Just 48 hours removed from Sanctuary Wealth Founder Jim Dickson brandishing giant shears and cutting a ribbon to celebrate the opening of a
On Thursday afternoon, the firm headquartered on the north side of Indianapolis
Malamed, who has served as a member of Sanctuary's board of directors for the past year, was most recently executive vice president, chief operating officer and board director of Ladenburg Thalmann, a network of wealth management and other financial services firms based in New York.
Information on what sparked Dickson's seemingly sudden departure remains unavailable. Malamed and Sanctuary representatives said it is policy to not discuss the details of personnel matters. Attempts to reach Dickson for comment were unsuccessful.
In the wake of Dickson joining the firm and turning it into Sanctuary, it has reached a footprint of about 80 independent practices managing $25 billion in client assets.
In an interview with Financial Planning conducted just hours after the news broke, Malamed said he is honored and excited to lead the way during what he described as the firm's "next stage of growth," stating that his time on the board has given him the time to understand the organization's culture and what drives its success.
"The board felt it's the right time for this change. They want to leverage my expertise in growing and leading both privately held and publicly traded wealth management and financial services enterprises across many different business models," he said. "I'm a big believer in taking the best elements of this firm's culture and aligning it with an institutionalized strategy and scalable solutions that consistently deliver what is expected from the clients we serve.
"It's just a really exciting time for myself, and it's a really exciting time for Sanctuary."
He added that his first order of business as new CEO is to get face to face with the entire Sanctuary family and assure them he has no plans to slow the momentum they've gained since launching in 2018.
"Within the first 30 days, I'm going to personally, in-person if possible, meet with every financial advisor and spend time with every employee at Sanctuary," Malamed told Financial Planning. "Let me be clear. Sanctuary is in the strongest financial position in its history, and I'm going to be the CEO for the long term. I'm really focused on hitting the ground running, but first, I want to meet everyone. I want to understand the make-up of advisors' business, but nothing's going to change. It's business as usual. There's nothing that's going to change for this company."
According to Sanctuary, Malamed helped build Ladenburg Thalmann into an enterprise of 4,500 financial advisors with approximately $200 billion in client assets and an enterprise value of $1.3 billion. He was also a key part of Ladenburg's successful sale to Advisor Group in 2020.
Before Ladenburg, he was co-founder and president of BroadWall Capital, a financial services firm specializing in institutional sales and research that was purchased by Ladenburg Thalmann in 2006.
When discussing his plans for 2023 and beyond, Malamed reiterated that he is in it for the long haul. He believes that there's never been a greater need in our country for independent financial advice and feels that Sanctuary Wealth has been the destination of choice for advisors for a reason.
"And I'm going to be really looking forward to leveraging that, like I've done so in my past, of significantly growing the firm. But also understanding that the financial advisors are our clients, they're the best that are out there. They expect a lot from us. So we need to continuously elevate our game," Malamed said. "The reputation and the people at Sanctuary as it relates to the executives that are here, the senior leadership team and the employees are some of the most high-quality people in all of wealth management. And that's a testament to how Sanctuary has grown over the past five years."
There was no outward sign that Dickson was on the way out of the firm during Tuesday's event celebrating the grand opening of Sanctuary's Manhattan office. Statements released by the firm founder spoke of future growth and new opportunities for advisors in the midtown space.
"New York City is the world's financial capital and the New York Metropolitan area, including northern New Jersey, is a hugely important growth market for Sanctuary Wealth. We couldn't be happier to establish a strong Sanctuary presence here to add to our growing national network," Dickson said in a statement related to the grand opening. "The New York tri-state area is also a great and largely untapped market for our advisors. We have a strong pipeline and will be adding more teams in this market and around the country in the coming months."
The final six months of 2022 were eventful for Sanctuary in terms of money coming in and going out. In July,
Sanctuary, which added 20 new advisor teams in 2021, didn't exchange any equity in the transaction, which came a year after Italian asset manager Azimut Group acquired a 55% stake in Sanctuary Wealth with a $50 million investment.
Both capital partners expressed excitement for and support of Sanctuary's next chapter.
"Adam aligns perfectly with our vision for the future of Sanctuary," David Chene, co-founder of Kennedy Lewis and chairman of the Sanctuary Board, said in a statement. "We are confident that he is the right person, at the right time, to build on the very robust business in place at Sanctuary and to catapult the firm into the ranks of the top wealth management enterprises in the country.
"Going forward, we know that Sanctuary is in excellent hands under Adam's leadership."
Massimo Guiati, CEO of Azimut Group, said Sanctuary has reached "a very natural point of evolution" as the firm continues to develop.
"We look forward to providing Adam and the Sanctuary team our enthusiastic support as they accelerate the firm's forward momentum. I will personally be involved in helping Adam to coordinate and manage the development of the business going forward, making this new chapter a great success for everyone," Guiati said in a statement.
The Indianapolis-based panel also recommended the expungement of the official reasoning listed on FINRA BrokerCheck record for Sanctuary's July 2019 termination of Mark W. Damer, the former CEO of predecessor firm David A. Noyes.
Damer accepted a demotion to become a financial advisor in order to complete his 30-year career but was later fired. Damer's attorney told Financial Planning the "termination came as a surprise." Sanctuary cited concerns about compliance and supervision, which Damer denies.
