A roundup of the moves in the North America wealth management sector during October 2022.

Nicolet National Bank, the operating entity of New York-listed Nicolet Bankshares, appointed Barry Martzahl as managing director of its wealth management business. Martzahl, a 37-year industry veteran, has advised individuals and families, corporate retirement plans, and endowments and foundations. His son Eric, who has also joined the Nicolet Wealth Management Team, has eight years of experience and is a Certified Financial Planner.

Focus Financial Partners, the US-based wealth management partnership, announced that a Louisiana-based advisor, Paul Guidry, had joined one of Focus’s partner firms, Summit Financial Wealth Advisors. Guidry, who has more than 20 years of experience of providing wealth management services to individuals and families, specializes in financial planning and investment management. 

Fiduciary Trust International appointed William Y Yun as a senior advisor, who returned to the firm he first joined in 1992. He was a portfolio manager for eight years before rising to executive vice president running the firm’s global equity division. Now Yun is concentrating on growing business in South Florida. Based in Palm Beach, Yun has a 30-year tenure with Fiduciary Trust International and its parent company, Franklin Templeton. 

Among other roles, Yun served as president of Fiduciary Trust International from 2000 until 2005, during which time he helped the firm to rebuild following the 9/11 attacks.Yun, who has been a member of Fiduciary Trust International’s board of directors since 2000, subsequently served in various roles at Franklin Templeton including president of Franklin Templeton Institutional, president of Franklin Templeton’s Alternatives business, and most recently with Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions as head of advisory and wealth strategy.

Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala appointed Goldman Sachs’ Rudolfo Perez to take over her role at the top of her family office. The family office, Trasalia Capital, which is based in Mexico City, focuses on areas such as venture capital and private equity. Her family business, Cervecería Modelo, is renowned for brands including Corona. Perez, who has been co-head of Goldman Sachs’ Mexico operations since 2017, has worked in investment banking for 23 years.

Truist Wealth brought in Carroll Swenson as regional managing director and 14 new teammates with a combined AuM of $2 billion to the Virginia marketplace.

Separately, Nancy Mitchel and her team, which manages $590 million in client assets, joined Truist Wealth teammates Jim Mills and Colby Murphy to form The Mills, Murphy, Mitchel Group of Truist Investment Services, in Virginia. The joiners included: Kim Anderson, center trust advisor; Paul Carder, investment manager; Kathy Clay, financial consultant; Kelly Cook, wealth advisor; Catrina Crowe, advice and planning strategist; Danielle Daye, center trust advisor; Chris Johnson, senior trust advisor; Patrick Johnson, wealth advisor; Diondra Lee, fiduciary support specialist; Richard McNeil, wealth advisor; Nancy Mitchel, financial advisor; Laura Setliff, client service associate; Lorraine Smith, wealth support specialist; Alyssa Stafford, center trust advisor; Brooke Tiller, wealth advisor; Justin Trent, senior trust advisor; and Michael Walhfeldt, center trust advisor.

Sanctuary Wealth welcomed Valorous Advisors, led by its founder Christopher D Cervantes. Based in Plano, Texas, the team was previously with Merrill Lynch as Cervantes Group & Associates, advising on about $564 million with a specialty in retirement plan consulting.

Cervantes joined Merrill Lynch in 1999 after graduating from Baylor University, rising to managing director, wealth management advisor, defined contribution investment consultant. Joining him were Cervantes’ former Merrill teammates senior wealth planner Tracey A Gledhill and relationship manager Larry Jackson. 

Ameriprise Financial added two advisors to its branch channel with $375 million in combined client assets. The advisors were Chad Villagomez (formerly of Wells Fargo in Wayzata, Minnesota) and John DeMarco (formerly of Wells Fargo in Orland Park, Illinois). Villagomez was joined by Greg Siers, registered practice associate. 

Private Advisor Group named president Frank Smith as its new CEO, in a planned transition from Robert “R.J.” Moore, 60, who has served as CEO since November 2020. Before joining Private Advisor Group, Smith was director of investment solutions at CUNA Mutual Group. Smith spent 13 years as a leader at LPL Financial in business development, enterprise relationship management and consulting for the RIA solutions division. Moore, who joined Private Advisor Group in 2020, hired Smith in 2021 and promoted him to president in April 2022.

Raymond James welcomed financial advisor Mike Glennon to Pinnacle Asset Management, a business that is affiliated with the Raymond James Financial Institutions Division. Glennon, who previously managed about $133 million in client assets at Truist, provides financial guidance to a diverse range of clients, from individuals and families to businesses. With more than 17 years’ financial sector experience, most recently at Truist, Glennon was an advisor and private real estate investor at Merrill Lynch and a NASDAQ trading manager for Fidelity.
 

UBS Wealth Management USA appointed a three-person team, Sequoia Partners, who joined the firm in Irvine, California. The team, led by Financial Advisors Howard L Woo and Luke C Schell, also includes client service associate Cyntia Lopez. Woo joined from Merrill where he was a branch manager in Irvine and was co-founding partner of his team. Schell, also from Merrill, has more than 20 years of industry experience. Lopez is a client service associate on the Sequoia Partners team.

Financial advisor Cate Grinney joined the independent channel of Ameriprise Financial from Edward Jones in Faribault, Minnesota with $331 million in client assets. Grinney’s team includes financial advisor Kailee Davis and support staff Beth Sammon and Bridgette Hallcock. The team, which operates under the name Cate Grinney & Kailee Davis Group, is supported by Ameriprise franchise field vice president Marcus Ranger.  

Argent Trust Company, a subsidiary of Argent Financial Group, appointed Michael Lanese as senior portfolio manager. He is based in Dallas and joined from Fluent Financial, where he served as portfolio manager. 

Investall, the New York-based fintech that provides risk analytics and investment technology to wealth managers and consumers, appointed Chris Valpone as chief revenue officer. Prior to joining Investall, Valpone was co-head of global sales for ION Markets, a provider of trading, analytics, treasury, and risk management solutions for capital markets, commodities, and treasury management.

Global business advisory firm EisnerAmper appointed Noelene Sheridan as tax partner in its private client services group. Sheridan has 30 years’ expertise including tax services for commercial and residential real estate owners as well as for high net worth individuals and their families. Her expertise includes income and estate tax planning, providing tax advisory services to closely held businesses, and reviews of individual, partnership, trust, gift and estate tax returns.

Raymond James added a group of five financial advisors collectively managing $370 million in client assets to its employee advisor channel. The team includes Alphonse “Al” Weber, and Erin Weber from Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania and Sanjay Beach, Kalpana Beach, and Makis Beach, from Westlake, Ohio. 

CAIS, an alternative investment platform, expanded the CAIS Advisory Council. The council members include Michael Glennon, vice president and head of private investments at Mariner Wealth Advisors; Gary Quinzel, director of portfolio consulting of the Wealth Enhancement Group; David Canter, president at Bluespring Wealth Partners; and Dean Zayed, founder and CEO at Brookstone.

Argent Trust Company appointed Collins Compere as Birmingham, Alabama, market president. Compere. who serves as the senior leader of trust, estate and retirement services administration for his market, reports to Argent Trust Company president Ken Alderman. Prior to this, Compere was senior VP  and trust advisor at Regions Bank. He has worked in the sector for almost three decades.

Raymond James welcomed financial advisors Nicholas Conner, Kevin Latta, Michael Conti and Jamie Howells to its employee advisor channel. The team, which is based in Novi, Michigan, goes by the name of Stone Manor Wealth Advisors of Raymond James. It includes client service associates Timothy Holly, Kimberly Reid and Kimberly Ybarra, as well as investment portfolio associate Adriana Soto, CFP® and business coordinator George Kourtis. The group joined from Merrill Lynch.

Swiss private bank Julius Baer made several appointments for its business serving clients in the Americas, such as Brazil.

Lucas Rizzi joined as chief operations and chief technology officer. Rizzi previously worked at ItaĂş Private Bank where he was head of customer digital experience.

Greice Rabelo joined in September as senior relationship manager. Rabelo previously worked at BNP Paribas where she was head of Belo Horizonte’s private banking business.

Antonio Monteiro, previously responsible for single and multi-family offices at ASA Investments, joined in September as a senior RM.

Laura Drummond Correa, who was previously at XP Investimentos, and Kevin Liu, who previously worked at Messem Investimentos, joined Julius Baer in October as RMs.

In sub-region Mexico and Hispanic Americas, a new team of RMs joined Julius Baer to strengthen its Mexico desk in Zurich:

Miguel Caballero joined as team head, reporting to Marc Furler, market head for Mexico. Cabellero was formerly team leader of the Mexican desk at BBVA.

Martín Giménez Pina came on board as senior relationship manager. He was previously a senior RM at BBVA covering Mexico and other markets in South America.

Carlos Fernández, who was previously at BBVA, joined Julius Baer as an RM. Fernando Caro Sierra also joined as assistant RM from BBVA where he was an account manager. 

Pritzker Private Capital, a family direct investing firm, named Marisa Vavruska and Spenser Brown as vice presidents in its investment team.   

Vavruska, who was promoted from senior associate, supported three companies across the PPC family of companies including the completion of six add-on acquisitions. Prior to this, she worked in investment banking at Citigroup after starting her career as a management consultant at PwC. 

Brown joined PPC as a vice president focused on the manufactured products sector after receiving his MBA  from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Before this, Brown was an associate at Madison Dearborn Partners after beginning his career in investment banking at Citigroup.