Summit Trail poaches $300M UHNW team

Summit Trail Advisors nabbed a team managing more than $300 million in ultra-high-net-worth assets, according to the firm.

Justin Waterman and Sarah Silverio will join Summit Trail, an RIA affiliated with Dynasty Financial, at their New York City offices. Summit Trail also has locations in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, and is looking to expand their national footprint to at least six cities in the next five years, according to managing partner Jack Petersen.

Sarah Silverio
Justin Waterman

Both Waterman and Silverio, who left the wealth management boutique Fischer and Company, will target high-earning entrepreneurs and business owners, but have a combined book of fewer than 20 clients, Petersen says. Average assets per client for the advisors are around $30 million, he says.

“The team is technically very strong and has a very large average client size,” Petersen says. “They do really customized work.”

TARGETING UHNW ADVISORS
Scouting for advisors that manage the wealthiest clients is a “low probability process,” according to Petersen.

“If I talk to a hundred people,” Petersen says of potential advisors, “I end up finding a mutual fit one, or two, times.”

As for Waterman and Silverio, the recent hires were “mutually attractive” options on both sides.

“There’s a lot of analytics in the allocation and implementation to plan for these sorts of households,” Petersen says. “The team became really attractive to us, and we knew we could allow them to do better work.”

Almost all of the team’s households own multiple companies, meaning a lot of planning and customization is required, he says.

FEW CLIENTS BUT BIG BOOK
The new additions bring the advisor count to 15 for Summit Trail and average client assets to around $15 million, Petersen says. Managing $3.25 billion in client assets, the firm works almost exclusively with HNW households, according to their latest Form ADV filed in July.

advisors on the move cover slide 2017

Raymond James grabbed five multi-million teams in a month. Other firms to see big transitions include Wells Fargo and Ameriprise.

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Justin Waterman, who will be a partner at Summit Trail, began his career with Lehman Brothers in 2002 and worked with Barclays before moving to Citigroup in 2010, according to BrokerCheck records. Sarah Silverio, who will be a Summit Trail vice president, registered briefly with Blackrock in 2008. Waterman joined Fisher in 2013 and Silverio joined the firm the following year.

Fischer and Company declined to comment.

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