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Financial Services Review: Specials Magazine
![Lazard [NYSE: LAZ]: Advising Insurance through Complexity](https://www.financialservicesreviewapac.com/uploaded_images/Untitled-4-z2gxh.jpg "Lazard [NYSE: LAZ]: Advising Insurance through Complexity")
Lazard advises insurance companies and other financial institutions on some of their most consequential strategic and financial decisions, from mergers and acquisitions and capital raising to broader questions around growth and positioning. The firm combines financial advisory with asset management capabilities to help clients navigate decisions where timing, market conditions and strategic judgment matter alongside the numbers. That perspective is particularly relevant as insurers navigate consolidation, changing capital requirements and closer links between insurance and investment management. Lazard’s Financial Institutions Group advises insurers and other financial institutions on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and strategic matters, while Lazard Asset Management provides investment capabilities to institutions through its global platform. Together, these businesses give Lazard a broad perspective on the financial landscape surrounding its clients’ most consequential decisions. Understanding the Decisions behind the Deal In insurance, it's rarely just about the transaction. Perhaps a deal signals the intent to expand, perhaps it allows the company to zero-in on core capabilities. Raising capital can create flexibility in the present while influencing strategic options for years to come. Lazard looks beyond the mechanics of a deal, recognizing that the numbers represent only one part of a much larger decision. The Firms Financial Institutions Group offers industry-specific expertise and provides advice to clients on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and other strategic endeavors. That specialization matters because insurance businesses operate within a distinct financial environment shaped by regulation, capital considerations, underwriting economics and investment strategies. Understanding how these factors intersect is essential, as decisions made in one area often carry implications that extend well beyond a single transaction.
![Lazard [NYSE: LAZ]: Advising Insurance Through Complexity](https://www.financialservicesreviewapac.com/newstransfer/upload/Virtual_Fiduciary_Financial_Advisor_and_Wealth_Management-v17kk-.jpg "Lazard [NYSE: LAZ]: Advising Insurance Through Complexity")
Trading
Investors today face a range of portfolio challenges, from concentrated stock positions and tax constraints to exposures that no longer align with their financial goals. As these needs become complex, wealth management requires personalized and flexible investment solutions. Parametric Portfolio Associates offers portfolio solutions designed around each client’s financial circumstances. Rather than relying on a product-centric investment model, the firm operates through a solution-oriented service approach, structuring portfolios around individual client needs and long-term objectives. “We approach investing from the client’s perspective, focusing on their challenges, designing solutions that address their specific circumstances, and offer a higher likelihood of success at reaching their individual goals,” says Thomas Lee, co-president and CIO. “We seek to achieve this outcome by building a diversified, risk- managed portfolio.” Even before direct indexing became an industry category, Parametric focused on building customized solutions. Early requests for index-like market exposure combined with improved after-tax outcomes helped shape its operating philosophy. Direct indexing emerged from that client-first approach, paving a new way to manage market exposure.
Financial Planning/Retirement
No two individuals and families approach financial planning with exactly the same priorities. Some may be preparing for retirement, another focused on preserving wealth for future generations, while others may wish to support charitable causes or build greater financial freedom. Schutte Financial develops customized investment and financial planning solutions based on each client's unique goals, values and long-term aspirations. The independent fiduciary and registered investment advisor aligns award-winning investment strategies with clients' financial goals, creating a more purposeful path toward lasting wealth creation. From retirement planning and investment management to insurance consulting and wealth preservation strategies, it delivers personalized guidance that supports long-term financial success and lasting family legacies. "Money is a tool that can have a lasting impact on our lives. We encourage clients to use that opportunity to plan their future in light of the values and traditions that matter most to them and to consider what they wish to pass on to their loved ones,” says Daniel P. Schutte, founding principal. Schutte Financial enables clients to create wealth beyond finances while supporting a passion for inheritance and initiatives such as charity. This philosophy shapes the firm's advisory approach, helping clients use wealth to create lasting impact across generations and communities. It also emphasizes disciplined investment selection. The firm notes that historical returns from leading investment options are important to long-term financial success. To support this approach, it provides access to an award-winning hedge fund that combines a proprietary algorithm with active portfolio management.
Wealth Management
As wealth management firms grow, so do their technology needs. Many firms have built their technology ecosystems over time, adding capabilities such as portfolio management, reporting, trading, client communication, and trust accounting as new opportunities and requirements emerge. While these solutions often serve their individual purposes well, firms increasingly recognize the value of bringing them together within a more connected operating environment. Today, firms aren't simply looking for a platform to manage portfolios. They want a technology partner who will evolve alongside their business, providing flexibility, scalability, and innovation. Within this shift, SS&C Black Diamond® Wealth Solutions positions itself as an operating system for wealth management and trust firms, designed to unify technology, service, and data into a single, scalable platform. The platform combines portfolio management, reporting, analytics, trust accounting, unique asset management, CRM, client engagement, rebalancing, and white-glove service into a unified structure to simplify complexity and support growth at scale.
Investment Services
Rural business formation and growth have systemically lagged U.S. averages for many years, in part due to a structural gap that exists within lending and equity financing markets. Traditional capital sources are declining or insufficient for high-growth businesses, with private capital inflows and investments geographically concentrated in California, Massachusetts and New York. Rural businesses--representing approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population—capture just 1 percent of private investments. Consolidation among community banks has deepened the shortfall. A recent FDIC study found that just 15 percent of community bank loans are for companies, with most bank lending tied to real estate rather than growth businesses. Without expansion capital, rural companies struggle to scale and without scale, employment stagnates. The gap between rural and urban job growth has widened for decades and Blue Highway Capital is built to close it. “We view this unmet demand not just as a shortfall, but as a compelling reason to invest,” says Christine Jones, Managing Partner. “Growth capital in these regions transforms solid, overlooked companies into long-term economic anchors.” Blue Highway is a USDA licensed Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC), one of the first 5 licensed under a program with now 26 national participants. It is the only industry and geographically-agnostic RBIC focused exclusively on rural growth. That singular focus matters. Many peers concentrate on agricultural sectors, run competing strategies alongside an RBIC, or stay close to metro deal flow. Blue Highway directs every dollar, relationship and decision into underserved markets where the opportunity is greatest.
Debt Collection Agencies
The Importance of Organizational Alignment: Strategy, Environmental Understanding, and Unifying Processes for Success
Michael Dotto, Director, Voya Financial
Financial Planning/Retirement
The Growth Of The Investment Banking Sector Beyond The Numbers
Arthur Korsun, CFA, Director of Investment Management, Northwestern Mutual
Financial Planning/Retirement
Building Community Banking for the Future
Barbara Britenriker, EVP/CFO, Farmers & Merchants State Bank
Financial Planning/Retirement
Helping Clients Prepare For Life, Not Just Retirement
Sheri Perkins, Chief Wealth Officer, Head of Wealth Management, Citadel Credit Union
Equipment Financing
Beyond the Hard Market: The Next Chapter for Excess & Surplus Insurance
IN MY OPINION
Financial Planning/Retirement
Breaking the Bank: How Emerging Finance Leaders are Redefining Community Banking
Riley Akervik, Senior VP Finance, Unison Bank
LAST WORD
FinTech
The Constant Balancing Act of IT Leadership
Voytek Janisz, Senior Vice President, IT AmTrust Financial Services, Inc.
IN FOCUS
Virtual Fiduciary Financial Advisors: Transforming Personalized Wealth Guidance
Virtual fiduciary financial advisors provide personalized planning, digital accessibility, fiduciary guidance, and long-term wealth management support.
Navigating the Future: Trends in Alternative Commercial Lending
Alternative commercial lending is evolving, driven by fintech innovation, increasing accessibility, and a push for transparency and regulation.
EDITORIAL
Building Confidence through Smarter Financial Decisions
Financial services are becoming more personal, technology-driven and complex. Investors want advice that fits their circumstances, while businesses and financial institutions need people who can make sense of difficult choices and changing conditions. In this edition of Financial Services Review, we look at organizations helping clients make those decisions with greater clarity and confidence.
Leading the edition is Lazard [NYSE: LAZ], recognized as the Top Wealth Management Company 2026. Its work with insurers and financial institutions goes well beyond the transaction itself. Lazard looks at the strategic questions surrounding mergers, capital decisions and growth, drawing on financial advisory, industry knowledge and investment capabilities to help clients determine what makes sense for the road ahead.
SS&C Black Diamond Wealth Solutions, named Wealth Management Solutions of the year 2026, brings portfolio management, reporting, analytics, trust accounting and client engagement into one platform. For wealth management firms, having these capabilities together can make everyday work easier, give teams a clearer view of their business and help them spend more time serving clients.
Schutte Financial, recognized as the Virtual Fiduciary Financial Advisor of the Year 2026, takes time to understand what matters to each client before recommending a financial strategy. Family priorities, future plans and personal values all have a place in that conversation. Technology supports the firm’s planning and investment work, but the relationship still depends on human judgment and communication.
This edition also looks at Parametric Portfolio Associates, recognized as the Top Direct Indexing Solutions 2026, for building portfolios around individual circumstances. Its direct indexing approach can help investors deal with concentrated stock positions and tax considerations while working toward their broader financial goals.
Blue Highway Capital, named the Top Rural Capital Financing Firm 2026, focuses on established rural businesses that can struggle to find suitable growth capital. Its financing structures support expansion while giving owners room to maintain control and build for the long term.
The issue closes with perspectives from Voytek Janisz, Senior Vice President, IT at AmTrust Financial Services, Inc., and Riley Akervik, Senior Vice President, Finance at Unison Bank, covering technology leadership, innovation, community banking and the changing role of finance leaders.
