Financial Advisory News Round Up
- The Mather Group hired former Creative Planning director of strategic relationships Jeff Pierce as CEO. The Vistria Group-backed TMG oversees a combined $11.7B in client assets under management and administration. Pierce will replace Chris Behrens.
- Connectus Wealth Advisers, an arm of Focus Financial Partners that oversees $12.5B in client assets, added Chris Wilde COO and Gregory Britton CCO. Wilde was previously COO of NEIRG Wealth Management, while Britton was president, CEO of Atlas Private Wealth Management, the firm that rebranded as Connectus in 2020.
- Procyon Partners added advisors Jerry Sneed and Frank McKiernan, former executive managing directors, co-heads, from Baker Tilly Wealth Management, where they managed over $600M for high-net-worth individuals and families. They’re joined by financial advisor Christopher Sneed and client associates Amanda DiGuiseppe and Emily Demers. Procyon is part of the Dynasty Financial Partners network.
- Rockefeller Capital Management added an advisor practice from Bank of America. Glenn Mealey operates as Houston-based Mealey Wealth Partners and joins Rockefeller Global Family Office. Mealey was a managing director and private client advisor for BofA’s private bank.
- Pershing X, BNY Mellon’s tech arm, launched Wove, a digital wealth management platform. The platform helps with advanced data reporting and analytics, financial plan building and flexible billing. The platform also provides advisors access to direct-indexing investment strategies.
- Ritholtz Wealth Management’s venture fund, The Compound Capital Fund, participated in a $2M seed round for fintech startup Seeds, with participation from venture firm Social Leverage. The funding was led by venture capital firm Blank Ventures. Investors received equity ownership in Seeds, whose platform allows advisors to assess client values, create portfolio recommendations and manage portfolios.
- WP Financial, a Private Advisor Group affiliate, has acquired Sage Financial Design, a $95M financial planning firm. WP Financial was approached for the acquisition following the passing of Robert Sheldon Thompson, president of Sage. The business will continue to operate in Connecticut as the Simsbury branch of WP Financial.
- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group hired Pam Bruno managing director. Bruno will oversee private equity financial sponsors coverage and report to Robert Smock, head of sponsor coverage & advisory. Bruno joins from Santander, where she most recently led coverage of multi-strategy alternative firms, private equity firms, infrastructure funds, pension funds and wealth funds.
- Johara Farhadieh will join Wespath Benefits and Investments in October as deputy CIO and will succeed Dave Zellner. She joins from the Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI), where she is executive director, CIO. Wespath is faith-based pension fund and not-for-profit agency that has been serving The United Methodist Church (UMC) for over a century.
- William Harmon, Voya Financial CCO, stepped down after six years at the firm. Brad Galiney, SVP, head of health solutions distribution, client engagement, and Douglas Murray, wealth solutions and client engagement head, will co-CCOs. Harmon joined Voya in 2017 as president of retirement for the corporate market.
