Use this one-Biggest Breakaways So Far July 2017
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Biggest breakaways so far: Firms with $10.4B in AUM joined Dynasty

In the race for wirehouse breakaways, Dynasty Financial Partners has taken a commanding lead.

The firm has helped four of the biggest breakaways of the year so far go independent. Dynasty’s top four recruits oversaw $10.5 billion in combined client assets.

But Dynasty isn't the only firm benefiting from a steady stream of wirehouse advisers seeking greater independence.

Scroll through to see these and the other biggest breakaways from the year so far.
Campbell Deegan Financial

Merrill breakaways with $575M in AUM launch new firm

Two Merrill Lynch advisers managing about $575 million in assets left to launch a new RIA with help from Focus Financial Partners, according to the firm.

Sean Campbell and Timothy Deegan opened Campbell Deegan Financial with counseling from a Focus division aimed at helping teams start new firms. Focus Independence has guided 10 new companies into the aggregator's growing 45-member fold, according to the company.

The founding partners of the new Richmond, Virginia, firm first teamed up in 2013 when Deegan joined the Merrill group led by Campbell and his father. Campbell and Deegan have been running the office since the elder Campbell retired in 2015.

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Merrill-Lynch-sign-Bloomberg-News

$6.4M adviser leaves Merrill Lynch

A Merrill Lynch adviser who oversaw $650 million in client assets left the wirehouse to join Bolton Global Capital, his new employer said.

Euclides Moreno generated $6.4 million in annual revenue while at the wirehouse, according to Bolton.

The Miami-based adviser specializes in servicing wealthy international clients. Moreno had been with Merrill Lynch since joining the industry in 2000, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. Prior to becoming an adviser, Moreno worked in his family’s Venezuela-based bank, according to his new firm.

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Brian Buckley Dynasty financial adviser photo

Morgan Stanley adviser with $600M goes indie with Dynasty

A Morgan Stanley adviser who managed approximately $600 million in client assets has formed an RIA with Dynasty Financial Partners, the company said.

Brian Buckley launched his eponymously named firm in Las Vegas. He is among the latest high profile wirehouse producers to strike out on their own.

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Raymond James 2

Raymond James snatches $700M Wells Fargo team

Four Wells Fargo brokers who generated about $3.8 million in annual revenue bolted from the firm’s dwindling Profit Formula platform for Raymond James.

John Watts, Steuart Evans, Russell Henshaw and Bradford Flowers opened a new Huntsville, Alabama branch of the regional firm’s Advisor Select division, Raymond James announced. The firm had unveiled another Wells Fargo grab the previous week.

Advisor Select, also known as the “independent employee” division, has peeled off teams from Wells Fargo’s Profit Formula platform in the past. The hybrid Raymond James unit includes around 100 advisers at 41 branches, according to a company spokeswoman.

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Icon Wealth Partners

Wirehouse advisers with $750M in combined AUM go indie with Dynasty

Three wirehouse advisers managing $750 million in combined client assets broke away to launch their own firm with help from Dynasty Financial Partners, according to the company.

Mark McAdams, Blake Pratz and Steve Schwarzbach opened Icon Wealth Partners after more than two years of considering the move, Pratz says. The Houston-based firm makes 40 in Dynasty’s network, double the number of rival HighTower, which also recently added recruits in an increasingly heated competition between the two for RIA business.

“We’ve been following this independent space for several years and doing due diligence,” Pratz says. “So the timing was right. The evolution of this business moving towards the independent space is growing.”

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Adviser Douglas John FallLine Securities

UBS loses $1B team to breakaway startup

A new firm specializing in wirehouse breakaways made a billion dollar splash with its first hires.

FallLine Securities helped ex-UBS advisers Douglas John (pictured) and Bryn Basiardanes-Talkington set up an independent practice in Dallas. John previously advised on $1 billion of client assets, according to a spokesman. Talkington served as a regional director at UBS Asset Management.

FallLine is the latest firm to service wirehouse breakaways, joining the ranks of Dynasty, HighTower and Focus Financial among others. The Darien, Connecticut-based firm is attempting to differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace by focusing exclusively on advisers serving the superrich.

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David Darby and Melissa Gray Dynasty Financial Partners photo

Mega adviser exits Goldman to form RIA

An adviser who oversaw $1 billion at Goldman Sachs left the bank to launch his own RIA with backing from Dynasty Financial Partners.

The latest breakaway the firm assisted is David Darby, a 21-year veteran of Goldman Sachs. He is making the move to independence with Melissa Gray, director of client services, who also previously worked at the bank. The team operates as DG Wealth Partners from an office in Palm Beach, Florida.

Darby said he made the move in part to "have unfettered access to investment opportunities, client servicing technologies and wealth management resources." The partnership with Dynasty will enable them to serve as an outsourced family office for their wealthy clients, he said in a statement.

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Joel Talish HighTower photo cropped

HighTower recruits a second $1B wirehouse team

Two advisers have left Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley to form an independent practice with HighTower, a spokeswoman said.

CEO Joel Talish (pictured), who left Wells Fargo, and managing director John Buffa, who departed from Morgan Stanley, previously oversaw $1 billion in client assets, per the spokeswoman. The firm's newest hires operate as Cognetic Capital Advisors in HighTower's New York office.

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Jay_Rolfe_Eileen_Ortega_Jim Williams_Michael_Skowfoe_Fortress_Wealth_Planning_HighTower.jpg

HighTower opens new year with a bang, grabs $1B Wells Fargo team

A $1 billion team has left Wells Fargo to go independent with HighTower, which is coming off a robust recruiting year, having picked up a combination of 14 teams and tuck-ins in 2016, according to the firm.

The firm's newest recruits formed Fortress Wealth Planning in Jacksonville, Florida. The team is comprised of founding partners Jay Rolfe, Eileen Ortega, Jim Williams and Michael Skowfoe. HighTower says those 2016 recruits represented about $4 billion in AUM.

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UBS version 3 by Bloomberg

$8B wirehouse team goes indie

Dynasty Financial Partners has added another breakaway firm to its expanding roster, but this transition is coming with some extra baggage.

Procyon Partners, formerly a team known as the FDG Group while at UBS, launched in June and will operate under two separate RIAs — one for its institutional investment consulting practice and the other for its personal wealth management group.

At UBS the Procyon team managed over $8 billion in institutional assets and over $400 million in private wealth assets, generating approximately $6 million in annual revenue.

UBS filed a lawsuit for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the Shelton, Connecticut-based firm. The lawsuit alleges that Procyon's founding partners violated the Protocol for Broker Recruiting by "aggressively soliciting" UBS clients to leave the firm and do business with Procyon.

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