Edelman Financial Engines, the registered investment advisor and 401(k) managed account provider, has hired a retirement plan advisor lead with recruiting and M&A experience, most recently at OneDigital, as well as experience in financial wellness and planning for retirement plan participants.
Christian Mango will join Edelman as senior vice president and retirement advisory practice lead at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based RIA, the firm announced Tuesday. In the newly created role, Mango will work to strengthen the ties between Edelman’s workplace retirement benefits business and financial planning, participant engagement and personalized wealth advice.
“This is really about leading the growth of the retirement plan services business here and focusing on advancing the firm’s strategy to deliver market-leading fiduciary retirement solutions,” Mango said.
The retirement plan industry executive was drawn to the “scale of the opportunity” with Edelman, noting that one of the country’s largest 401(k) managed account providers and wealth managers, which oversees more than $300 billion in assets, has a “track record” in both workplace benefits and wealth planning.
“That workplace to wealth engagement platform they’ve been so good at it gives us an opportunity to reach people earlier in their financial lives,” Mango said. “Workplace is where that financial journey often begins. … and we are not just improving retirement outcomes, but giving participants a pathway they might not otherwise have access to.”
Mango will also be responsible for acquisitions and advisor recruiting for the division, something he had been doing at OneDigital and, before that, at the Alera Group, where he was national practice leader for retirement plan services. He said Edelman will be a draw for retirement plan advisors partly because many of its over 1 million clients have small businesses that need 401(k) advice and management.
“That is a tremendous opportunity for a retirement plan advisor to join us because there’s such a natural synergy there to provide additional services to those business owner clients,” he said.
Mango hadn’t been with OneDigital long, having joined in July 2025 as senior vice president of corporate development, and then departing in April 2026 to briefly run his own consulting firm. He said a role going back to building a retirement plan services division was a draw for the move to Edelman.
From 2019 to 2022, Mango led a financial wellness program at RIA Prime Capital called Financial Fitness for Life, which offered financial coaching and wellness services to 401(k) plan participants.
“EFE has market-leading capabilities in investments, in engaging retirement plan participants and in connecting the workplace to wealth planning,” CEO Ralph Haberli said in a statement about the hire. “The opportunity to extend and scale those capabilities to retirement plan advisers and smaller plans is significant, and we’re excited to have Christian on board to help us realize that potential.”
Haberli took over from Jay Shah in October 2025. In May of this year, he engineered leadership changes that included hiring Steve Gaven from SageView Advisory as chief financial officer to replace Suzanne van Staveren and restructuring the wealth planning leadership team to bolster its planning capabilities and advisor recruiting.
