Rockefeller’s latest wirehouse grabs: 3 teams, $1.7B in assets

Rockefeller Capital Management has drawn three more wirehouse teams into its fold — this time from Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

In one of the first recruiting grabs of the year, Rockefeller brought on 10 advisors managing more than $1.7 billion in client assets into its private wealth management division, which now numbers 44 teams, according to the firm.

“We’re excited to welcome our new teams aboard and to continue building off the robust pace of business growth set in 2020,” Chris Randazzo, president of Private Wealth Management for Rockefeller Capital Management, said in a statement.

Rockefeller, which is backed by hedge fund Viking Global Investors, has been aggressively recruiting — and buying — teams for its private wealth and family office businesses. In recent months it has picked up sizable teams from firms including Merrill Lynch and UBS.

Randazzo and Rockefeller CEO Greg Fleming were both former executives at Morgan Stanley.

Advisor movement Fidelity 1/19/21

A four-person team with $600 million in client assets came onboard in Boca Raton, Florida, according to the firm. Marshall Duane, Christopher Bell, Thomas Tabor and Mason Liu joined from Merrill Lynch, where Duane had worked since 1981, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.

An advisor duo in Chicago that managed $300 million in client assets also left Merrill for Rockefeller, according to the firm.

Richard Bergman and Clayton Balko had each been with Merrill for more than nine years, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.

A Morgan Stanley team with $800 million in client assets also joined Rockefeller in Boca Raton last week, according to the firm. The team includes Nelson Faro, his two sons, Forrest and Kyle Faro, and advisor Rachel Baum.

The advisors had been with Morgan Stanley since 2009, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.

The new hires advance the company’s goal of gaining $100 billion in assets over a five-year period — a plan Randazzo detailed at Arizent’s Invest Conference in 2019. Rockefeller, which also has an asset management business, launched an ESG multi-factor index with Bloomberg earlier this month.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman declined to comment, and a Merrill Lynch spokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

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