Innovest's 23rd Anniversary
We are excited to celebrate our 23rd Anniversary today on July 1, 2019. At Innovest, we are not just an investment firm, we are stewards to our clients, employees and community. Everyone knows about the problems on Wall Street. Things were no better in 1996 when the co-founders of Innovest left their Wall Street firm because of the conflicts of interest and tainted objectivity to start their own firm. They started the firm with five employees, 25 clients, and a Ryder truck full of used office furniture (driven by President Wendy Dominguez). With relatively little except for the desire to be stewards for our clients, Innovest was founded. The firm has come a long way since that day in July – today, Innovest has 49 employees and more than 260 clients. Innovest consults more than $23 billion in assets. We have a client-based culture, a fee-only model and we are completely independent with no conflicts of interest.
Rich Todd, CEO, reflects, “Wendy and I were tired of the conflicts of Interest on Wall Street and decided to start our own conflict-free firm with tenets: independent, team-based, and research-focused doing completely custom work. We have grown from 25 clients, 5 employees, and 250 million in assets under advisement to over 200 clients, 49 employees and almost 25 billion assets under advisement.”
While Innovest has grown significantly, a major strength of the firm is to make Innovest a rewarding place to work. Pensions & Investments named Innovest among the Best Places to Work in the nation in 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2014. This achievement has allowed us to hire and retain top quality talent with the highest integrity who are committed to our clients. Our employees are people who put others first and work for the best outcomes for our clients and community.
We have promised clients that they will benefit from our growth through our continued hiring of high quality, experienced professionals, and the acquisition of top-notch research. Our success is attributed to our strategy of building community within our clientele and developing them into a great sales force. It is important to Innovest to build strong relationships with our clients, but also provide educational settings in which they can enhance their knowledge about the economy, capital markets, and fiduciary/compliance issues. Innovest founded the Rocky Mountain Nonprofit Conference, Rocky Mountain Benefit Plans Conference, and the Colorado Public Plan Coalition, all of which provide education to hundreds of investors, trustees, and investment committee members – both clients and non-clients.