Sanctuary Wealth is launching a new effort to expand its reach into the Latin American wealth management space and is opening an office in Miami to accelerate that growth, the company announced Monday.
The newly announced Sanctuary Global will work with international clients, particularly those in Latin America, with some overlapping interests in the United States.
The new office will be co-led by Sanctuary Securities President Bob Walter who will shepherd the new initiative’s offshore expansion, while Sanctuary Advisors President Vince Fertitta will oversee domestic-based advisors.
Sanctuary Wealth founder and CEO Jim Dickson claimed that many international advisors had “largely felt unappreciated” when working in the wirehouses, with parent companies seeking to exit the international wealth management market even as offshore investing has grown in prominence and cross-border family wealth continues to rise.
In January, Wells Fargo & Co. announced it was pulling out of serving international clients in its wealth management division. That followed decisions by other wirehouses to scale back their services to foreign clients, partially in the wake of stricter anti-money-laundering regulations around the world.
Other firms, like Indianapolis-based Sanctuary, see an opportunity to fill that gap.
“We are making a major commitment to serve the global market, and Miami is the perfect hub for that business unit,” Dickson said. “The response to our global offering has been phenomenal to date, greatly exceeding our high expectations."
Last year, Sanctuary recruited Merrill Lynch veteran Susan Graybeal to build out the wealth management and product platform for Sanctuary's advisors serving non-U.S. clients.
As the firm builds up the new headquarters for Sanctuary Global in Miami, the company also plans to open offices throughout Latin America within the coming months. The company’s continued to grow with acquisitions, supported in part by a $50 million investment from Italian asset management company Azimut Group last year.
In early March, an Ohio-based firm managing $435 million in client assets joined Sanctuary Wealth after Merrill Lynch closed its branch office, while a father/son team with $235 million in AUM that was also based in Ohio joined the firm late last month.
Sanctuary Wealth is not the only company trying to capitalize on the wirehouse retreat from the international wealth management space; less than two months after Wells Fargo announced its decision to unload its international wealth management business, Snowden Lane attracted the Ureña Wealth Management Group from the wirehouse. Half of the Miami-based firm’s business was focused on offshore accounts and international clients, primarily based in Latin America.
Sanctuary Wealth is a network of 45 partner firms with $15.0 billion in assets under advisement.