Hartford Business Journal

18 Hartford Business Journal • May 6, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com 18 Hartford Business Journal • May 6, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com C-SUITE AWARDS 2019 CT Wealth Management CEO Leahy keeps clients, advisors engaged By Patricia Daddona Special to the Hartford Business Journal T aking time to recover from surgery for a torn ACL nine years ago led Kevin C. Leahy — today the president and CEO of Connecticut Wealth Management in Farmington — to a "light-bulb mo- ment." Years earlier, Leahy reluctantly left a large wealth management firm in Boston that focused consciously on acting in their clients' best interests. He relocated to Durham, Conn., nearer to his wife Tracy's family, and joined a small firm, KR Wealth Management, which had been part of Farmington- based Kostin Ruffkess and Co. While recuperating, he had an epiphany. "I realized I loved financial planning and my teammates," Leahy recalled, "but I didn't love the way my company at the time (KRWM) and the industry operated, and truly thought there was a better way." In Oct. 2010, Leahy and his partner, co-founder Denis Horrigan, bought out KRWM, taking with them five other colleagues and about 100 clients. They also decided the new firm would not sell investments in which agency profits outweighed the benefits to the client. Instead, CT Wealth Management re- lies on a business model that empha- sizes creating financial plans for every client and employing salaried advisors who do not sell commissionable secu- CATEGORY: CEO OF THE YEAR, FEWER THAN 100 EMPLOYEES Kevin C. Leahy CEO, Connecticut Wealth Management LLC Size of organization: 18 employees Education: Providence College, bachelor's degree in accounting; Northeastern, master's degree in tax and financial planning Previous job: CEO, KR Wealth Management LLC, a subsidiary of Kostin Ruffkess and Co. "I can't tell you how humbling it is to have someone you've been serving in a business capacity become a genuine friend." PHOTO | J. FIERECK PHOTOGRAPHY

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