Former Citigroup advisors say clients are best served by independent advisors. Former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB) brokers Eric Thurber, Fred Molfino, and Brett Sharkey have founded a Menlo Park, Calif.-based investment advisory called Three Bridge Wealth Advisors. The new firm's three managing directors had led MSSB's Venture Group, which managed about $740 million, mainly for venture capitalists, private-equity players and their firms.

Prior to the June 2009 advent of MSSB -- a joint venture between Morgan Stanley's private-client division and Citigroup's Smith Barney -- Molfino, Sharkey and Thurber ran the Venture Group as part of Citi's elite Family Office team.

Three Bridge's principals and the three support staffers they brought with them from MSSB opted for independence to provide their clients with more transparency and to eliminate conflicts of interest, according to Thurber -- and they did it even though it meant turning away some lucrative offers from rival wirehouses and saying no to an attractive bonus on offer from MSSB for sticking around.

Jeopardy

"The independent structure is the best way we know to serve the unique investment needs of our extraordinary clients," says Molfino, who adds that he and his partners started looking into going independent in October 2008, when Citi's fast-falling share price started raising alarms about the viability of the custodian of their clients' assets. "As a boutique firm, Three Bridge is in a position to provide a level of service that's simply not attainable at a larger wirehouse brokerage."

In the 10 days or so since Three Bridge's launch, the firm's principals say their clients -- a financially sophisticated bunch -- have expressed almost unanimous support, which should help in their efforts to re-paper their book of business.

Three Bridge has selected Schwab Institutional as custodian -- the new firm credits it with back-office support in transitioning client assets -- as well as for banking and trust services. On the investment front, Three Bridge aims to bring in several research sources -- -- with a view to prividing "true open architecture," according to Sharkey, who mentions Fortigent and Altegris as investment-platform providers Three Bridge has on or near its short list.

Three Bridge will maintain its focus on VC and PE firms, their principals and their investors. As a new wrinkle, it plans to step up its retirement-plan offerings and provide defined-benefit and defined-contribution services to established venture firms.

"We have been keenly focused on this market for the last ten years, and we understand the complexity of the investment- planning process
for the families and for the individuals," says Thurber. "The special value we bring is a comprehensive, value-based approach to wealth planning that
consists of a well-defined process and a fully-collaborative team effort, or what we call 'holistic wealth advising.'" -FWR

This article features additional reporting by Thomas Coyle.

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