Valla Wealth has launched as a new independent, employee-owned wealth management firm founded by industry veteran Josh Gerry, who said the business was created after more than 35 years in financial services highlighted gaps and misaligned incentives across traditional advisory models.
Gerry serves as Managing Partner and Co-Founder of the Chicago-based firm. His career spans wealth management, retirement products, financial advisory services, and executive leadership. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of VestGen Wealth Partners, a wealth management platform focused in part on helping succession-minded financial advisors transition their practices and build opportunities for the industry’s next generation.
Previously, Gerry was Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Professional Wealth Advisors, where he helped oversee what he described as a nearly $10 billion platform serving financial advisors and their clients. He also launched PWA Partners, which later became Genesis Wealth.
Earlier in his career, Gerry spent nearly a decade as Senior Regional Vice President at AXA, where he focused on raising assets for the company’s retirement products. Before that, he served as Senior Regional Vice President at MetLife for approximately six years and held regional leadership roles at Jackson National Asset Management and AXA.
Gerry began his financial services career in the 1990s with roles at Dean Witter Reynolds, now part of Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer & Co., UBS, and Pacific Life. Those positions included investment advisor and financial advisor support roles as well as wholesaling, giving him experience across both the advisory and asset distribution sides of the industry.
Valla Wealth is built around what the firm calls the “Valla Accord,” a compensation approach designed to more closely align advisory fees with client outcomes. Under Gerry’s model, Valla receives its fee only when a client reaches a new portfolio high. If the portfolio does not reach a new high, the fee is not paid.
The firm is also introducing the “Valla Way,” which combines financial planning with a concierge-style advisory experience customized around each family’s goals rather than primarily around account balances. Valla said the approach is intended to consolidate different aspects of a client’s financial life into a single advisory relationship.
Another component, called the “Valla Haven Methods,” focuses on downside protection and strategies traditionally associated with wealthy families. Gerry said the firm’s portfolios are designed around the view that avoiding significant losses can be particularly important to long-term wealth creation and preservation.
Valla is also developing its own in-house financial technology platform, described as the “Valla Tech Stack,” to support a customized client experience. The firm said the technology is being built around its advisory model and designed to provide clients with a more tailored experience.
The company describes itself as 100% independent and 100% employee-owned. Its broader mission is to help families define what they want their wealth to accomplish and then construct financial strategies intended to protect and support those objectives over time.
KEY QUOTES:
“We only get paid when you reach a new high. No new high, no fee paid. If you’re not winning, neither are we.”
“We exist to help families define what they want their wealth to accomplish, and then build walls around it to protect.”
Josh Gerry, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Valla Wealth
