Sara Baker’s path to wealth management began in an unconventional place: volleyball courts. She was a star athlete at Wichita State University, and volleyball was her passion. “My parents were jocks. I was a jock,” she jokes.
Whether the role is setter, hitter or libero, volleyball is a sport as much about team cooperation as it is personal glory, and those lessons stayed with Baker into her professional career. She received a Master of Laws in taxation from the University of Washington in St. Louis and a JD from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. She landed at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, a global law firm, and ended up working in mergers and acquisitions for client Marty Bicknell, CEO of Mariner Wealth.
“In big law you pick a path. You can try and be a rainmaker and become a partner, or you can go in-house for one of your clients,” Baker said. “I met Marty and Cheryl Bicknell, and they were doing big things with M&A. I thought I could make a bigger impact in-house.”
Baker said she fit in with Mariner’s culture of learning and entrepreneurship, she said, and she was well-suited to a role that required cultivating relationships and building new teams in a fast-growing business. “Every service was being acquired and built out,” she said.
After three years with Mariner, she met John Bunch, whose firm, The Mutual Fund Store, had just been acquired by Edelman Financial Engines. Bunch, at that time COO and executive vice president of Edelman Financial Engines, needed help with the integration and building the teams, and Baker jumped at the opportunity. “That’s my jam,” Baker said. “I like to build things. You get to be creative.”
Baker spent 6 1/2 years with Edelman, playing a key role in its transformation and growth. She helped oversee more mergers, building and leading an integration management team, as well as building out a tax planning team. The experience helped her understand the importance of having in-house specialists for a robust advisory firm. “It’s about how do you create and build relationships and trust with people,” she says. “If you are a true expert in something, you can build a rapport. The quicker you do, the more you will have trust.”
Baker likens the concept of specialization in financial services to careers in medicine and law. “Everyone talks about segmenting by AUM. But you don’t see other services do that. … I think when you focus on niches, it makes you intentional on what problems you are trying to solve, and that’s where you are going to add value. That’s where you can win.”
Baker wanted to test those beliefs and partnered with two colleagues from Mariner to launch her own RIA, Triad Wealth Partners, from scratch. The firm has since grown to surpass $1 billion in AUM. That’s when John Bunch came calling again. He had moved to Allworth Financial, a $30 billion AUM RIA that had grown rapidly through mergers and acquisitions, and Bunch wanted Baker to help oversee the ongoing integrations.
“It’s been a blast,” she said. “I am really grateful to be somewhere like Allworth. There’s so much philosophical alignment on the fiduciary model. And it’s exciting to work on a team where we are driven by the same things.”
In 2026, Baker said Allworth will focus on marketing its achievements, pursuing “intentional” growth and building the next generation of talent, all to set up Allworth to be a “firm that’s around in 100 years.”