Scott & Stringfellow, the Richmond, Va.-based brokerage arm of banking firm BB&T, has hired MSSB veteran David Rabinowitz as an advisor in its Atlanta, Ga., office, as the company seeks to add three offices in Florida and a fourth in Maryland.
The firm began a plan in May of this year to add enough advisors, managers and support staff to fill out three new offices in Jacksonville, Sarasota and Ft. Lauderdale as well as one office in Baltimore, Md., Mike Owen, Southeast regional director, said.
"We have a major expansion campaign going on," Owen said. "We are currently expanding all of our locations that we have right now plus adding new locations."
Since the plan was announced, the firm has hired 12 advisors firm-wide by Owen's approximation, including Rabinowitz. According to Owen, Scott & Stringfellow has seen particularly high interest from wirehouse advisors such as Rabinowitz, who joined Citigroup in 2007 and had been at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney since 2009, according to regulatory filings with FINRA.
"Our complex managers drive the recruitment process because they're well known in the community, so we've hired from other regional firms, banks and wirehouses, but I would say we've received more interest for whatever reason from people contacting us from wirehouses," Owen observed.
Owen said that Rabinowitz who has operated in the Atlanta area since joining Citigroup in 2007, managed around $50 million, which he hopes will transfer over. In addition to bringing over assets from previous firms, however, Scott & Stringfellow is also looking to capitalize on referrals from its parent firm, BB&T.
"BB&T is a big player in Florida, which is the reason we're excited about it," Owen said. "A lot of these wealth and private customers come to us through the banking network, so we think that's a very attractive combination if we can recruit people to open these branches for us."
While Scott & Stringfellow has institutional offices in New York and New Jersey, the Baltimore, Md., branch will be the first office operating on the retail side outside of the Southeast.
The firm currently employs 230 financial advisors.
