About
Leadership
Todd Fithian
Co-Founder & CEO, The Legacy Companies
Partner, Merchant Investment Management
A Family Legacy:
Todd brings nearly three decades of experience in the financial services profession, following in the footsteps of three generations. Raised in an advisory family, he learned early that meaningful relationships—not products—are what drive lasting impact.
Lifelong Entrepreneur:
Todd launched his own wealth advisory firm shortly after college and, in 1996, co-founded The Legacy Companies with his late brother, Scott. Together, they built one of the industry’s leading performance coaching and consulting organizations for financial advisors.
Transforming the Profession:
As CEO of Legacy, Todd provides the vision, frameworks, and leadership that continue to revolutionize how advisors engage clients and drive measurable, purpose-driven growth. His work has helped thousands of advisors elevate performance and deepen client relationships across North America.
Author & Thought Leader:
Todd co-authored The Right Side of the Table: Where Do You Sit in the Minds of the Affluent? and collaborated with 19 Legacy members on The Future of You: Providing Clarity Where Life Intersects Wealth. His insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and numerous industry publications. He is a sought-after speaker for conferences, study groups, and private firm events.
Expanding Impact:
In 2023, Todd joined Merchant Investment Management as a Partner, expanding his ability to support independent wealth firms with both performance coaching and the growth capital needed to scale, strengthen succession, and compete in today’s evolving marketplace.
Family First:
Todd and his wife Debbie are proud parents of four children. When he’s not working with firms or speaking at events, you’ll likely find him at a hockey rink or lacrosse field—coaching or cheering on his kids.
Legacy has revolutionized the industry
Consider us the financial advisor advisors. Our goal is to help you become the best financial advisor you can — and want — to be.
We provide training, software and coaching to help you pinpoint your professional and personal values, realize your goals and unlock your potential so you can achieve your ambitions, delivering the best possible service to clients.
Our unique approach to qualitative discovery has been developed over years of success to help advisors understand the mindsets and decision-making behaviors of financial advice consumers. Let us help you foster client relationships where they value and follow your advice without hesitation and wouldn’t consider a financial decision without consulting you.
The overarching premise aims to answer three simple questions:
WHAT is important to your client?
WHY is it important to them?
HOW can you help them solve it?
The Legacy Story
“If our clients don’t know what they don’t know, then how could we possibly know as advisors what they don’t know?”
Third-generation financial advisors Todd and Scott Fithian’s wealth management advisory practice was so successful that other financial advisors kept asking what the secret to their success was.
That secret is qualitative discovery: a unique approach developed in the 1990s to create a very different kind of client experience and relationship.
Unlike most organizations in their space, the Fithians focused on client behaviors and not the strategies, techniques and products.
Recognizing that much of the industry had the same challenges they had previously experienced, they wanted to help. So in 1996, they launched Legacy.
For ten years, they grew their wealth management business alongside the rapidly growing training and coaching organization.
In 2006, at 46, Scott was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Seventeen months later, after a hard-fought battle, we lost an amazingly creative and innovative entrepreneur, husband and father.
Todd chose to transition the wealth management business to another partner and focus his efforts on the passion he and Scott both had to transform the financial services industry.
Today, Legacy serves advisors and financial organizations throughout North America to achieve excellence.