Jason Wenk is the founder and CEO of Altruist, a company that helps financial advisors work smarter and reach more people. He built his career by noticing unfair gaps in finance and creating simple tools to fix them. Jason grew up in a small farm town in western Michigan. His single mother, Deborah Kempker, raised three kids on her own, working hard at jobs like an aluminum factory despite facing unfair treatment.
He was a math whiz who skipped grades and loved computers. While studying computer science in college, he became a young dad, dropped out, and got a job at Morgan Stanley at 20 as an investment researcher.
Building His First Successes
At Morgan Stanley in New York, Jason noticed that big banks favored wealthy clients and left everyday people behind. That motivated him to start his own path in financial advice.
He founded Retirement Wealth Advisors and then Formula Folios, using smart computer models to create fair, research-based investments. The company grew quickly and was named a top private firm by Inc. magazine for five years (2014-2018), reaching No. 10 in 2017, with over $3.2 billion in assets and 13,927% growth in three years.
He started the company with $100,000 of his own money and later raised $100 million from investors. In 2018, he won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Founding Altruist
Jason started Altruist in 2018 after years of planning. He even bought the domain early. His goal was to make investing fair so people could earn more and pay less, especially through independent advisors (RIAs) who put clients first.
RIAs often juggle many disconnected software tools that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Altruist fixes this with one integrated platform for trading, reporting, billing, and more, all digital, automated, and cheap.
It cuts busywork by 90%, such as paper forms and manual tasks, freeing advisors to focus on clients. Now with Altruist Clearing, it’s a full self-clearing custodian built just for RIAs, adding features like tax tools and APIs.
Leadership Style
Jason leads with efficiency and care. He runs Altruist from his home office, making the most of his day, no daily shaves (which saves him 40 hours a year), simple clothes from one store, the same breakfast routine, and grocery deliveries.
He values a team culture that supports employees, advisors, and their clients. He is open about therapy for insecurities and mental health and works to remove the stigma around it. As a dad of three, he credits fatherhood for teaching him patience and focus.
His style is hands-on and experience-based; he has built two large RIAs before. He listens to advisors for product ideas and focuses on growth, including recent AI tools and integrations.
Key Achievements
Under Jason’s leadership, Altruist raised significant funding, including a $152 million Series F round in April 2025 from GIC, Salesforce Ventures, and others, valuing the company at about $1.9 billion. It serves high-growth RIAs managing assets from $50 million to $5 billion.
The platform automates onboarding, trading, and billing, making it easier for advisors to grow without hassle. It’s praised for its service and helps RIAs manage wealth transfers, AI enhancements, and trends toward independence.
FormulaFolios’ success showed his knack for growth; Altruist disrupts old custodians stuck in the past, like 1959 code.
Personal Values
Jason lives simply as a minimalist, no big wardrobes or cars, but a family cottage in Michigan for unplugging (no cell service). He runs 10 miles for ideas, gifts thoughtfully, invests modestly in ETFs, startups via MatterScale Ventures, and a bit of crypto.
Family comes first: his supportive wife Kayla brings lunch, and their kids include a college son finishing his computer science degree, a high school daughter, and a younger son. He prefers home workouts and walks with loved ones over fancy outings.
Therapy every two weeks helps keep him grounded. Inspired by his selfless mom, he stays focused on being altruistic and values experiences more than things.
Jason aims to make Altruist the top choice for fast-growing RIAs by adding more automation, integrations, and RIA-only features such as compliance and team tools. Amid trillions in wealth shifts and AI, it empowers better client outcomes at low cost.
He plans to expand digital clearing, APIs, and tools like cash management to stay ahead of older players. His goal is to help more people by enabling advisors to scale efficiently.
