James M. Thornton

Executive Director of Business Development

Jim Thornton is the Executive Director of Business Development at VestGen Wealth Partners, working with individual clients and business owners.  Jim has been a financial advisor since 2000, representing firms that include Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. He joined Merrill Lynch in 2013 and moved with his team to Raymond James in 2020 prior to joining VestGen.

Teamwork comes naturally to Jim, who enjoyed an eight-year career in the NFL playing for the Chicago Bears, the New York Jets, and the Houston Oilers. As an All-American athlete at California State, Fullerton, Jim studied criminal justice and architecture. While with the Chicago Bears, he was a recipient of the Brian Piccolo Award.

Jim holds his Series 7 and 66 registrations, as well as his life, health, property, and casualty insurance licenses in Illinois.

Josh Gerry

Chief Executive Officer

Josh Gerry is redefining succession planning for wealth advisors.

Widely recognized as one of the industry’s leading voices on advisor succession, Josh Gerry is CEO of VestGen Wealth Partners and a 2025 Luminaries Finalist in the M&A Leader of the Year category. He spearheaded the unprecedented merger of 10 advisory practices in December 2024 to launch VestGen, creating a fully integrated wealth management firm that empowers advisors to transition with confidence and aims to ensure clients’ continuity of care across generations. His leadership was recently profiled in a full-page InvestmentNews feature, “Seeking Success from Succession.”

With more than three decades in wealth management, Josh brings deep experience in succession, M&A, and growth strategy. Prior to VestGen, he co-founded Professional Wealth Advisors, LLC, where he scaled the firm to over $10 billion in assets while guiding advisors through successful practice transitions. He later served as CEO of Impetus Wealth Strategies, securing capital commitments to fuel advisor succession and expansion. His earlier leadership roles at AXA and MetLife gave him a deep understanding of large-scale advisor transitions across enterprise firms.

At VestGen, Josh leads the firm’s mission to solve one of the industry’s most pressing challenges: the $13 trillion in assets expected to transition as nearly 40% of advisors retire in the next decade. Josh brings both credibility and conviction to building the next generation of advisor leadership. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributes thought leadership on the future of succession planning and advisor M&A.

Josh holds a B.S. in Business Economics from UCLA.