Jenny Johnson believes Franklin Templeton has unlocked the key to bringing investments in private markets to more clients, a trend that is likely to accelerate under Trump administration policies designed to broaden access to private equity, real estate and other less liquid investment options. The key is something the firm has been doing for three decades—educating financial advisers.

Advisers want to give their clients more options, said Johnson, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton, which manages about $1.6 trillion in assets. “There’s a real recognition that it’s kind of un-American if we don’t all have fair access to the same kinds of investments.” 

But it is not enough to pick a good product, she said. “If the firm behind that product hasn’t surrounded it with really robust education, it’s too hard for the advisers to understand.”

When TIAA launched an IRA product broadening access to its proprietary annuity products on March 10, the stock market recorded one of its most volatile days in years. Investors were fretting over the impact of tariffs and the possibility of a recession.

The day’s roller coaster ride reinforced what TIAA president and CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett already believed about the value of lifetime income annuities.

“Guaranteed income isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity,” Duckett said, arguing that people want security they can count on regardless of market swings. “That’s why we’re committed to expanding access to guaranteed lifetime income solutions, in both the institutional and retail markets.”

Abigail Johnson, known to all as Abby, runs her family’s old-school asset management firm with a focus on alternative investments that couldn’t even be traded on an exchange a year ago. 

Fidelity Digital Assets, which provides custodial and trading services for the crypto holdings of institutional and high-net worth clients, operates as an independent subsidiary and has become a core contributor to the $6.4 trillion-asset company, which grew to $32.7 billion in 2024 revenues. (The company has about $16.4 trillion under administration.)

Mary Callahan Erdoes arrives for a meeting seven minutes late, apologizing profusely. The CEO of JPMorganChase’s mammoth asset and wealth management (AWM) business moved into the company’s gleaming new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue a day earlier and underestimated the return time to her office after escorting a client to the entrance. “This building is the craziest thing that’s happened to New York City in a long time,” she said.

If you really want to see something crazy, look at the high-energy Erdoes’ workload—and her results. Over the past year she’s shepherded the bank’s high-net-worth clients through a volatile spring, flown around the world to meet with heads of state and billionaires, spoken at big forums, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and even helped fetch a record price for a venerable sports franchise. She also played a high-profile role as the most senior member of Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon’s operating committee.

Teresa Heitsenrether is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer and a member of JPMorganChase’s Operating Committee. Leading the Data & Analytics organization, she is responsible for setting data and analytics strategy and governance standards, as well as driving firmwide adoption of artificial intelligence to develop new products, enhance productivity, and improve risk management.

Heitsenrether has spent her entire career with JPMorganChase. From 2015 to 2023, she was Global Head of Securities Services, overseeing a business responsible for safekeeping, accounting, administration, and data solutions for institutional investment managers. Under her leadership, the business achieved remarkable growth, increasing revenue by over 22% and assets under custody by nearly $9 trillion. It also launched Fusion, a scalable data platform for institutional investors.

Prior to that, Heitsenrether held various leadership roles within JPMorganChase, including Global Head of Prime Brokerage, where she spearheaded international expansion and growth. She has been recognized as one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Finance and named to Barron’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance.

Heitsenrether holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Fordham University and a Master of Business Administration from New York University. She serves on the Advisory Board of Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business and is actively involved in JPMorganChase’s Women on the Move initiative and the NextGen Business Resource Group.

Spoiler alert: Gunjan Kedia’s 2024 performance as president of U.S. Bank was strong enough that she was granted the CEO title as well in early 2025, taking over in April from longtime leader Andrew Cecere. (American Banker’s methodology requires that a woman be in her role for at least one year, so Kedia is ranked based on her performance as president of U.S.Bank and not her current position as president and CEO.)

The new CEO has said publicly that she does not plan to buy another bank, or sell her own Minneapolis-based company. Why not jump into the growing bank M&A boom? It’s only been a few years since U.S. Bank bought MUFG’s Union Bank unit, a deal that closed in December 2022. The integration was completed in June 2023, just as the banking crisis was roiling regional banks. Between that acquisition and its own growth, U.S. Bank is now the fifth-largest commercial bank in the country, Kedia said. 

Instead, she’s leaning on partnerships like a tie-up with St. Louis-based brokerage firm Edward Jones, another Midwestern company with a similar physical footprint, which is slated to go live at the end of 2025. “Their culture is very similar to our culture,” Kedia said.