Steward Partners, an employee-owned network of financial advisory practices overseeing some $32 billion in client assets, added 14 advisors in the year’s first two months.
Steward established a new office in Nashville, Tenn., acquiring Seven Arrows Financial, an eight-person team led by Luke Aull, which has affiliated as partners under a 1099 contract. Previously, the hybrid firm affiliated with SageSpring Wealth Partners for advisory services and Raymond James for brokerage.
Recruiting a pair of J.P. Morgan advisors north of Atlanta created another new Steward location in Kennesaw, Ga. Frank Smith, a vice president and financial advisor, and Patrick Connolly, an investment associate, joined Steward as W-2 employees.
Four more W-2 recruits, one in New York City and three in Mobile, Ala., brought Steward to more than $1 billion in new assets. Christina Munn joined as managing director in New York, and three new partners moved from Wells Fargo in Alabama—Laureen Lynn, Doug Whitmore and Katherine Pitman.
Founded in 2013, Steward has recently been focused on providing optionality to attract advisory talent. The firm has W-2, RIA-only and 1099 affiliation models, established a division dedicated to acquisitions and went multicustodial with the addition of Pershing last year. A 2023 brand “refresh” wrapped up in February when Steward Partners dropped Global Advisory from its name.
“We believe that advisors should feel empowered when they come to our firm, and we are proud of the fact that we can encapsulate that,” Steward Head of Recruiting and Divisional President Jeff Gonyo said in a statement. “This is evident of the new optionality that we have established in the last year and is something we deliberately constructed to ensure that Steward Partners is the right fit for any advisor.”
Steward has grown assets from $50 million to $32 billion over the last decade, initially through the recruitment of wirehouse breakaways. The firm is majority-owned by employees and backed by capital from Cynosure Group and the Pritzker Organization, as well as a $140 million credit facility.
In 2023, Steward added more than $6 billion through recruitment, primarily of breakaway wirehouse and bank-based advisors. According to Monday’s announcement, the firm “expects to duplicate the success of the recruiting flow and have substantial M&A activity moving forward into the second quarter of the year.”