Bank America recruits $7B private bank team from Citi

Bank of America scores big private bank team from Citi: Advisor moves

November 22, 2024 1:33 PM

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Big wealth management firms are constantly pulling advisor teams from each other.

This week, Bank of America — the parent company of Merrill — brought over a formidable private banking duo from Citi. Merrill, meanwhile, lost a sizable team to Morgan Stanley.

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Bank of America’s private bank draws $7B team from Citi

Bank of America Private Bank has pulled over a pair of advisors formerly managing $7 billion at Citi.

Phillip Edwards and Lauren Stuhmer are joining Bank of America's Palm Beach, Florida, office as private client advisors. They were formerly at Citi Private Bank.

Edwards has 36 years of industry experience, according to a press release from Bank of America. He previously worked as a senior banker at J.P. Morgan and a senior portfolio manager at a multifamily office. Stuhmer has 17 years of experience and had previously worked as an investment associate at J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank.

At Bank of America, the pair will specialize in providing help with investing, philanthropy, credit and financial planning to ultrahigh net worth families, according to Bank of America.

Fifth Third picks up $1.8B team from Truist

Fifth Third Bank's investment advisory arm has picked up a trio of advisors formerly managing roughly $1.8 billion at Truist.

Fifth Third announced the recruitment of managing directors Jonathan Cochrane and Spencer Huggins, and relationship manager Shannon Shelton. All three had been previously registered with the wealth management arms of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank Truist Financial.

The team will operate out of Winton-Salem, North Carolina.

Fifth Third started its RIA in 2022 and has been building it out in recent months. Earlier in November, it had recruited three advisors formerly managing roughly $2 billion at TIAA-CREF. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors now has 10 advisor teams serving clients in seven states across the country.

Morgan Stanley scores $1.4B team from Merrill

Morgan Stanley has hired a three-member advisory team formerly managing $1.4 billion at Merrill.

Jeffrey Gembis, his son, Henry, and Joseph Carter are joining Morgan Stanley's office in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. They now work under Morgan Stanley executive and market manager Mark Feiler.

Jeffrey Gembis joined Merrill in 1984, according to BrokerCheck. Henry Gembis joined him at Merrill in 2017. And Carter moved to Merrill in 2009 after a brief time at Wells Fargo.

Joining them at Morgan Stanley are the staff members Leslie Robinson, Christina Gaitley and Michelle Bisio. The team's recruitment by Morgan Stanley was first reported by Barron's and AdvisorHub.

The deal comes just a few weeks after Morgan Stanley pulled another three-person team from Merrill, one formerly managing $1.5 billion in Boca Raton, Florida.

LPL pulls another team from Osaic

LPL Financial has recruited a team formerly managing $350 million at Osaic.

LPL announced this week that it had brought on a team called Strata Financial Group in Sheffield Village, Ohio. The group consists of financial advisors Anthony "Tony" Campagni, Ronald Jurczynski, Mitchell Romeo, Kyle Hancharick and Dominic Elmo.

The group was started in 1998 by Campagni and Rino Romeo, Mitchell Romeo's late uncle. Besides its office in Sheffield Village, it has a location in Dublin, Ohio. The team also includes support staff members Emily Dohnenko and Shayla Svetgoff.

LPL has gone to Osaic on many occasions in recent years to pull advisory teams. In August, LPL announced it had pulled over a couple of teams from Osaic together managing more than $4 billion. And in July, it brought in a team of 22 advisors formerly managing $1 billion at Osaic.

$600M RIA picks SEI over Schwab for custody services

The advisory firm Front Street Capital Management has picked the custody and technology firm SEI over Schwab for the safekeeping of $600 million in assets under management.

Front Street Capital Management, a Missoula, Montana-based RIA founded in 2006, is moving over $600 million in clients assets to SEI from Schwab, according to an SEI press release. SEI is a global tech and investment firm with $1.6 trillion in assets under management or administration.

Michele Blood, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Front Street, said in a statement: "SEI's technology and advisor services capabilities are immensely important for us to provide more effective, efficient, and personal interactions and information for our growing client base, and SEI's commitment to supporting our distinctive investing activities, while continually enhancing their platform's capabilities, provided us the comfort to make the switch."