Snowden Lane Partners continues to benefit after Fieldpoint Private's deal to sell its advisory unit fell apart earlier this year and the boutique bank shuttered its wealth management arm.
The independent wealth manager added its third new financial advisor at its New York headquarters in the last four months from Fieldpoint Private when Al Jacobi followed his longtime business partner Tom Hakala to Snowden Lane on Aug. 8. The practice, which has been together for more than 20 years at Fieldpoint, Wilmington Trust and other banks, manages $360 million in assets on behalf of its high net worth clients.
Greenwich, Connecticut-based Fieldpoint plans to focus on private banking services for advisory practices rather than operating its own wealth program. Its pullout earlier this year from an agreement to sell the $5 billion business coincided with
While recruiter Mark Elzweig said he's unable to say for sure what happened with the deal, he pointed out that Fieldpoint's advisors are direct employees of the bank while Summit's advisors are independent.
"In any kind of M&A transaction, you have to have the support of your advisors to undertake it," Elzweig said. "The lesson is that there has to be an upside for the advisors and their clients. There has to be a compatibility of business models."
Even with the
Elzweig describes advisors as being "ultimately entrepreneurial free agents," and Jacobi said that Fieldpoint's ranks have "pretty much all become free agents" due to the firm's decision to close its wealth arm.
He called the separation amicable, noting that Fieldpoint is retaining one aspect of the practice's business.
"Most of my clients that have banking relationships with Fieldpoint are staying with Fieldpoint," Jacobi said. "For them it's really a smooth transition other than maybe signing additional paperwork."
Representatives for Fieldpoint declined to comment on Jacobi's move. Executive Chairman Tim Tully
Jacobi oversees the investments of the practice's clients while Hakala manages the planning component. Jacobi's business partner
"We deeply admire Fieldpoint Private, hence our enthusiasm when it became clear the Jacobi-Hakala Group would be joining our firm," Snowden CEO Rob Mooney said in a statement, predicting the team "will thrive in Snowden Lane's boutique environment."
Snowden and similar independent firms targeting outgoing wirehouse brokers are picking up even more recruits in the third year of the pandemic, according to Elzweig. They're drawing in advisors with services at a level at least in line or better than their existing firms, along with the previous wirehouse experience among their management and the capital from private equity backers, public shareholders or other partners.
The pandemic has served as "a dress rehearsal or a trial run for going independent" among many advisors, Elzweig said.
Snowden Lane is "recreating some of the turnkey aspects of the wirehouse experience, so they're making it a lot easier to do," Elzweig said. "This year and the next few years, there's going to be quite a lot of movement to firms with that kind of a business model."
