Rockefeller Plants Flag in Chicago, Hires $3.8 Million Merrill Team
Rockefeller Capital Management has signed a $3.8 million Merrill Lynch team to open its first private wealth management outpost in the Midwest.
Garrett W. Dahm, the third broker on their team who is still in its Financial Advisor Development training program, remains at the wirehouse, he confirmed.
Neither Colwyn nor Mendelson, who began their brokerage careers at Smith Barney in 1998 and 1999, respectively, before joining Merrill in July 2008, returned calls for comment on their decision.
They are the 40th team to join the former “family office” of the Rockefellers since the New York firm was relaunched in 2017 to service wealthy investors nationally under former Merrill Lynch president and Morgan Stanley Wealth Management head Greg Fleming, with backing from hedge fund Viking Capital.
The lion’s share of the firm’s approximately 80 brokers worked at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. Rockefeller Private Wealth President Chris Randzazzo, who also worked earlier at Morgan Stanley and Merrill, has previously said he aims for a stable of around 200 advisors before 2025.
Despite the constraints of the pandemic, Rockefeller this year has attracted 25 teams this year, promoting the cachet of its name and access to alternative investments and offerings from a fledgling investment banking team that Fleming is building. In September, it hired three Merrill brokers in Walnut Creek, CA, who were managing $900 million, and a 34-year Morgan Stanley advisor and her son in Dallas. Just before Labor Day it lured UBS Wealth Management teams in Houston and Dallas, and a Merrill Lynch trio in California with a $900 million book of business.
“There is a steadily growing need across the country for entrepreneurial advisors who can offer customized solutions to clients with complex financial lives and challenges,” Randazzo said in a prepared statement about Colwyn and Mendelson.
Colwyn worked as a lawyer before shifting to wealth management, and Mendelson was a credit analyst.
A spokeswoman at Merrill Lynch did not immediately return a request for comment about their departure.
Will anyone be left at Merrill to turn out the lights?
Yes. There will be thousands of FAs and a few trillion of client assets.
Lance,
The FA’s that will be left are the ones who are too lazy to leave, who are satisfied with a “sell to the mass” mentality, and/or the ones who came up by starting in a bank branch where all they know is what the CIO jams down their throats.
Firms like Rockefeller and other strong RIA’s will continue to pick off corner office teams from ML, and these FA’s will take 80% plus with them.
Sounds like you are defending the BOA strategy. Simple question. Can you find one advisor who left ML who is sorry they left? I have been gone 4 years and thankful every dsy
Congrats on your invitation to Rockefeller. It makes me happy every time a great new team joins and the firm’s momentum grows. We are all building something really special together. You’re going to love it here.
Merrill released comp for next year? Salary + bonus?