StillPoint Advisors Inc., a midsize wealth advisory firm, is planning an aggressive campaign to hire wealth management teams from wire houses, banks, and other financial services companies.
The Atlanta company, which added two teams of wealth managers last year, from Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch, said it plans to add 40, in all, within seven years.
“Tremendous wealth has accumulated in a lot of cities in America,” said Brian Nygaard, whose hiring to be the president and chief executive officer of StillPoint Wealth Management was announced Thursday. “Whether that is Northern Virginia or Orange County, Calif., we are looking to strategic areas for acquisition [of wealth teams]. We are going to follow the wealth.”
StillPoint, a privately owned company with nearly $1 billion of assets, will look to build relationships with individuals and families that have $5 million to $20 million of assets. It offers family-office services such as investment strategy development, asset allocation planning, tax and estate planning, and even concierge services. The company was opened last March with a strategy to gain a foothold among high-net-worth investors by offering wealth management services that have typically been reserved for the ultra-wealthy.
Last year, StillPoint added teams in Boca Raton, Fla., from Smith Barney, and in Little Rock, Ark., from Merrill Lynch & Co. Tony Greene, the managing director of StillPoint Advisors, said the company plans to add three teams this year within its footprint in the Southeast as well as one or two teams outside that boundary.
“Growth is driven by finding quality people more than just looking at a specific market,” he said. “We have established ourselves in Boca Raton and Little Rock. The next team will be in or around Atlanta or within our existing space.”
Mr. Nygaard said many wealth advisers are looking to join a new company.
“Over the last 20 years, the consolidations in the industry have changed” it, he said. “When I got into this business, a lot of these organizations had retail wealth management as a prime objective. But these firms have been acquired and consolidated. Now, good wealth managers are working for firms whose primary objectives are investment banking and money management and fixed-income trading. StillPoint represents something of a complete rotation.”
The company “is on the front edge of a reemerging notion for adviser-focused firms,” he added.
Mr. Nygaard, a 25-year veteran of financial services, is to develop and expand the wealth management unit. He most recently was the president of H&R Block Financial Advisors. Previously, he was president of ING Advisors Network.
Mr. Greene said Mr. Nygaard’s hiring gives StillPoint instant credibility, especially for drawing wealth advisers to its platform.
“Brian is an essential component to our future success,” he said. “We have gotten up and running, but the firm will benefit tremendously from the experience he brings to the table. He helps to make us a viable option.”
Mr. Nygaard said he worked with a network of 10,000 financial advisers as president of ING Advisors Network. These are an instant group of potential wealth-team hirees, analysts said.
“When you work day-to-day with anyone, you can’t help but take note of who is unhappy, where they work, and why they are unhappy,” said Kevin Daniels, an analyst in Boston. “You are talking about a person that is walking in with hundreds of leads to a firm that is hungry to grow.”
The growth strategy is not as aggressive as it sounds, Mr. Greene said. “The hardest ones are the first two, and we have those done, and we won’t struggle to do the next four,” he said, “and then I can easily see doing the next 10.”
Mr. Greene said teams do not necessarily have to be in a high-profile wealth market to be attractive.
“Boca’s team has clients in 40 states, and Little Rock has clients in 30 states,” he said. “These are not traditionally thought of as high-net-worth markets. Wealth is a very movable piece.”
Industry consolidation and the disappearance of small regional brokers have put some wealthy people with illiquid assets in play for wealth management companies like StillPoint, Mr. Greene said.
“There are individuals with a tremendous amount of net worth that don’t have the liquidity to write a $10 million check to wealth managers like Balentine or Wilmington Trust,” he said. “We are working to change that model.”
