Scott Smith
Senior Director, Advice Relationships

About Scott
As the Senior Director of Advice Relationships, Scott leads Cerulli's coverage of fee-based managed accounts and investors' engagement preferences. With more than 25 years of wealth management experience, Scott adds valuable context and perspective in assisting Cerulli's clients with optimizing their advisors' and investors' platform experiences, given the evolving demand for financial advice.
During his tenure at Cerulli, Scott’s research and consulting work has covered the full spectrum of wealth management topics, from product development and wholesale distribution to portfolio management and comprehensive financial planning.
Scott started his career wearing a headset at Putnam Investments’ service center in 1996. He then moved to more strategic product roles at MFS Investment Management in 2000 and finally to Cerulli in 2007. In addition, he currently serves as a member of the CFP Board’s Financial Advice Working Group, as a mentor in MMI’s Leadership Pathway program, and as a judge for the wealthmanagement.com Industry Awards.
Education
- The Johns Hopkins University
Bachelor of Arts in Economics - Bryant University
Master of Business Administration
Areas of Expertise
- Comprehensive wealth management strategy
- Client engagement
- Fee-based managed accounts
- Platform tax optimization strategy
- Fiduciary principles
- Behavioral finance
- Retail investor platforms and relationships
- Direct-to-investor brokerage and advisory strategies
- Digital advice and hybrid model development
- Wholesale financial product distribution dynamics
- Investment product development and management
- Advisor portfolio construction
- Asset allocation model portfolios
Recent Project Work
- Due diligence for private equity acquisition of wealth management target firms
- Benchmarking and development strategy for a major managed account sponsor
- Custom investor segmentation modeling for a large asset manager to better understand buying behaviors and product use
Learn More about the U.S. Wealth Management Practice
Our Wealth Management practice is split into four distinct areas of coverage—offering top-down and bottom-up insights into the multi-faceted corners of the industry.