Vested is the flagship agency of Group Vested, an integrated communications firm built exclusively around the financial services industry. Founded in 2015 by former Cognito executives Dan Simon and Binna Kim, joined by co-founder Ishviene Arora, Vested has scaled into one of the most established specialist firms in financial communications — reporting $23.0 million in 2025 net fee income, more than 130 employees globally, and a client base spanning over 100 financial brands across banking, asset management, capital markets, and fintech.
Vested is headquartered in New York and operates from offices in San Francisco, London, and Toronto.
Leadership and Structure
The leadership team reorganized in recent years around the Group Vested holding structure.
Binna Kim — Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Group Vested. Previously president; named CEO as part of the Group Vested re-structure. Twenty years across financial services communications, including senior roles at Merrill Lynch and Cognito. Recognized as a Top Woman in PR by PRWeek in 2020 and on the Observer's PR Power List in multiple years. Member of Chief; sits on the Wellesley Business Leadership Council as a Wellesley alumna.
Dan Simon — Co-founder and Chairman. Twenty-plus years across PR, marketing, and advertising. Author of The Money Hackers: How a Group of Misfits Took on Wall Street and Changed Finance Forever. Regular columnist for Forbes, Markets Media, and CoinTelegraph. Co-chairs the Museum of American Finance's Communications Advisory Board. Instructor with mediabistro.com since 2007.
Ishviene Arora — Co-founder. Career across integrated communications for financial services brands including Citi, Nomura, and BBVA Compass.
Specialty: Financial Services, Exclusively
Vested has remained deliberately focused on financial services through its growth. That focus is the firm's positioning. While most independents diversify as they scale, Vested has expanded inside the financial vertical — broadening from media relations into integrated marketing, digital, content, and advisory while keeping a single-sector mandate.
The roster reflects that. Longstanding client relationships include Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg, American Express, and Citi. New business in 2025 included Newrez, FactSet, and Customers Bank. The firm has also done work for Morningstar, Diebold Nixdorf, Neptune Financial, and RBC, among others.
VestTech and the AI Integration Layer
In 2025, Vested launched VestTech, a proprietary technology layer integrating AI across content production, search optimization, and campaign analytics. The product line reflects the broader direction inside financial communications — where AI Communications, Generative Engine Optimization, and AI-visibility research are reshaping how financial brands are discovered, evaluated, and trusted by buyers using ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews for product research.
Financial services is one of the verticals where AI-driven discovery has moved fastest. The category sits at the intersection of high-stakes consumer decisions, regulated content, and a research-heavy buyer journey — all conditions under which AI engines now influence which brands enter the consideration set. EPR has covered this trajectory in What Generative Engine Optimization Actually Looks Like for Regulated Industries.
Vested Strategies
The firm formalized its C-suite advisory offering as Vested Strategies in 2025 — a senior counsel layer for financial-services CEOs, CMOs, and CCOs working through reputation, positioning, and category-leadership challenges. The Strategies arm sits alongside the integrated communications practice and is positioned for engagements where the work runs above the day-to-day media relations function.
Partnerships
Vested has established partnerships with industry-aligned organizations including the American Bankers Association and HubSpot, supporting more data-driven program work for clients. The HubSpot partnership in particular reflects the firm's posture toward marketing-technology integration — a direction most pure-play financial PR firms have not built into their operating model.
Recognition
Vested was named to PRovoke Media's Best Agencies in North America 2026 ranking, including the 100 Best Agencies in the U.S. The firm has been recognized in O'Dwyer's financial PR rankings and has won SABRE Awards and Gramercy Forum honors across its campaign work.
Where Vested Fits in the Financial PR Landscape
The U.S. financial PR market has consolidated around a defined senior bench. Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher dominates M&A and shareholder activism defense. Kekst CNC leads global league tables. Brunswick Group runs partner-led critical-issues advisory. FGS Global and Sard Verbinnen & Co own the top of corporate crisis. ICR dominates U.S. IPO communications. Prosek Partners is the largest independent financial communications firm in the category.
Vested operates in a different lane. It is a financial-services specialist with an integrated marketing-and-communications footprint — built for the asset managers, banks, capital-markets firms, and fintechs that need an agency to handle media relations, digital, content, and now AI-era visibility under one roof. The closest comparison set inside EPR's coverage includes Stanton, RF Binder, Flackable PR, and Buttonwood Communications Group, though Vested operates at notably greater scale than most of that comparison cohort.
Vested was founded in 2015 by Dan Simon and Binna Kim, both formerly of Cognito, alongside co-founder Ishviene Arora.
Who currently leads Vested?
Binna Kim serves as Chief Executive Officer of Group Vested. Dan Simon is Chairman. Ishviene Arora continues as co-founder and part of the senior leadership team.
What does Vested specialize in?
Financial services communications, exclusively. The agency works with traditional financial institutions and fintech firms across banking, asset management, capital markets, payments, and emerging financial categories. Practice areas span media relations, integrated marketing, digital, content, and C-suite advisory through Vested Strategies.
How large is Vested?
Vested reported $23.0 million in 2025 net fee income, with more than 130 employees globally and a client base of over 100 financial brands. The firm operates from New York, San Francisco, London, and Toronto.
What is VestTech?
VestTech is Vested's proprietary technology layer launched in 2025, integrating AI across content production, search optimization, and campaign analytics. It reflects the broader shift inside financial communications toward AI-era discovery and visibility.
What are Vested's most notable clients?
Longstanding client relationships include Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg, American Express, and Citi. Newer engagements in 2025 included Newrez, FactSet, and Customers Bank. The firm has also done work for Morningstar, Diebold Nixdorf, RBC, and a broader roster of more than 100 financial brands.
How does Vested compare to other financial PR firms?
Vested is a financial-services specialist with an integrated marketing-and-communications footprint, operating in a different lane from the senior M&A and crisis bench. The closest specialist comparison set inside EPR's coverage includes Stanton, RF Binder, Flackable, and Buttonwood Communications Group — though Vested operates at greater scale than most of that cohort.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
