The latest senior moves in wealth and asset management from across the US.

Baird 
Baird has appointed Jim Galkowski as a director and financial advisor in a new branch in Rochester, Minnesota. He will be joined by senior client specialist Jill Roux.

Galkowski, who was previously at Wells Fargo, has three decades of industry experience and a client roster of around $482 million in assets under management. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance from St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota, and holds Certified Financial Planner and Certified Investment Management Associate designations.  

The new Rochester branch is Baird’s fourth private wealth management office in Minnesota and the latest addition to the firm’s steady expansion into the region. In 2019, Baird opened a private wealth management office in St Paul. The business also has private wealth management offices in Edina and Minnetonka and a fixed income and public finance presence.

Baird has more than 60 associates across all offices in Minnesota. 

The firm’s private wealth management business encompasses more than 1,300 financial advisors and has client assets of more than $215 billion.

Argent
Argent Trust Company has appointed Tom Stringfellow as chief investment strategist. Stringfellow comes to Argent from Frost Bank, where he served as president and chief investment officer of Frost Investment Advisors and as executive vice president and chief investment officer of Frost Wealth Advisors.

Stringfellow has worked in the wealth management sector for 31 years. 

During his time at Frost, Stringfellow supervised wealth advisor teams across the company’s regional offices serving high net worth clients. He also created Frost Investment Advisors, launching the Frost fund family of mutual funds.

“Tom Stringfellow is one of the most experienced and well-regarded investment professionals in our industry, and it is an honor to welcome him to Argent Trust Company, where he will be a key member of our leadership team,” said Reid Harrell, the San Antonio-based CEO of Argent Trust Company.

Stringfellow regularly comments in the media and his views have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, US News & World Report, CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg TV and Radio, Forbes and many others. He is a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences in the investment industry and has chaired the Investment Committee of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and was appointed by the AICPA board of directors as a Council-At-Large Member.

In his new role, Stringfellow will be headquartered in the Argent Trust Company’s San Antonio office but will serve as chief investment strategist for all of Argent Trust Company, including wholly-owned subsidiaries Heritage Trust Company in Oklahoma City and Ponca City, Oklahoma, and the AmeriTrust Companies in Tulsa. 

Raymond James
Raymond James has brought in financial advisors Earl Silver, Ralph Liberatore, James Hack, and Anastasios Liosatos to its employee advisor channel.

The advisors join RJA’s Deer Park, Illinois, branch, which is managed by Chad Danforth, and is part of the Illinois Complex, managed by Brian Lampsa.

Joining the financial advisors at Raymond James are Katherine Micek, relationship manager, and Jill Bradley, senior client service associate. Together, the team operates as The Silver Liberatore Group of Raymond James and joins from UBS, where they previously managed more than $1.08 billion in client assets.

Silver has been in the industry since 1970. Prior to joining Raymond James, he spent seven years as a senior vice president/senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services, seven years as a senior vice president at Merrill Lynch and more than 35 years as a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which is where he and Liberatore first formed their practice. 

Liberatore, who serves as first vice president, wealth management, has more than 34 years of financial services industry experience. Prior to joining Raymond James, he spent eight years as a senior vice president/senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services, seven years as vice president at Merrill Lynch and more than 20 years as a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. 

Hack, who serves as vice president, wealth management, brings more than 35 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Raymond James, he spent seven years at UBS Financial as a financial advisor and Chartered Retirement Plan Specialist, and three years at Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor, where he collaborated with the Silver Liberatore Group of Raymond James on market theory and portfolio construction.