There will be no back-to-back champion this year in Wealth Management Madness.
After sneaking past the first round, Bob McCann, CEO of UBS Group America and the 2014 champion, was defeated by the head of Wells Fargo Advisors, Mary Mack, in the Sweet Sixteen.
Mack is one of three women to advance to the Elite Eight. Also moving on is Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, who defeated Ken Bentsen, the president and CEO of SIFMA. Despite a record amount of enforcement and fines in 2014, the threat of rising interest rates appeared to weigh heavily on the minds of voters and helped propel Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen to a victory over SEC chair Mary Jo White for the second year in a row. Yellen and Warren will go head-to-head in round three.
One of the story lines in the Sweet Sixteen was the matchup between president and CEO of MarketCounsel Brian Hamburger and author Tony Robbins, who was a featured speaker at the 2014 MarketCounsel Summit in Las Vegas.
It's kinda funny--didn't realize at first, but @HDelux is facing off against a #MSUM14 speaker! Lol http://t.co/OHFC0quqHm #WMM15
— Megan Leonhardt (@Megan_Leonhardt) March 9, 2015
Hamburger did indeed bring his best game, and cruised to a victory over Robbins with some help from the Twitterverse.
.@Hdelux is to the #RIA space what the HAMBURGER is to American cuisine - a staple. Vote for the burger! http://t.co/VPF8lXwufq #WMM15
— Jason Lahita (@jlahita_ficomm) March 11, 2015
It's 1-on-1: Vote now for Brian Hamburger in Wealth Management Madness! >> http://t.co/YOoanumLox << #WMM15 pic.twitter.com/WArYqmTZlL
— MarketCounsel (@MarketCounsel) March 10, 2015
Social media support didn’t help Tom Nally, the president of TD Ameritrade Institutional. It was the closest decision of the Sweet Sixteen, but the #Rally4Nally campaign fell short as Nally lost to Raymond James Financial CEO Paul Reilly.
@TDA4advisors Nally looks great in that jersey! #wmm15
— ryanshanks (@ryanshanks) March 11, 2015
Despite making headlines by throwing down the gloves with Charles Schwab, Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash, the most dominant force in the first round, lost in the Sweet Sixteen to Fidelity Wealth Technologies’ Mike Durbin. And though AR Capital Chairman Nicholas Schorsch was in the news due to accounting errors at his former firm American Realty Capital Properties, he was unable overcome a flying, two-handed dunk from Rob Arnott, the founder Research Affiliates.
#RobArnott: I'm no b-baller, but an invstmt maverick? C’mon! I can dunk with the best! #WMM15 http://t.co/kzKuuhMtux pic.twitter.com/lFaNNVWEsu
— Research Affiliates (@RA_Insights) March 9, 2015
Only eight competitors remain, and the next round of Wealth Management Madness begins Monday. Don’t forget to cast your vote for who should move on to the Final Four.