Kestra hires BlackRock's Kelly Apple to lead wealth management

Kestra Financial has hired Kelly Apple, a former BlackRock managing director, to lead wealth management, WealthManagement.com reported. Apple will oversee investment management, planning, advisory solutions, retirement, insurance, alternatives and due diligence for both the parent firm and Kestra Private Wealth Services, its breakaway-advisor channel.

John Amore, Kestra's president, held the role before Apple, and the search to replace him ran more than a year. He described the post as an executive-committee job he loved, and one where the right person mattered. A search that long suggests he had someone specific in mind.

Apple spent more than 13 years at BlackRock, most recently as managing director and head of national accounts. There she led the team serving the firm's largest distribution partnerships, and her final post was concentrated on the broker-dealer channel, with independent and wirehouse firms. Earlier positions at DWS Investments and Van Kampen Investments, now Invesco, take her intermediary-distribution experience past two decades. She told WealthManagement.com she had not been looking for a move; conversations with Amore and others about how Kestra puts advisors at the center of its platform changed that.

This is a distribution hire. Amore's criteria emphasized the products and solutions advisors use, and Apple's entire career runs through that channel. Her remit covers both the parent broker-dealer and the breakaway shop, letting one platform serve traditional independent advisors and those leaving wirehouses. She credited Kestra's attention to advisors, along with the platform and resources built around them, for the firm's growth.

Kestra Holdings, which also owns RIA Bluespring Wealth Partners, is majority-owned by Stone Point Capital with a minority stake from Oak Hill Capital. Putting a distribution executive in the seat, rather than an investment strategist, suggests Kestra's next phase will be built on advisor-facing product depth.