Mindy Diamond, founder of the wealth management recruiting, consulting and executive search firm Diamond Consultants, is stepping down from the lead role as her sons take over.
Diamond, who founded her consulting firm in 1998, will move to board chairman while her son Louis Diamond takes over her CEO role. Another son, Jason Diamond, will take over Louis’s role as president.
“Much like we counsel advisors in talking with them about succession planning, I am all about eating my home cooking,” Mindy Diamond said. “This has been a well-planned, well-thought-out, well-executed transition that my sons have been training for their whole lives, and as a business, we have been planning for probably the last four to five years.”
Diamond will continue to counsel the firm as board chair and contribute thought leadership to the industry, including with The Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors, which is published on WealthManagement.com.
The founder, who is 62, said she is ready to transition to the chair role but would never have done it if it wasn’t good for the business that she calls her “third baby.”
“The truth of my readiness was my sons, who share my values, which is the most important thing to me,” she said.
Louis Diamond has been with the firm for over 10 years, taking on the president role in 2021. Jason Diamond joined four years ago and was previously executive vice president and senior consultant. Howard Diamond, Mindy’s husband, will remain chief operating officer of the Morristown, N.J.-based firm.
Over the decades, Diamond Consultants’ mergers and acquisitions work has transitioned more than $350 billion in assets under management. The firm touts a proprietary selection process for advisors considering a move, with the idea that a “wrong move could have massive ramifications.”
Mindy Diamond credits Louis Diamond with bringing process to a mostly relationship-driven business. The former Ernst & Young financial services consultant, who spearheaded the firm’s executive search function, said he will continue to try to grow and expand the firm.
“I want our brand and our company to be synonymous with advisor transitions, or for any type of talent in the industry, that we are the de facto place they call,” he said.
Louis Diamond said he plans to continue growing the firm into areas adjacent to financial advice, which will include hiring more staff.
Mindy Diamond recalled that when she first started the firm, it was a process of “smiling and dialing.” One of her first memorable breaks came when an advisor she had been working with for years decided to leave a wirehouse to start his own RIA before such a move was popular.
“He called me after he moved, and he was almost in tears he was so appreciative,” she said. “The approach led him to a place that he probably never would have gotten to otherwise. … that’s what made me realize that if it was good for him, it was going to be good for others as well.”
She said she will start telling clients about the move on Thursday, noting that she will still be active at the firm.
“I am not retiring—the word nauseates me to be honest with you,” she said. “I am just stepping out of the day-to-day and allowing the business to evolve as it should.”