Alexandra & James, the holding company of veteran brokerage Lebenthal & Co., announced an agreement with Dynasty Financial Partners that will help it build out its wealth management business.
As part of the strategic partnership, which will offer Alexandra & James an array of services, Dynasty Financial Partners will provide the capital to help A&J add advisors to its wealth management firm. The advisors will then repay the funds once they sign on with Alexandra & James and begin transferring clients' assets. Dynasty offers this arrangement to other wealth management firms in its network.
With nearly $1 billion in assets under management, Alexandra & James Wealth Management began using the Dynasty Financial platform in early January. The firm will tap Dynasty’s array of services for its wealth management and institutional investment banking businesses, according to Dynasty. Dynasty provides a broad menu of research, marketing, trusts, insurance and other financial planning services to firms in its network.
“One of [Alexandra & James Wealth Management’s] real growth plans is to attract the top 1% of advisors in the space,” said Ed Swenson, partner and COO of Dynasty Financial Partners. “They would like to build their practice, and attract the most elite advisors who want to go independent and join their practice.”
That complements Dynasty Financial’s model perfectly, since the firm works exclusively with what it deems the elite 1% or 2% of advisors, those professionals who manage $250 million or more in assets, Swenson said.
“We’ve grown to the point where we need a best-in-class platform to continue providing our clients with a superior level of service,” Michelle Smith, CEO of Alexandra & James Wealth Management said. “Becoming part of Dynasty’s network means better and broader offerings, deeper research and analytics, and more sophisticated back-end services such as reporting to clients.”
Dynasty Financial will provide another core service to Alexandra & James, namely access to trusts, structured products, alternative investments and marketing. Callan Associates, which specializes in research for SMA managers is also contributing services, as is San Francisco-based Black Diamond Performance Reporting. Alexandra & James will continue to custody and clear assets through Pershing.
The Lebenthals have a venerated history in financial services, so the arrangement is a big deal for Dynasty, according to industry sources. Lebenthal & Co. was formed in New York in 1960, and became a household name for municipal bond brokerage services. The Alexandra & James holding company, named after the father and daughter who run the firm, began listing Lebenthal & Co. as an SEC-registered subsidiary in 2007, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.
Dynasty is two months past its first anniversary, and helps its clients manage $10 billion in investors’ assets under management, Swenson said.
“Dynasty delivers the very best of the industry in one customized integrated package, allowing us to offer our clients a level of service that simply couldn’t be achieved a few years ago,” Alexandra Lebenthal, CEO of Alexandra & James, said in a statement.
The deal will give Alexandra & James access to Dynasty’s technology, managed investments, institutional research, trust and insurance services, and credit facilities. It makes the former the eighth independent investment advisory firm to partner with Dynasty.
“This further validates our model,” Swenson said. “They are a very large and sophisticated firm, and they did a lot of due diligence in the independent space on what would work best. We could not be more excited about that.”
Donna Mitchell writes for
