Steward Partners recruited six advisers with $562 million of client assets from three rivals and has plans to add an undisclosed number of offices this year, according to the independent firm affiliated with Raymond James.
With the additions, the firm has now lured nine advisors from the wirehouses in 2019. The growth is “about 30-40% higher already than where we were last year at this time,” says managing director Greg Banasz.
“We expect that to accelerate,” he says.
The firm added 26 advisors in 2018 and has doubled the size of its advisor ranks in the last three years to 106 brokers, he says.
Steward Partners has plans to open more offices this year as well, according to Banasz, though he declined to specify the number or location. The firm currently has 18 offices including branches it opened this year in Dallas and Portland, Maine.
The advisors joining Steward Partners include Nick Fiegoli from UBS, Dennis Reynolds from Wells Fargo, and from Merrill Lynch, a team of four: Rob Carrigg, Jr., Andrew Small, Christina O'Donnell and Jenny Sideris.
Divisional president Tim Sheridan, who oversees advisors in New York and New Jersey, said “It was appealing to both of them to get out of the wirehouse environment” without going entirely independent.
Fiegoli had been with UBS since 2009, having previously worked for Merrill Lynch, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. He is based in New York and managed $140 million, according to Steward Partners.
Reynolds spent nearly a decade at Wells Fargo, and has past work experience at Smith Barney and Ryan, Beck & Co. He operates from Steward’s office in Paramus, New Jersey, and previously oversaw $72 million, according to the firm.
Carrigg, Small, O’Donnell, and Sideris comprise the Carrigg Wealth Management Group, which managed $350 million and is based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Carrigg had been with Merrill Lynch since 1998, while Sideris, O’Donnell and Small began their respective tenures with the wirehouse in 2002, 2004, and 2016, according to BrokerCheck.
Spokeswomen for Wells Fargo and UBS declined to comment on the departures. A spokeswoman for Merrill Lynch could not be reached for comment.
