A private bank team serving high net worth clients went independent with plans for expansion as the first outpost of an RIA outside of its headquarters.
Crewe Advisors tapped financial advisors Jason Miller, Kris Yamano, Duncan Corley and Louise Goudy, along with senior associate Kimberly Mawk, to open its new office in Scottsdale, Arizona, after the team left BMO Wealth Management, the firm
Salt Lake City-based Crewe recently topped $1 billion in client assets as an independent RIA whose parent has an investment banking arm called Crewe Capital with a broker-dealer for institutional clients. Its incoming team represents its first step to begin growing its footprint outside Crewe’s home. The RIA drew the Scottsdale team as a result of Crewe Capital's investment banking services for business owner clients, connections from prior firms and their choice amid the industry’s “bifurcation” between massive firms with tech-enabled scale and boutique companies with specialized niche services, Miller said in an interview.
“We really want to make sure we're aligned with the channel where we can best serve our clients and the channel that's growing the fastest,” he said, noting the team opted for the latter boutique option in its independent move. “We really wanted to be aligned more on that side because our first passion is serving clients and taking care of all of their needs and just bringing to bear excellent advice all around, not just investment management.”
Representatives for BMO’s U.S. wealth unit declined to comment on the move, while representatives for LPL didn’t respond to a request for comment.
LPL’s addition of BMO’s main retail wealth program, now called BMO Investment Services, came a few months before its
“Those are bigger moves than anytime in the recent past,” Bielan said in an interview this summer. “Having your own broker-dealer, you assume that risk. In the past, it was viewed that controlling that risk is easier when you have it centralized. … Now the decision is more, ‘Why do we want to take that risk on?’”
The retail wealth program’s switch to LPL “obviously impacted some of our clients who had accounts on both platforms, but it wasn't the main consideration for us to make a move,” Miller said. Under the team’s new setup as part of Crewe’s RIA, it plans to seek recruiting and M&A opportunities in the southwest and Mountain West regions.
Like the team that launched Crewe in 2015, Miller and Yamano’s team works with high net worth and ultrahigh net worth clients, according to Crewe Managing Partner Ryan Halliday. The incoming group’s “strong financial planning and advisory skills, in addition to an experienced portfolio management capability providing comprehensive wealth advisory solutions,” also made them attractive to their new RIA, he said in an email.
Crewe hasn’t found the right fit in “goals and values” with any potential private equity backers, though the firm aims to add more teams from across wealth management, Halliday said.
“Our future expansion is solely predicated on focusing on fit and culture, not the institution or the platform they are coming from,” Halliday said. “We are always open to bringing on new members to Crewe Advisors who serve similarly situated clients, are client-first focused and are committed to providing proactive comprehensive wealth advisory solutions.”
