Bleeding continues at Osaic, UBS with big team departures: Advisor Moves

June 27, 2025 2:23 PM

Team Cambridge Photo.jpg — The AmeriFlex Group, a large team with nearly $12 billion in AUM, is leaving Osaic for Cambridge Investment Research.

Amid big internal changes at their firms, advisors at Osaic and UBS are continuing to look toward the exits.

Big teams from the two wealth management mainstays announced this week they're departing to take up affiliations with Cambridge Investment Research, Rockefeller Global Family Office and RBC Wealth Management. The moves come shortly after Osaic's big consolidation of formerly separate broker-dealers and changes to broker compensation at UBS.

Read about those changes, as well as other deals and executive moves, below.

AmeriFlex, with nearly $12B in AUM, leaves Osaic for Cambridge

The AmeriFlex Group, a large hybrid advisory practice, is leaving Osaic for its independent broker-dealer rival Cambridge Investment Research.

This move will bring AmeriFlex's 129 advisors and roughly $11.87 billion in client assets to the Cambridge platform. The firm's leadership team includes founder and CEO Thomas Goodson, Chief Operating Officer Jesse Kurrasch, Chief Transitional Wealth Officer Hannah Buschbom and Chief Compliance Officer Diana Heu.

"Our growth strategy demands a partner that truly grasps the value large enterprises bring to both the home office and financial advisors," Goodson said in a statement. "We sought a firm with a highly collaborative culture and a commitment to providing the resources necessary to support our financial advisors' growth and business objectives."

The AmeriFlex Group was founded in 2019 and has experienced rapid growth. In 2024, it brought in 53 advisors, increasing its total client assets by over $3.4 billion; by the end of the year, the AmeriFlex Group had advisors in 29 states and saw a 35% year-over-year increase in assets under administration.

The AmeriFlex Group has emphasized developing systems to make it easy for advisors to pass their practices on to others when they retire. Its SuccessionFlex offering allows advisors to establish a succession and continuity agreement with the firm, including an option to sell between 30% and 40% of their current revenue stream to tAmeriFlex. Last year, the firm also introduced the Advisor Transition Network, a system designed to connect buyers and sellers of financial advisory practices.

The partnership with Cambridge will provide even greater accommodations to advisors seeking to take advantage of the AmeriFlex Group's succession services, allowing them to have hybrid, RIA-only or direct-employee practices, as well as to be affiliated with SuccessionFlex.

AmeriFlex had previously been part of SagePoint Financial, one of nine formerly separate broker-dealers now under the Osaic brand. Osaic has 11,000 advisors and more than $700 billion in assets under administration.

Osaic announced a large addition to that business line last Tuesday with its plans to buy Boston-based CW Advisors, a serial acquirer of RIAs with $13.5 billion under management. But it has also seen some big losses, including a group with $1 billion in AUM that left for Ausdal Financial Partners and a team with $430 million under management that said this week it's going to Commonwealth Financial Network.

Cambridge is based in Fairfield, Iowa, and has roughly 3,800 advisors and $185 billion in assets under advisement.

Suskind Ripple Halliwell Wealth Partners Photo.png

Suskind Ripple Halliwell Wealth Partners is leaving UBS to go to Rockefeller,

Photo courtesy of Rockefeller

Rockefeller picks up team with $1.5B in AUM from UBS

Rockefeller has turned to UBS for a large advisory team to strengthen its presence in the southeast U.S.

Suskind Ripple Halliwell Wealth Partners, a firm in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with roughly $1.5 billion under management, has joined Rockefeller Global Family Office, the wealth management unit of Rockefeller Capital Management.

The team is led by the private advisors and managing directors Leonard Suskind and Seth Ripple and also includes the private advisors Karleen Halliwell, Laura Raybin Miller and Teddy Pappas. They specialize in helping high net worth and ultrahigh net worth clients with everything from investing to generational wealth planning.

The team also includes Chief Operating Officer Gigi Whitlock and senior client associates Rebecca Garcia and Susie Rodriguez. They will report to Kristen Sario, the southeast divisional director of Rockefeller Global Family Office.

Both Suskind and Ripple started their careers in 1983 at Lehman Brothers and moved to Smith Barney in 1993. They joined UBS in 2013.

UBS Chief Financial Officer Todd Tuckner has said that recent changes to broker compensation, made in keeping with the firm's cost-cutting goals, could lead to an increase in broker departures in 2025. UBS reported in April that it has seen a 3% year-over-year decline in its U.S. headcount, which is now just under 6,000.

Citizens Financial recruits $1.5B team from rival bank

Citizens Financial Group is bolstering its presence in New York with the addition of a private banking team from the regional firm Flagstar Bank.

The team is led by a trio of industry veterans — Daniel Menton, Adam Waldman and Vincenzo Iannucci — and had previously managed roughly $1.5 billion at Flagstar. Their recruitment comes amid a broader push by Citizens to extend its private banking operations.

The expansion started in 2019 with its acquisition of Clarfeld Financial Advisors, a wealth management firm in Tarrytown, New York. Three years later, it bought parts of Paladin Advisors, a registered investment advisor in Kensington, New Hampshire.

But it was really bolstered by pulling over parts of the wealth management business of the now-defunct First Republic Bank, which collapsed in April 2023. Most of Citizens' private bankers have been hired from the former First Republic, which was eventually bought out of government receivership by JPMorgan.

Citizens Private Wealth Head Tom Metzger, who himself had formerly been in charge of recruiting at First Republic, said in a statement that the newly recruited team is "a pivotal part of our nationwide wealth acceleration strategy." Citizens recently opened its first private banking office in New York and operates 174 branches in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

"As we continue to build a world-class wealth management business, New York has been a key market where we were determined to expand," Metzger said. "Our new team enables us to significantly strengthen our presence and capabilities in this vital region."

Menton has 26 years of industry experience and spent 11 years at HSBC before joining Flagstar in 2012. Waldman started in 2007 at Smith Barney, which was later acquired by Morgan Stanley, and moved to Flagstar in 2014 after a brief stint at Deutsche Bank. Iannucci started his career in 1992 and moved to Flagstar in 2006 after time at various firms.

RBC goes to UBS well again for $1.1B team

Fresh off two big recruiting deals last month, RBC Wealth Management has gone back to UBS to pull over a larger advisory team.

The nine-member Centennial Wealth Management Group has joined RBC from UBS Wealth Management USA, where it had managed $1.1 billion in client assets. It will operate out of RBC's branch in Purchase, New York, just north of Manhattan.

The group includes the financial advisors Glenn R. Bianco, Michael G. Daly, George P. Kanas, Marisa Bianco and Marc Colamaria. Glenn Bianco, with 25 years of experience, began his career in 1996 at First Union Securities, which eventually became part of Wells Fargo Advisors. He later moved to Smith Barney in 2005 and then to UBS in 2014. Daly also started at First Union in 1996 and followed a similar career path to Smith Barney and UBS.

Kanas has 42 years of experience. His career started at Drexel Burnham Lambert, and he has worked at five different firms, including Merrill Lynch. Marisa Bianco has nine years of experience, all of which were at UBS. Colamaria has 15 years of experience, starting at Morgan Stanley before joining UBS in 2014.

RBC had just over 2,200 financial advisors overseeing $640 billion in client assets by the end of April.

DayMark Wealth scoops up advisors from Wells Fargo, Janney

DayMark Wealth Partners, a Cincinnati-based advisory practice managing approximately $3.8 billion, is moving into southeast Florida with a team recruited from Wells Fargo's independent channel and an advisor from Janney Montgomery Scott.

Steven Rowe and his daughter, Emily Rowe, are coming to DayMark from Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, or FiNet, the firm's channel for independent advisors. They will operate out of offices in Fort Lauderdale and Stuart, Florida. Their team, previously known as Rowe & Rowe Financial, also includes the advisor Patrick Strader and two support staff members.

Separately, Victoria Ricker, who has worked with Steven Rowe in the past, is joining DayMark in Fort Lauderdale from Janney. Combined, their former practices had managed an estimated $350 million in assets.

Steven Rowe began his career at Lehman Brothers in 1987 and moved to Oppenheimer in 1991 before going in 1996 to A.G. Edwards, which became part of Wells Fargo in 2008. Emily Rowe started her career at Wells in 2021. Strader started at Smith Barney in 2008 and moved to Wells in 2019, according to BrokerCheck.

Victoria Ricker has nearly four decades of industry experience, starting in 1987 at the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. BrokerCheck records show she overlapped with Rowe at A.G. Edwards in Fort Lauderdale from 2004 to 2008. Ricker joined Janney in 2017 after previously working at Morgan Stanley.

BofA Private Bank pulls New York market leaders from JPMorgan, Citi

Bank of America Private Bank is adding to its leadership ranks in its New York market with three executives pulled from JPMorgan and Citi.

Mary Chan, Chris Petro and Jeremy Sunshine have joined Bank of America Private Bank as market executives in the metro New York area, its largest regional market. Both Chan and Sunshine come from JPMorgan Private Bank, and Chan was most recently a regional managing director for the firm in New York. Chan also helped JPMorgan take on First Republic Bank's business in the New York market after it bought the now-defunct bank out of government receivership in 2023.

Petro was previously at Citi Private Bank, where he mostly was the head of its metro New York region. At Bank of America, Chan, Petro and Sunshine will report to Emily Dreas, managing director and senior market executive for the firm's New York market, which is part of the firm's New York Tri-State Division led by Geena Mayback.

In its latest earnings report in April, Bank of America Private Bank said it had $671 billion in client balances and $997 million in revenue in the first quarter.

In a memo to employees last week, Dreas wrote, "Together, we will grow client relationships by continuing to develop our client teams, strengthening enterprise partnerships, and connecting clients to the full capabilities of Bank of America."

Citi picks up market executive from Bank of America Private Bank

Citi Wealth has turned to Bank of America Private Bank for a head of its private bank in the southeast U.S.

Henry Woodward Middleton is joining Citi Private Bank North America as its southeast market executive. Middleton was last an executive leader for southeast Florida at Bank of America Private Bank, where he oversaw 18 teams in four offices. He will report to Chris Biotti, the head of Citi Private Bank North America, who himself came from Bank of America Private Bank.

Woodward has more than 30 years of experience in wealth management. Before going to Bank of America, he had leadership positions at JP Morgan, Merrill and First Union Bank National Bank of North Carolina.

RBC hires complex director in Boston from PNC

RBC Wealth Management has brought on a new leader for its Boston complex from PNC.

Brendan Krebs, who was recently the head of advisor recruiting at Wells Fargo, will oversee nine branches and 100 financial advisors in the greater Boston area for RBC. He began his career as a financial advisor in 1998 and has also held positions at Merrill and Fisher Investments. He left Wells Fargo in November after less than a year to become managing director of PNC Investments Wealth Advisors.

At RBC, he takes over for retiring complex director Brian Katz, who has been with RBC for nine years.

UBS names market director in New Jersey

UBS Wealth Management US has appointed Joseph Lombardo as market director for its Florham Park, New Jersey office.

In his new role he will continue to oversee the firm's offices in Short Hills and Westfield, New Jersey.

Lombardo has more than 30 years of industry experience in wealth management, including more than two decades in leadership positions at UBS. He started his career as a financial advisor and previously worked as UBS' head of leadership and future talent development,

The UBS Greater New York Metro Market, led by Mara Glassel, has 18 offices in Long Island, New York; Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey.