Washington Wealth Launches In LA, Adds $120 Million Team From Wells Fargo

Eliane Chavagnon

2 May 2012

Middleburg, VA-based Washington Wealth Management, has taken on an advisory group with $120 million in assets and $1.4 million in revenues from Wells Fargo. Simultaneously, the firm has launched an office in Woodland Hills, LA.

The former Wells group, called Pacific Point Asset Management, consists of Ricardo Montejano, team leader, and partners David Yee and Jeff Mramor. Additionally, Christian Amato, latterly of Morgan Stanley, joined the team.

Montejano said his team came to realize that operating independently offered the “greatest number of solutions” to serve clients in a “conflict free manner.”

Whit Whitehouse, Washington Wealth director, will manage the new Woodland Hills office, which represents the firm’s third branch in California and its first in the LA market. Overall, the firm has seven offices.

“The Los Angeles market is an important market for us... Along with our growth in California, our national strategy keeps rolling on, stoked by advisor demand, with more announcements pending in the coming months from across the country,” said John Simmons, president of the firm.

In other recent developments, the SEC-registered investment advisory firm bolstered its Carmel Valley, CA office in March, with the addition of William Blanton - formerly of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney - and his Vintage West Capital Management team.

Washington Wealth was established in 2010 with the strategy of enabling advisors to take ownership of their business while providing access to investment products and services from an independent wealth management platform.