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Summary Of Executive Moves In North America Wealth Management - November 2018

Tom Burroughes

30 January 2019

Argent Financial Group hired Amy Rhodes as vice president and senior compliance administrator of retirement services for its fiduciary consulting services division. Reporting to Argent Trust Company chief compliance officer Deanna Rankin and based in San Antonio, Rhodes is responsible for all aspects of compliance for Argent Trust Company.

Rhodes has nearly 30 years of banking and trust industry experience. She most recently served as vice president and fiduciary compliance specialist with Frost Bank in San Antonio, where she had worked since beginning her career in 1989. Rhodes joined the bank as a trust operations cash disbursement specialist, later serving as vice president/wealth management systems analyst.

Raymond James Financial’s board of directors said Robert P Saltzman, an 11-year member of the board, chose not to seek re-election.

Raymond James recruited financial advisor Judy T Ross, AAMS® and her colleagues to join its independent broker/dealer business, Raymond James Financial Services. She is based in Woodstock, Georgia. Ross operates as J Thompson Ross Investments and joins the firm from Wells Fargo Financial Network, where she previously managed about $245 million in client assets. Joining her at Raymond James are Daren Sexton, director of portfolio management for J Thompson Ross Investments and RJFS senior registered associate; Patricia Hayton, director of client services; and Lauren Richert, client service associate.

Raymond James Financial named a chief investment officer for its private client group. The CIO, Larry Adam, used to work at Deutsche Bank, where he was chief investment officer – Americas; he was also the global chief investment strategist for Deutsche Bank Wealth Management. He joined Alex Brown & Sons in 1992 and continued with the firm through the 1997 acquisition by Bankers Trust and the subsequent purchase by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Raymond James purchased the business from Deutsche Bank in 2016.

Separately, the US wealth management house brought in a 12-person team overseeing more than $560 million in client assets. The team operates as Financial Services & Investment Strategies Group and joined from Wells Fargo. The business is based in Mountain Home, Arkansas. The new joiners included financial advisors Jackson Rhoades; Jan Schmeski; Mike Stockton; Steve Bettenhausen; David Matty and Logan Stone. Additionally there are six FSIS team members whose roles include: office manager Cindy Mowry; client account manager Donna Kaczmar; client relationship manager Kim Pace; client estates & transfers manager Sandy Rehak; client data access manager Summer Obert; and client service manager Brock Bettenhausen. Starting in 2019, Steve Bettenhausen will serve as FSIS Group’s business controller.

Registered investment advisory business Prospera Financial Services said a team based in Lafayette, Louisiana became affiliated with it. The team of Carolyn French and Byron Reyes, overseeing $150 million of client assets, had previously been with UBS.

Founders Investment Services, an operation offered at Founders Federal Credit Union, moved from Cetera Advisor Networks to join the broker dealer and RIA platform of LPL Financial. Advisors at Founders IS served about $300 million of client brokerage and advisory assets. Based in Lancaster, South Carolina, the credit union was founded in 1950 to serve the employees of Spring Mills. Today, the credit union operates 29 branches in North and South Carolina and serves more than 200,000 members. Six advisors offer investment and wealth management services at all locations. Advisors include C David Tolson III, managing director and wealth advisor, and financial consultants Keith Benton, CFP®, Zachary Boerger, Cody Bowers, Jake Carr and Austin Terry.

Cresset Family Office recruited three new senior figures to join its team. Dan Terlep joined as senior managing director of financial and tax strategy; Tony McEahern, joined as senior MD, wealth planning; and Joel Alberts, joined as client advisor, Midwest Region. 

Capital Counsel, an independent investment management firm based in New York City, appointed Daniel McCarron as director of business development. Prior to joining Capital Counsel, McCarron worked as national channel manager at BNY Mellon’s Pershing Advisor Solutions. McCarron led the alignment of the two separate advisor solutions businesses of BNY Mellon and Pershing.

RBC Wealth Management appointed Sean Phillips, having formerly worked for Wells Fargo Advisors. With 18 years of industry experience, Phillips oversees the Walnut Creek office, Northern California. At Wells Fargo, Phillips built a $1 million book of business at Merrill Lynch, eventually rising to complex director for the firm in Northwest Florida. 

Mayco Financial Services joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer and corporate registered investment advisor platforms. The firm reported that it served approximately $170 million of client brokerage and advisory assets as of October 17 this year. The firm, based in Lakewood, New Jersey, joined from Cadaret Grant. The business was founded by Morris “Moshe” Mayerfeld, CFP®, who has been an advisor for over 30 years. Gabriel Fisher of Brooklyn, New York, joined Mayco in 1998. Mayerfeld’s son-in-law, Yisroel Meir Krohn, CFP®, of Toms River, New Jersey, joined the firm in 2011.

Argent Trust appointed new senior vice presidents to lead its funeral home trust business following the firm's new alliance with Live Oak Bank’s trust business. Steve Jackson is a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor, Certified Financial Planner and Certified Public Accountant and has more than 30 years of banking, trust and funeral services experience, while Jim Breaux has more than 20 years of banking and trust industry experience. Jackson, based in Wilmington, North Carolina, joined Argent as senior vice president of the company’s funeral and cemetery division and will be responsible for overall management of the group. Breaux, based in New Orleans, joined as senior vice president and national sales executive. They all report to Mark Milton, senior vice president of institutional services, also based in New Orleans.

Goldman Sach's private wealth management arm named its region head for Florida and Latin America. Rob Barlick is the region head of PWM in Florida and Latin America, while Greg Ferrero moved to the role of private wealth advisor from region head of private wealth management in Miami and West Palm Beach.

Barlick joined Goldman Sachs in 2000 and joined PWM in Miami in 2004 where he created and led a private wealth management team. Barlick has been a member of the PWM Advisors Council since 2015 and was promoted to managing director in 2017. Barlick earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in history from Trinity College. He is a trustee and treasurer of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Foundation and a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Greg Ferrero joined Goldman Sachs in 1990 and has nearly three decades of experience in PWM. He spent 17 years as a private wealth advisor in the New York region before becoming the region head in Florida in 2007. Like Barlick, Ferrero earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has a BS in chemical engineering from Columbia University and a BS in chemistry from St Lawrence University.

The private banking head of Wells Fargo, Jay Welker, was due to retire in March 2019. Welker, who is also head of the bank’s wealth management division, was a focal point of a gender bias investigation in Wells Fargo’s wealth and investment management unit. Before joining Argent Trust, Jackson was CEO of Live Oak Trust, a division of Live Oak Bank. Previously, he was senior vice president and regional trust manager for Regions Bank.

Wells Fargo Asset Management appointed Joseph Wong as a senior solutions manager, working in San Francisco. Wong focuses on designing and implementing outcome-oriented investment portfolios as part of WFAM’s multi-asset solutions team, reporting to Jonathan Hobbs, head of US portfolio solutions. Hobbs joined WFAM in 2017 from BlackRock, where he led the client solutions office in San Francisco and was co-head of liability-driven investment in North America.

A fund designed to tap into the tax incentives created by new US Qualified Opportunity Zones recruited a senior figure from community finance and impact investing. The Cresset-Diversified QOZ Fund and Cresset Partners, part of Cresset Capital Management, said that Matt Reilein joined the fund and Cresset team. Reilein has spent more than 15 years forming relationships and building teams to deliver market-driven capital to low-income communities as head of impact investing with O’Brien-Staley Partners and prior to that as MD, Community Development Banking, with JP Morgan.

GAM Holding, which has been hit by client outflows after a senior manager was suspended, said its group chief executive Alexander Friedman has stepped down. Friedman is a former UBS Wealth Management chief investment officer and a US government official, working in the Clinton administration, among other roles. Friedman was replaced by David Jacob, a member of the Zurich-listed firm's executive board. 

Goldman Sachs named investment bankers David Dubner and Pete Michelsen as co-heads of activism and shareholder advisory for the Americas. Dubner was a managing director in the M&A group and joined the bank in 2006. Michelsen was a managing director in M&A as well, having originally joined Goldman Sachs in 2005. 

RBC Wealth Management hired a new team in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The Nearing Wealth Management Group comprises Gordon Nearing, CFP®, senior vice president – financial advisor, who joins with 39 years of industry experience;  Pamela Dallas, associate vice president – financial advisor, who joins with three years of experience; Nicole Molieneux, senior registered client associate; and Kelly Tullidge, client associate. The team manages more than $230 million in client assets and joined from Merrill Lynch.

Värde Partners, an alternative investments firm with $14 billion of assets under management, recruited Mona Girotra as global head of consultant relations in Värde’s business development and investor relations group. Girotra was based in New York, working with advisors and consultants around the world. Prior to this, Girotra worked at Highbridge Capital Management as a managing director in business development and investor relations. Before that, she was in senior roles in business development and product management at JP Morgan Asset Management and Neuberger Berman. Girotra received an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is also a CFA Charterholder.