The latest monthly collection of moves in North America's wealth management sector.

RBC Wealth Management-US added the Focus Wealth Management team to its Palm Beach Gardens branch. The seven-person team joined from UBS. The team is led by managing directors and financial advisors James "Trey" Mahoney III and Peter Foley Jr, alongside Justin Warzala, senior vice president and financial advisor. They are supported by Lori DeJesus, senior business associate, Will Garrett, investment associate, Paula Echeverry, registered client associate, and Thomas Cooper, client associate.

Valeon Partner, a merchant bank, appointed Lawson Smith, former managing director at Houlihan Lokey, as MD responsible for overseeing the firm’s market strategies.

Financial advisors Frank Patton and Kimberlee Mott joined Balmville Wealth Group, an LPL Financial-aligned wealth management firm, through LPL's broker-dealer and RIA platforms. The pair, formerly of PacK Financial, moved from Cetera. The managers are based in Lexington, Kentucky.

Cresset expanded its Santa Barbara office, and hired managing director, wealth advisor Cory Boggs. This is a newly formed role. Boggs has more than 15 years of experience advising entrepreneurs, business owners, and multi-generational families of wealth. Prior to joining Cresset, Boggs served as a wealth manager with Manchester Capital Management,

Mesirow appointed Linda K Myers to join its board of directors. Myers retired from law practice in 2022 after more than 30 years as a corporate partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where she served on the firm's global executive management committee for over a decade.

PNC Financial Services Group, which provides services including wealth management, appointed Christian Winward as chief information security officer. He reports to Debbie Guild, head of technology at PNC. Winward, who joined from FirstBank, which became part of PNC earlier this year, served as chief information officer and sat on the bank's senior leadership team. Winward succeeded Susan Koski, who left the bank earlier this year.

Nathan Hummel joined Rosenberg & Parker as the firm's financial institutions practice leader. He leads a team advising banks, insurers, institutional investors and corporate clients on risk transfer, bank-fronted surety, standby letters of credit, guarantees, trade finance and credit risk distribution. Hummel previously held senior positions in trade finance, capital markets and syndications at Allianz Trade, Capital One, WSFS/Bryn Mawr, Commerzbank and Morgan Stanley. 

UBS said private wealth advisors Jesse Flatt, Lea Ann Drew, Brandon Burns and Carlos Rodriguez joined in Tampa, Florida, from Bank of America Private Bank. The team serves ultra-high net worth families and business owners. The appointees joined UBS's Greater Florida/Gulf Coast market, part of the firm's Southeast region, reporting to Tampa Bay senior market director Jack Heiss.

The firm also appointed former Morgan Stanley figure Samuel Duckett as a financial advisor in its Austin, Texas office. Duckett reports to market executive Tommy Stacy and market director Jeff Bidstrup.

Citi Private Bank has appointed a senior industry executive, Yannick Archambault, as market executive for its Canada business. He reports to Chris Biotti, head of North America at the private bank, with a matrix to Raymond Gatcliffe, chief country officer for Canada. Archambault brings more than 30 years of wealth management leadership experience in Canada, the US and Asia. Most recently, Archambault served as president, private wealth at Nicola Wealth. 

Cetera named Craig Bartlett community leader of Cetera Financial Specialists (CFS), a collection of tax-focused financial professionals within Cetera. Bartlett brings more than 30 years of leadership experience across wealth management, broker-dealer, insurance and advisory platforms, including Choreo, Creative Planning/Wipfli Financial Advisors, US Bank, UBS, Transamerica and Allstate.

AlTi Global hired Cesar Pachon to lead its Miami office. Pachon is a senior wealth advisor with more than two decades of experience serving ultra-high net worth individuals, families and entrepreneurs. He was a founding partner of a multi-family office in South Florida and has advised internationally-connected families on wealth planning.

RBC Wealth Management – US added the KPM Wealth Advisory Group to its Dallas branch. The six-person team from Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, previously oversaw nearly $1.6 billion in client assets. The KPM Wealth Advisory Group includes Donald Kinsey, managing director – financial advisor; Travis Moss, managing director – FA; Matthew Pickett, managing director – FA; Shawn Ezzo, senior financial associate; Stephanie Mareth, senior financial associate; and Jacob Gross, client associate.

Cresset appointed Dheeraj Soni as chief technology officer; most recently, he was MD and head of trading at the firm. Before that, Soni served in senior technology leadership roles at JP Morgan Advisors and First Republic Bank. 

Akerman, a law firm, appointed Adam von Poblitz, former Citi Private Bank global head of wealth advisory, as a partner and chair of its family office practice, based in Miami. Before joining Akerman, von Poblitz spent nearly two decades at Citi Private Bank. 

Summitry, a San Francisco Bay Area-registered investment advisor (RIA), appointed Summitry president Alex Katz and chief operating officer Conor Wilkes as co-CEOs. They succeeded Colin Higgins who, after 22 years of leadership, moved into the role of executive-chairman.

Former Dentons partner Jeremy Gerch joined as a senior vice president of the Baird Trust Wealth and Family Office. 

Eton Advisors, a multi-family office, appointed Molly Baumberger as senior wealth manager and member of the leadership team. She is based in Miami, Florida. Baumberger most recently served as senior vice president and senior relationship manager at a global bank and trust company.

Family Office Partners, a boutique multi-family office and advisory platform backed by wealth manager Elevation Point, appointed Patrick Keller and Andrew C Keller to lead the firm’s expansion in Houston. They joined from Inscription Capital.

PEI Group, a source of data and intelligence for investment professionals across private markets, appointed Georgene Huang as chief product officer. She is based in the firm’s New York office, and reports to CEO Edouard Tavernier. Formerly at Fortune, Huang most recently served as chief product and data officer, and previously held senior leadership positions at Bloomberg and Dow Jones. She also founded and led her own company for more than seven years.

Global business advisory group EisnerAmper said Tim Drozd joined as a partner and the chief financial officer. 

Wealth planning firm Choreo promoted Ray Morrill to chief wealth officer. Most recently, he was senior director, wealth management at Choreo. 

Fiduciary Trust International appointed Sue Wilchusky as the firm’s chief administrative officer. Wilchusky, who is based in the firm’s office in Radnor, Pennsylvania, reports to Adam Spector, chief executive officer. Craig Richards remains as chief operating officer and head of tax. Prior to this, Wilchusky worked at Brandywine Global, where she served as chief operating officer.

William Blair Investment Management appointed one of its senior figures, Olga Bitel, as chief investment strategist, a newly-created role. She is based in Chicago.

Cerity Partners appointed Will Peng as its first chief innovation officer. Peng, who has a background as an entrepreneur, executive, and product leader, most recently served as CEO of Northstar, a fintech company he founded.

Prairie Wealth Advisors, an RIA, appointed Mike Finnegan as chief investment officer, based in Omaha. He previously served in senior leadership roles at ManchesterStory Fund Management, Guggenheim Investment Management and Principal Financial Group.

Kestra Financial added Austen Karr and promoted Jack Roller, both serving as business development consultants. Karr, who came from Raymond James, where he served as vice president for nearly 11 years, covers Southern California, Colorado, Nevada, and Hawaii. Roller joined Kestra in 2022 as a financial planning analyst. Most recently, he served as a senior business development consultant. In his new role, he leads recruitment across Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Alaska.

Katten, the international law firm, appointed Josh Kaufman as a partner in its capital markets practice. He serves as a managing partner in its new Miami office.

Arch, an AI-powered platform for private market portfolios, appointed Keith Soura as chief technology officer. Soura joined Arch from mortgage fintech Better.com, where he led engineering. Previously, he served as CTO of proptech firm VERO. 

Raymond James roundup
Raymond James Financial Services, the independent advisor channel of Raymond James, added a five-person advisory team based in Venice, Florida. The team joined from Stifel: Jim Tate, managing partner and Kelley Tate, partner. It also includes their sons Jake Tate, financial advisor, and Alex Tate, client service associate, along with Imelda Locke, client service associate.

Laetitia Boyle was named division director for the Central division of Raymond James Financial Services’ independent contractor division (ICD).

The independent advisor channel of Raymond James welcomed a four-advisor team from Stifel led by Kenneth A Sanchez, according to Theresa Schnetz, the channel's Western division director. The team also includes Lee Wolfe, Mitchell Kauffman and KaNoi Lam. 

Raymond James welcomed financial advisors Richard Knight, Brent Detweiler and Phillip Margy to the firm's independent advisor channel. The team came from Truist Investment Services. 

LPL Financial roundup
LPL Financial said the advisors of HighWater Wealth joined its broker-dealer and RIA platform, aligned with Quotient Advisor Partners, an existing firm supporting LPL-affiliated advisors. The team, which reported serving about $2.4 billion in advisory assets, was formerly with US Bank. Based in San Diego, HighWater Wealth serves high net worth individuals and families. The team consists of Kristian Forster, Mike Rookus, Falko Hörnicke, Tim Davidson, and Brian Rissman.

LPL also said the financial advisors of Buell Wealth Management joined its broker-dealer and RIA platform. The team, which reported serving about $370 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets, joined from Buell Securities Corporation. Based in Glastonbury, Connecticut, Buell Wealth Management is led by CEO Chris Berris, who has more than 40 years of industry experience and has served in his leadership role since 1997. 

LPL Financial said financial advisor Brian Lubel affiliated with its supported independence model, LPL Independent Advisor Network, to support his existing independent practice, Cypress Point Wealth Partners.

LPL Financial appointed David Logsdon to join its broker-dealer and RIA, based in the Sun Valley, Idaho area. Logsdon joined from Wells Fargo Advisors.