Ashton Thomas scores a $2.5B Wells Fargo team: Advisor Moves

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth, a subsidiary of the RIA aggregator Arax Partners, is setting up a new office in San Francisco with an advisory group pulled from Wells Fargo.

Mark Cavalier, Jonathan Smith and Gregory Weiss recently joined Ashton Thomas as managing partners and directors. The three had previously managed more than $2.5 billion as principals of the No. 16 Wall Street Private Wealth Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors.

At Ashton Thomas, they're joining former Wells Fargo senior vice president and group finance officer Michael Hansen to form the Pacific Private Wealth Group, which will specialize in working with foundations, businesses and affluent clients and families.

Ashton Thomas was founded in 2012 and was bought by Arax Partners in September 2023 in a deal whose terms were not disclosed. Arax is among many RIA aggregators now financing their purchases of other firms with private equity support. Arax's backing comes from the private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, which has more tha $10 billion under management.

Citizens Financial Group is extending its reach in southern Florida with the recruitment of an advisory group from RBC Wealth Management.

Citizens Financial, the parent company of Citizens Bank, announced this week that it's bringing over a team led by Dustin Smith and James Rubinton to its offices in Naples. Smith and Rubinton previously managed about $700 million at RBC for high net worth and ultrahigh net worth clients, families and businesses.

Smith, who has 28 years of experience, started his career at UBS in 1996 and moved to RBC in 2015. Rubinton, with 32 years of experience, started at Merrill in 1992 and moved to UBS in 2005 and RBC in 2015.

Citizens has been steadily adding to its presence in southern Florida. In October, it recruited a pair of advisors who had previously managed $600 million at Fifth Third Private Bank in Boca Raton, Florida.

Citizens has poured considerable resources into building its wealth management business in recent years. It started a private bank in late 2023 and has since filled out its leadership ranks with executives poached from other firms.

In June, for instance, it brought Paul Casey over from Morgan Stanley to be its head of wealth.

"The momentum behind attracting industry-leading talent remains strong in 2025 as the nation's top advisors look to Citizens Private Wealth for its suite of sophisticated capabilities and unique integration with our Private Bank and Commercial Bank," Casey said in a statement about the firm's latest hires.

LPL Financial has pulled a duo of financial advisors from its industry rival Kestra.

Michael Hyser and Brian McGill are bringing their firm, Alpharetta, Georgia-based Johns Creek Financial, over to LPL's broker-dealer, RIA and custodial channels. They had previously managed about $385 million at Kestra.

Hyser founded Johns Creek in 2002, and McGill joined in 2019. The two specialize in providing investment, tax, retirement and estate planning to high net worth families, corporate executives and business owners. 

Hyser has 31 years of industry experience and started his career at Pruco Securities in 1993 before moving to Kestra in 2004. McGill has 17 years of industry experience and worked at a variety of firms before joining Fidelity in 2011, Redwood Wealth Management in 2015 and Kestra in 2019.