Former MassMutual U.S. chief Mike Fanning is coming out of retirement to succeed Richard Napolitano as CEO of platform technology provider Advisor360°.
Napolitano himself is retiring, effective May 1, when Fanning officially takes over the role (Napolitano will remain a strategic advisor to the firm).
Fanning spent 17 years at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company in various leadership roles before retiring in May 2023. In the final years of his tenure, he oversaw the sale of MassMutual’s record-keeping business to Empower.
Fanning is already familiar with Advisor360°, having both served as chairman of the company’s board for the last year and was “instrumental in developing the business case for the company within MassMutual,” according to the company’s announcement of his new role.
The all-in-one software-as-a-service Advisor360° platform was spun out of Commonwealth Financial Network as an independent business in April 2019. Napolitano joined the firm as CEO in 2020.
The firm won a WealthManagement.com Industry Award in 2022 for achievement in unified (all-in-one) systems by technology providers for the rollout of its digital onboarding technology.
The firm made its first acquisition in January 2023 by buying the digital onboarding and other wealth management-related assets of provider Agreement Express.
At the time, it was noted the acquisition would help the firm with future development work, including expanded automation and workflows and new digital signature features, among other improvements.
MassMutual remains Advisor360°’s largest customer, with the software being used by that firm’s more than 7,500 advisors. After two years of development, it was rolled out to the firm’s advisors in June 2021.