Wipfli appoints Pierce chief executive officer

Wipfli Financial Advisors has appointed Jeff Pierce as its new chief executive officer, effective Feb. 11.

Pierce joins the firm following a tenure as a vice president and the head of advisor practice management at Dimensional Fund Advisors, an Austin, Texas-based investment advisory firm whose philosophy and mutual funds are an important aspect of Wipfli Financial's investment approach. He brings a track record of helping investment advisory firms develop and execute strategic plans to continually improve the client experience and build scalable, multigenerational client firms.

While at DFA, Pierce provided guidance to hundreds of financial advisory firms on a wide range of practice management areas, including financial performance, operations, human capital, technology and succession and ownership transition. He also developed and led two of the industry's largest global practice management benchmarking studies, which have helped advisors gain better strategic insight into their businesses and gather direct feedback from clients to better understand expectations and implement tactics to enhance the client experience.

"Our entire team looks forward to working with Jeff in growing our holistic, personalized planning approach, which will deliver even greater impact to our current and future clients in the months and years ahead," said Julie Nichols, Wipfli Financial's interim CEO and chief financial officer, a role she will continue in moving forward.

"Jeff brings a wealth of industry experience to our firm and our clients," added Rick Dreher, Wipfli's managing partner. "He embodies Wipfli's culture, core values and client focused-approach and is passionate about expanding the wealth management model and CPA-based philosophy we are building with Wipfli Financial."

The announcement caps off a landmark year for Wipfli Financial, following a strategic change to its name and leadership structure in June, which has broadened its integrated service model with a CPA-based philosophy and deepened its strategic affiliation with Wipfli LLP (Wipfli), a top 20 national accounting and consulting firm. Wipfli Financial also added two new members to its Investment Committee in September, a move that further expanded its investment expertise and capabilities.