Steward Partners hired two advisors from Wells Fargo, marking the latest gains for the fast-growing independent firm affiliated with Raymond James.
Advisors Corrado Spezzacatena and James Galbraith III joined Steward Partners' office in Morristown, New Jersey.
Since its founding in 2013, Steward Partners has picked up a number of wirehouse advisors and added new offices in nine states. The Washington, D.C.-based firm continued its hiring spurt through this year. Just last month,
Spezzacatena and Galbraith were drawn to Steward Partners and Raymond James for the platform and what they say is the greater flexibility offered by the independent business model.
“Moving firms can be a daunting task but we couldn’t be happier about this and what it means for our clients,” Spezzacatena said in a statement.
Nearly two-thirds of advisors surveyed this month said that internal training programs or workshops were offered by their firms.
Virtually every major firm on Wall Street has joined the push into private markets, with many trying to get in early on the biggest "next big thing" to hit financial services since the exchange-traded fund.
Traci Parks has been a copy editor at American Banker since 2023. She's worked at Scholastic National Partnerships and many fashion magazines, including V Magazine where she was also a contributing writer. As a playwright, her work has been produced in New York, Seattle and Los Angeles.
Both Spezzacatena and Galbraith had been with Wells Fargo since it acquired A.G. Edwards, the regional brokerage firm where the duo previously worked. Spezzacatena started working at A.G. Edwards in 2002, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records.
Galbraith first registered with Lehman Brothers in 1992. He moved his practice to A.G. Edwards in 1996, according to BrokerCheck.
A Wells Fargo spokeswoman was unavailable to comment.
The advisor losses are the latest for Wells Fargo where head count has fallen steadily since a fake accounts scandal came to light nearly two years ago and resulted in heightened regulatory scrutiny and hefty monetary penalties.
