OneVest’s Amar Ahluwalia and the Road to Reinventing Wealth Management
Johnny Sandquist
Founder & CEO, Three Crowns Copywriting & Marketing
“I bought a very expensive car I couldn’t afford… and that mistake changed everything.”
That’s how Amar Ahluwalia, now the CEO and co-founder of OneVest, described the financial misstep that played a role in sparking his entrepreneurial journey.
In this episode of Money Chronicles, recorded live at the 2025 Wealth Management EDGE conference, Amar sat down with hosts Johnny Sandquist and Torie Happe to share the winding path that led him from banking to building one of the most innovative fintech firms in the industry today.
Spoiler: his story also involves totaled BMWs, a pandemic, and a whole lot of passion.
From Broke Student to Founder of OneVest
Before OneVest, Amar had already lived several careers: investment banking, hedge funds, consulting, even running a bank.
But after pivoting into the tech world and helping scale two unicorns, he found himself in 2020, like pretty much all the rest of us, reassessing everything going on in his life and career.
“I got itchy trigger fingers during COVID,” Amar said. “I wanted to build something meaningful, something that simplified a legacy space.”
That something became OneVest, a platform focused on streamlining advisor workflows and delivering modern digital experiences for wealth managers and their client.
Built in a COVID Bubble
Amar and his co-founders started OneVest entirely remotely, relying on virtual calls and digital collaboration through the early months of the COVID pandemic.
They “dated” as co-founders for six months before committing, and many early team members didn’t meet in person for over a year.
That distance, Amar said, far from creating a loose band of people, actually created a deeper kind of closeness.
“We built trust without ever being in the same room. And when we finally met, the chemistry was real. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of.”
Mistakes, Margins, and a CLK Roadster
It wouldn’t be Money Chronicles without a little financial vulnerability. On that front, Amar delivered.
While still in college, he bought a luxury Mercedes CLK Roadster he couldn’t afford. But hey, when you’ve got his entrepreneurial spirit, that’s just a small roadblock, right?
To pay it off, he and a friend started importing totaled BMW M3s, stripping them for parts, and selling them for profit.
The margins were great. The lessons were better.
“That car taught me ingenuity. I learned how to create income, how to hustle. It lit the spark for everything I’ve done since.”
Passion as a Competitive Edge
When asked what gives him his edge, Amar didn’t talk about algorithms or funding rounds.
He talked about what gives him purpose and passion: the industry, his team, and the simplicity that great tech can bring to an advisor’s life.
“I’m passionate about building long-lasting solutions that actually make life easier. That passion shows up in how we hire, how we innovate, and how we serve.”
The Takeaway
Amar’s story is a reminder that innovation isn’t just born in accelerators or VC pitches. It’s shaped in garages, group chats, and moments of frustration that become sparks of change.