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Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors
Kerry Lawing founded Lawing Financial in 1985 and built it into a practice advising on over $5 billion before executing a sale in 2017. That same year, he and...
Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors
Kerry Lawing founded Lawing Financial in 1985 and built it into a practice advising on over $5 billion before executing a sale in 2017. That same year, he and his close-knit leadership team — Andrew Stafford, Heather Heckadon, Brad Lawing, and Craig Gordon — launched Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors in Leawood, Kansas. The group explicitly designed the firm to serve entrepreneurs and executives whose personal balance sheets are overwhelmingly tied to their privately held businesses, an asset class they note can represent up to 90% of a client's wealth. Prevail structures its investment approach around active equity selection, real estate opportunities, private capital, and tax-advantaged retirement solutions. The firm states it builds separate-account stock portfolios from internally researched, analyzed, and forecasted securities rather than relying on model portfolios or sub-advisory relationships. A dedicated real estate division provides direct access to private property investments, and the firm maintains a corporate retirement benefits arm that advises plan sponsors. The team explicitly positions tax-layer integration as a core component of asset protection, not an afterthought. Five named managing partners lead the firm: CEO Kerry Lawing (private markets, alternative assets oversight), President Andrew Stafford (public markets strategy), Vice President Heather Heckadon (advisor integration), Senior Vice President Brad Lawing (private wealth advisory and exit planning), and Vice President Craig Gordon (advisor development and private client group). The advisory committee includes research analysts and compliance leadership. While Prevail does not currently disclose a firmwide AUM figure, its founding team's prior track record of advising on over $5 billion at Lawing Financial anchors their experience. In the current period, Marcia Vander Wal, a 21-year veteran of the firm, has moved from Director of Operations into a new role leading strategic initiatives across the alternative assets and private investments division. Prevail differentiates itself structurally by operating as an active investment research shop dressed as a multi-family office for business owners. Instead of expanding headcount through a large network of registered investment advisor representatives gathering assets, the partnership has concentrated resources on technical analysis, portfolio management, and tax-strategy integration. The model ties the firm's economics to custom portfolio construction and ongoing active management rather than product-distribution scale, seeking to address the liquidity and concentration risks built into operating-company wealth.
General information
Firm type
Multi Family Office
Year founded
2017
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Leawood
Corporate office
4745 W 136th St, Leawood, KS 66224, United States
Principals
Kerry Lawing
CEO, Managing Partner, Private Markets
Andrew Stafford
President, Managing Partner, Public Markets
Heather Heckadon
Vice President, Managing Partner, Advisor Integration
Brad Lawing
Senior Vice President, Managing Partner, Prevail Strategies
Craig Gordon
Vice President, Managing Partner, Advisor Development & Strategy
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors?
The firm operates through a partnership structure and an internal Investment Advisory Committee. Kerry Lawing leads private markets, Andrew Stafford directs public markets strategy, and Craig Gordon serves on the investment committee. The group relies on in-house technical research analysts rather than outsourced model portfolios, with the managing partners collectively shaping asset allocation and security selection.
How does Prevail source investment opportunities?
Prevail sources public equity investments through its own internal research, analysis, and forecasting process, building custom portfolios stock-by-stock. The firm has a dedicated Private Investments and Alternative Assets division — now led by Director of Strategic Initiatives Marcia Vander Wal — that provides access to private deals, including real estate. These investments are offered directly to wealth-management clients alongside the firm's advisory services.
Does Prevail participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Prevail's stated model emphasizes directly held securities and assets. The firm constructs individual equity portfolios from stocks researched in-house and maintains a real estate opportunities division for direct property investment. The firm does not publicly describe making allocations to third-party private equity or venture capital funds for clients, focusing instead on direct ownership and active management.
What type of client does Prevail specifically target?
Prevail explicitly targets business owners and entrepreneurs whose personal wealth is heavily concentrated in their privately held companies. The firm notes that up to 90% of an owner's wealth can sit in a single illiquid private asset, creating a structural mismatch with conventional asset-allocation models. Its advisory services are built around mitigating that concentration risk while integrating tax strategy across personal and business assets.
How is Prevail related to Lawing Financial?
Kerry Lawing founded Lawing Financial in 1985 and grew it to over $5 billion in assets under advisement before selling the firm in 2017. Immediately following the sale, he co-founded Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors with several senior colleagues from Lawing Financial. The new firm represents a reset of the original practice, rebuilt around an active management and tax-integration philosophy rather than the prior entity's legacy structure.
Does Prevail maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
Prevail's public materials do not describe a dedicated philanthropic foundation or donor-advised-fund program operating alongside the advisory business. The firm focuses disclosures on its core wealth-management, retirement-plan, real estate, and private-investment services for business owners.
What is Prevail's known posture on co-investments alongside external general partners?
Prevail's alternative-assets activity centers on its own real estate division and private investment strategies rather than advertised co-investment programs with outside general partners. The firm's 'Strategic Initiatives' role, established in 2024, suggests an ongoing expansion of private-market capabilities, though the firm has not publicly detailed co-investment structures or partnerships with external sponsors.
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