Dynasty, LPL, Sequoia score big deals: Advisor Moves

January 31, 2025 1:46 PM

After a slow end to last year, advisor moves are coming back with a vengeance.

Dynasty picked up a big team from Goldman, and LPL recruited from UBS and Osaic. Also, JPMorgan nabbed executives from industry rivals as it builds out its private advisory group. Read about it below.

Dynasty reels in $1.6B ex-Goldman Sachs team

The wealth management network Dynasty Financial Partners has pulled a team of former Goldman Sachs employees who are striking out on their own with an RIA.

Dynasty, which provides technology and back-office support to 55 firms managing roughly $105 billion, announced a 16-person team had joined to start a registered investment advisor named TritonPoint Wealth. TritonPoint, which has its headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland, manages $1.6 billion for wealthy clients, families, businesses and others in the Washington, D.C., area and elsewhere.

The team is led by the advisors Andrew Schiff, Greg Blake, Will Sterling, Gregory Powers, Jonathan Rosner and Peter Halbrook. All of them had been previously registered with Goldman Sachs, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database.

TritonPoint Wealth's formation was announced the day after Dynasty said it had pulled SageSpring Wealth Partners, a network of 45 advisory teams managing $6.4 billion, over from Raymond James. Dynasty's services include a customer relationship management system, a turnkey asset management program to provide advisors with portfolios custom-built for individual investors, client lead-generation systems and an investment bank.

Bloomberg News

LPL pulls $1.3B team from UBS

LPL Financial is bringing over a father-son advisory duo to found an independent firm called Bruen Wealth Management.

William Bruen Jr. and his son, Andrew Bruen, are starting their new practice as an affiliate of Paradigm Partners, the independent channel of Paradigm Wealth Management, which uses LPL for brokerage services. The Bruens come from UBS, where they had previously been managing $1.3 billion.

Bruen Wealth Management is in Morristown, New Jersey, where William's grandfather, James Bruen, founded an investment advice and wealth management practice in 1922. The business was later managed by his son, William Bruen Sr., who retired in 2020.

William Bruen Jr. has 45 years of industry experience and spent much of the beginning of his career at Lehman Brothers and joined Smith Barney in 1993 before moving to UBS in 2012. Andrew Bruen started at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in 2011 and also moved to UBS in 2012.

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LPL scores $1B ex-Osaic advisory team

LPL Financial has gone to Osaic again to pull over a large advisory group.

Financial advisors John Schlatter, Robert Rojano, Alec Hoag and Michael Madden are bringing their 12-person firm — Salient Wealth Planning Group of Manhattan Beach, California — over to LPL's broker-dealer, RIA and custodial services. The firm had previously been managing roughly $1 billion in affiliation with Osaic.

The team works primarily with high net worth clients and provides services ranging from investment and financial planning to wealth preservation and transfers. All four principal advisors at the firm have been with Osaic at least since the early 2000s.

LPL has pulled several large advisory teams in recent months from Osaic, which has been reorganizing itself by consolidating its eight formerly separately named broker-dealers. In December, LPL announced it had recruited a team previously managing $540 million at Osaic. In September, it said it had brought over a group formerly managing $150 million at Osaic.

Sequoia Financial Group to acquire $3.8B firm

Private equity-backed Sequoia Financial Group has agreed to buy Carlson Capital Management, an advisory firm managing $3.8 billion in assets from its headquarters in Northfield, Minnesota.

The deal, whose terms were not made public, is expected to close on March 31. Carlson Capital Management provides investment, retirement, tax, estate, risk management and philanthropic planning to roughly 1,300 clients primarily in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The firm's 80 employees include 30 wealth advisors.

When Sequoia's purchase is complete, Carlson co-founders Gregory and Jeffrey Carlson will become senior strategic advisors, and CEO Justin Stets will become an executive vice president of integrated wealth services at Sequoia Financial.

The acquisition will be Sequoia Financial's largest, as measured by the number of employees and wealth advisors involved. It will also give Sequoia tax planning and preparation services.

Sequoia was founded in 1991 and has $22.6 billion in assets under management. Its private equity backing comes from Valeas Capital Partners and Kudu Investment Management.

The addition of Carson Capital Management's four offices in Minnesota will give Sequoia a total of 34 locations in 19 states. Sequoia said in a press release this week that it has made nine acquisitions since 2023.

Arax Investment Partners scoops up $1B RIA

Private equity-backed Arax Investment Partners has bought up a registered investment advisor managing roughly $1 billion from its headquarters in Littleton, Colorado.

Arax, an aggregator firm, announced this week that it had acquired Cedrus Financial to operate within its Arax Advisory Partners. Arax Advisory Partners is a group of independent firms offering special services to institutions, high net worth families and athletes. Cedrus was founded in 2013 and is led by managing partner Mark Neely, who was previously affiliated for more than 30 years with Equitable Advisors.

Arax was founded in 2022 by Haig Ariyan, who had previously led Raymond James' Alex.Brown subsidiary. Arax receives its private equity backing from RedBird Capital Partners, which has roughly $10 billion under management.

JPMorgan builds out ranks of private advisory group

JPMorgan has poached executives of three rival firms as part of an expansion of its private bank's Morgan Private Advisory group.

JPMorgan announced this week that it pulled from Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Ernst & Young for key positions in its private advisory group, which works with wealthy clients. Robert Fritz will serve as head of executive advisory and comes to JPMorgan from Goldman Sachs Ayco, which provides financial planning to corporate executives and employees.

Kevin Tompkins is returning to JPMorgan after two years at Wells Fargo to serve as a senior cybersecurity specialist. And Christie Houlihan is joining the private bank from Ernst & Young as an expert in family offices and succession planning.

Morgan Private Advisory is part of the private bank's family office practice, which specializes in providing complex services to wealthy families and boasts more than 40 partner-level estate and tax attorneys.

William Sinclair, the head of the JPMorgan's U.S. family office practice and financial institutions group, said in a statement that JPMorgan is seeking to become the "global leader in family office services and advice."

Goldman Sachs names private wealth regional heads

Goldman Sachs has named executives to oversee its Private Wealth Management in San Francisco and the southeastern U.S.

Goldman announced this week that it named Brittany Boals Moeller as regional head for San Francisco Private Wealth Management, or PWM. Moeller has served as regional head for Southeast PWM since 2018 and was named a Goldman partner as part of the class of 2024.

Replacing her in the southeast will be Hunter Pierson, a private wealth advisor working out of Atlanta. Pierson joined Goldman in 2008. Goldman Private Wealth works with wealthy clients and is overseen by co-heads Meena Flynn and John Mallory.