Baird Nabs 5 Wirehouse Advisors

Baird has picked up five former wirehouse advisors with $500 million in AUM and expanded its operations in North Carolina and Maine.

According to John Mabee, vice chairman of Baird’s private wealth management group, the firm, which has around 700 advisors, has built up momentum and is continuing to search for quality teams rather than hiring to meet quotas or growth targets.

“It’s all about the quality,” he said in a phone interview. “Things are going so well- knock on wood- we just want to make sure that we keep going forward as we have in the past. It’s all about the people that you hire.”

Mabee said that he is on the road an average of three days of the week meeting with and prospecting recruits.

The Lipe Group of Joseph A. Lipe and his son John B. Lipe join in Charlotte, N.C., Kevin Phillips will open a an new office in Lake Norman, N.C., and the Glenn Group of Robert Glenn and Chad Schuman join in Portland, Maine.

Joseph Lipe joins as a director from Morgan Stanley, where he had been since 2009. He had also spent time at Lehman Brothers before joining Citigroup in 1993, according to records with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

His son, John Lipe, will be a vice president and had been with Citi for five years, having joined in late 2007, according to FINRA filings. Together, the two managed $250 million in assets.

Kevin Phillips, a senior vice president, will open a the Lake Norman office as a satellite of the Charlotte, N.C. branch. He was previously at Wells Fargo having joined A.G. Edwards in 1990. Phillips previously managed $105 million in assets.

The Glenn Group was most recently at Wells Fargo, and both Glenn and Schuman are also legacy A.G. Edwards advisors. Glenn joined A.G. Edwards in 1994, and Schuman joined in 2003. Together, the two managed $145 million. Glenn will be a vice president.

According to Mabee, Baird has been successful drawing wirehouse advisors who had come from smaller regional firms.

“Over the last few years there have been quite a few really terrific [financial advisors] who are really looking for a place like they used to have,” he said. “A lot of [financial advisors] are working for firms they didn’t sign up for.”

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