Fiducient Advisors, a retirement plan and investment advisory affiliate of NFP, an Aon company, has promoted Mike Goss to the role of president, the firm announced Tuesday.

Goss, a managing partner and member of the executive team will succeed Mark Wetzel, who has been in the president and managing partner role since 2006. Wetzel will be retiring effective May 3, according to Fiducient.

In the new role, Goss will lead the firm’s business development and marketing efforts along with working with current and future clients; he will also maintain his current role as chief revenue officer, according to the announcement.

Mike Goss

The moves come amid recent changes for the firm. In July of last year, Fiducient named CEO Sabrina Bailey to head the firm. She joined from the London Stock Exchange Group plc, where she was global head of investment and wealth solutions. Meanwhile, at the end of last year, affiliate firm NFP was acquired by Aon plc, though with the arrangement NFP is continuing to operate independently under the new parent, according to the firms.

Goss’ promotion is part of “a natural progression that we set out a few years back for succession planning,” he says, noting that there will be no change to the firm’s operating model, and he will continue “helping the firm grow” in accordance with CEO Bailey’s strategy. 

Goss is a co-founding member of Fiducient, having been part of the startup for Fiduciary Investment Advisors LLC, which combined with DiMeo Schneider & Associates LLC and then rebranded as Fiducient Advisors in 2021. He has advised institutional clients for more than 20 years in portfolio construction, asset allocation, investment manager oversight, fee analysis and peer benchmarking.  

“As a founding member of Fiducient Advisors, Mike’s appointment is a testament to the significant and positive impact he’s had—and will continue to have—on our people, clients, firm and local community,” CEO Bailey said in a statement. “Since co-founding Fiducient and serving as Managing Partner, we believe Mike has demonstrated outstanding support for our nonprofit, family office, corporate and governmental clients. He’s a natural choice to follow in Mark’s footsteps.”

In his role as president, Wetzel led the firm’s strategy and operations; he was also a co-founder of Fiduciary Investment Advisors with Goss, and said in a statement that his colleague is “the perfect person to fill the president position.”

Fiducient, based in Chicago, has about 215 employees and more than $309 billion in assets representing plan sponsors, endowments and foundations, financial instutions and individuals and families.

“All four business lines have been growing nicely, all organically,” Goss says. In terms of new growth areas, he notes that firm recently launched its own pooled employer plan and is coming to market with a proprietary financial wellness offering.

“We continue to see increased demand from clients that would prefer to partner with us directly on wellness,” he says. “It’s an ask we continue to receive and we wanted to create the right model for it.”

Goss also noted that the firm has been able to attract and keep advisers in part due to a compensation model “heavily focused on retention and service as opposed to business development goals,” with most clients coming via referrals.