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.
The new money will be used primarily to pay off investors who provided capital when Reverence first bought a majority stake in the former Advisor Group in 2019.
When the same buzzwords — "fiduciary," "holistic," "goals-based," "client-driven" — appear on most wealth firms' websites, they do little to help firms stand out in a crowded market, experts say. There are, however, tactics that work.
Andrew is the managing director for North America at Xero. He is responsible for shaping and executing Xero's strategy to accelerate growth across the US and Canada. Andrew has had a career dedicated to empowering small businesses. Prior to Xero, he led mid market sales at Intuit and global SMB and mid market sales at PayPal. He also founded and scaled Swift Financial into a US $300M lending platform with US $100M in ARR — supporting thousands of small businesses — before its acquisition by PayPal. Andrew holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from the University of Delaware.
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.
