Summary Of Moves In North America Wealth Management - March 14 - 20

Tom Burroughes

21 March 2017

Bruderman Asset Management appointed Stephanie Torosion as managing director of its wealth planning and family office services. Previously, Torosion was associate director of the wealth planning and analysis group at AllianceBernstein, where she consulted advisors and clients on asset allocation, multi-generational wealth planning, trusts and philanthropy. At Bruderman, Torosian oversees a team of wealth advisors, working with the head of Bruderman family office, Matthew Bruderman, and will report to Oliver Pursche, chief executive.

Raymond James recruited a team from Merrill Lynch that previously managed around $220 million in client assets to join its office in Stuart, Florida, the firm’s native state. David Lum and Michael Piazza joined from Merrill Lynch where they also commanded annual fees and commissions of more than $1.7 million. Registered sales associate Theresa McMasters also joined the firm. The trio operate as Lum Wealth Management of Raymond James. The Stuart office is managed by Bill Romans and is part of the Florida East Coast complex, led by Dan Kraus.

Lum began his financial services career in 1981 as a legal and compliance auditor with EF Hutton in New York. In 1988, he joined Prudential Securities as a financial advisor and moved to Merrill Lynch in 1999. Piazza started out as an intern with Merrill Lynch in 2010 during his off-seasons as a professional baseball player. He became a full-time financial advisor in 2015.

Markov Processes International, an investment analytics provider working with organizations including wealth managers, hired two new executives - Rohtas Handa and Aleksey Matiychenko. Handa joined as executive vice president and head of institutional solutions. Prior to MPI, Handa worked with Optimal Asset Management, a boutique asset management firm, where he was responsible for business development. Matiychenko joined as executive vice president and head of transparency and analytics. Prior to MPI, Matiychenko founded Risk-AI, an award-winning risk management technology and consulting firm with a focus on hedge funds, fund-of-hedge-funds and family offices.

Christopher Whalen, senior managing director and head of research at Kroll Bond Rating Agency, and a panellist at a recent Family Wealth Report Breakfast Briefing, stepped down from KBRA after three years at the firm. In his position at Kroll, Whalen was responsible for the ratings of commercial banks and financial institutions, as well as publishing research. Going forward, Whalen returned to his past role as an analyst and consultant covering the financial services and mortgage finance sectors. Whalen will also be marketing his latest book, Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise which will be released by Laissez Faire Books in early April this year.

Merrill Lynch appointed Juliano de Souza as an international financial advisor serving the Brazil market. He will be based in Miami. Previously, de Souza worked at Brazil-headquartered BTG Pactual in New York and Miami for eight years. While at BTG, he was responsible for $200 million in client assets.

A pair of ex-Merrill Lynch advisors, Jim Ewing and Michael Cona, formed Ewing/Cona Wealth Management and affiliated with HighTower Advisors, the financial advisor network. The team, which managed nearly $200 million in assets at Merrill Lynch, is based in Marlton, NJ, in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Ewing has worked at Merrill Lynch for nearly a decade. Cona oversees financial planning for the team.

BNY Mellon recruited former Merrill Lynch man David High as a senior wealth director in Philadelphia, PA. Reporting to regional president Lee Woolley, High works with third-party advisors who serve wealthy clients throughout the US Mid-Atlantic region. He previously spent nine years as a first vice president within Merrill Lynch’s wealth structuring group and before that was a financial representative at Northwestern Mutual for six years.