In|Vest West 2018 Direct

Penny Pennington is a managing partner at Edward Jones.

The awards recognize early-career brokers that have created top production numbers at their wealth management firms.

Starting next year, more households will need to calculate or pay the AMT. The rules are complicated. Here's how financial advisors can prepare themselves — and clients — for the changes.

Didine Erskine, a certified financial planner (CFP), is the founder of The Erskine Group and an independent financial planner with LPL Financial.

She also serves as a visiting lecturer at Texas A&M University, where she teaches courses in financial planning and practice management.

A clear division is emerging between smaller independent RIAs and their larger billion-dollar competitors, as some firms aggressively pursue a "one-stop shop" model for their clientele.

As geopolitical and other uncertainty remains, gold is seen as a useful hedge. But experts warn gold's rise won't last forever.

Video game developers are benefiting from research and development tax credits and recent changes in the rules for deducting R&D expenses.

Wayne Rushton served more than four decades at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, culminating in his role as senior deputy comptroller and chief national bank examiner. In that capacity, he chaired the agency's Committee on Bank Supervision and represented the OCC on the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's Task Force on Supervision.

Earlier in his career, Wayne led the OCC's Multinational Banking Division and held several senior examination and supervisory positions. He gained extensive experience managing troubled institutions during the late 1980s and early 1990s, including service as the comptroller's deputy at the Resolution Trust Corporation and as director of the OCC's Special Resolutions Unit. He also completed a special assignment with the U.S. Department of Justice as a legislative fellow in the 97th Congress.

Following his government service, Wayne was a senior advisor at Promontory Financial Group, where he helped clients navigate complex regulatory examinations and enforcement issues and strengthen relationships with supervisory agencies.

Jimmy Nesbitt is a reporter at Employee Benefit News, where he covers the evolving landscape of workplace benefits, healthcare, retirement, financial wellness and related policy issues. His career has spanned more than two decades and taken him all over the world. He started out as a public safety reporter at a regional newspaper in western Kentucky in 2002, and has since held writing and editing positions at publications in Indiana, Beijing, South Dakota, Massachusetts and South Carolina. Nesbitt most recently served as editor of The Post and Courier Columbia in South Carolina before joining Employee Benefit News in October 2025. 

Nesbitt has been recognized for excellence in journalism with multiple awards, including honors in headline writing from the South Dakota Newspaper Association and the Associated Press Great Plains Newspaper Contest, and accolades for community affairs and public service reporting, feature writing, and news coverage from the Indiana Associated Press Managing Editors, Hoosier State Press Association, Kentucky State Press Association, and The E.W. Scripps Company. Most recently, he was awarded the Most Impactful Reporting Award for 2025 from Employee Benefit News.

Alex D. Pappas is an associate in Hunton's Insurance Coverage group in the firm's Washington, DC office. He counsels clients on all aspects of insurance coverage, guiding them in obtaining appropriate coverage and resolving disputes over coverage, including in litigation and arbitration.