advisory assets under management as of August 29, 2025.

Asset Manager of the Year (Retail Advisory AUM more than $500 billion): Honoring a larger asset manager that exemplifies innovation in delivering better outcomes for investors and financial advisors.

• Franklin Templeton – ETFs, Alternatives and SMAs – At Franklin Templeton, they believe success requires powerful partnerships. As a forward-thinking asset manager, they build dynamic relationships with clients, understand their goals, and navigate complex markets together. The firm leverages cutting-edge strategies and deep insights to unlock opportunities to grow wealth. Franklin Templeton is your trusted partner for what’s ahead.

Technology/Solutions Provider of the Year: Honoring a solutions provider firm (technology/service provider) that exemplifies innovation in delivering better outcomes for investors and financial advisors.

• AssetMark – AssetMark Platform – Over the past year, AssetMark has rapidly expanded its capabilities to help advisors provide a more holistic experience for their clients and respond to changing market conditions. This includes ongoing growth of its tax management services, an expanded suite of cash solutions, the addition of new strategies to its platform, and internal AI capabilities.

The winners were chosen from a distinguished group of finalists representing the most dynamic and forward-thinking organizations in the wealth and asset management industry. These firms showcase the highest standards of excellence and innovation.

About the MMI/Barron’s Industry Awards Program: 
Nominations are reviewed and evaluated by the specially appointed MMI Industry Awards Steering Council. The Steering Council consists of representatives from all segments of the MMI membership.  

The Steering Council looked for innovative, needle-moving programs and initiatives that measurably advance the investment advisory solutions industry and deliver improved outcomes for financial advisors and investors. After carefully reviewing the nominations submitted, the Steering Council determined a slate of finalists in each award category. The main contacts at each of MMI’s member firms are eligible to vote to determine the winners in each category.

About the Money Management Institute (MMI):      
Established in 1997, the Money Management Institute (MMI) is the industry association for financial services firms, serving as the leading catalyst and resource for the advancement of investment advice. MMI advances the wealth and asset management industries through connections, knowledge, and professional growth. We are committed to fostering collaboration, supporting diversity of thought, sharing expertise, and driving innovation. By championing best practices and encouraging open dialogue in investment advice, we empower firms and professionals to better serve clients and investors in an ever-evolving world. We offer our members premier professional development programs, specialized curriculums, invaluable thought leadership, and dynamic peer-to-peer networks.       

Our membership spans wealth managers, asset managers, and solutions providers of all sizes, with professionals representing every functional area of the financial services ecosystem. Together, we are shaping the future of investment advice. Follow MMI on LinkedIn.

About Barron’s:
Barron’s is America’s premier financial publication, known for its market-moving stories. Published by Dow Jones since 1921, it reaches an influential audience of professional fund managers, financial advisors, affluent individual investors, financial-services professionals, and senior corporate executives. With new content available every day online and every week in print, Barron’s provides readers with an intelligible recap of recent market action coupled with insights on what’s likely to happen in the market in the days and weeks to come. In addition, the Wealth & Asset Management Group’s annual series of exclusive conferences for financial advisors and investors is dedicated to identifying, enhancing, and expanding best practices in wealth management. As a result of these initiatives, Barron’s is the trusted financial-publishing brand that people active in the market turn to for information, ideas, and insights they can use to increase their professional success and enhance their personal, financial well-being.

Media Contact:           
Kelly Caporale           
Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer           
Money Management Institute           
646.868.8514           
kcaporale@mminst.org