A sister-brother team catering to ultrahigh net worth clients with expertise in private offerings went independent from J.P. Morgan Advisors with Dynasty Financial Partners.
Financial advisors Christian Habitz and Sarah Damsgaard left J.P. Morgan, where they managed $1 billion in assets under administration, to launch an RIA with offices in Milwaukee, Chicago and Miami called The Invictus Collective, Dynasty
“It was really that partnership that gave us the confidence and the ability to do this,” Damsgaard says.
The duo had been with J.P. Morgan since 2015 after earlier tenures with Credit Suisse, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.
“Many RIAs just get bogged down in administrative quagmires,” Habitz says. “We didn't want to be burdened with all of those components.”
Representatives for J.P. Morgan didn’t respond to a request for comment on their departure.
The RIA’s registration with the SEC became effective on May 12, according to the regulator’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database. Invictus picked Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions as its custodian and chose Addepar and eMoney as technology vendors. In addition, they are using Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments as their broker-dealer.
The firm has three other staff members and works “exclusively with ultrahigh net worth individuals, multigenerational families and associated entities,” according to its website. It hasn’t been difficult to explain the independent move to clients, Damsgaard says.
“They understand the value proposition and the structure,” she says. “They're used to us walking them through things. We're very, very lucky to have really tremendous clients who are sophisticated.”
Prior to J.P. Morgan, Habitz and Damsgaard were part of Credit Suisse’s Private Banking Group, and Habitz had previously spent nearly a decade with Morgan Stanley and its Private Client Group. Damsgaard had earlier tenures with Reinhart Partners and MFS Investment Management. Before becoming an advisor, she had a career as a professional ballerina, including time with the School of American Ballet at the New York City Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet.
Habitz has substantial experience in making early-stage investments. He began his career with the family office of former LaSalle Bank Chairman Harrison Steans, an experience which he describes as instructive as he and his sister run their own independent multi-family office practice.
“We were middle class kids from the Detroit area, but that's where I learned the business,” Habitz says.
The opening of their RIA comes two months after a former Merrill Lynch team with $1.2 billion in client assets left the wirehouse
