Snowden Lane Partners, a hybrid, advisor-owned wealth advisory firm based in New York City, announced this week that it has brought in Jackie Green as senior partner and managing director. She will form The Green Group at Snowden headquarters.
Snowden Lane also announced that it has added TD Ameritrade to complement its existing custodial agreement with Pershing, with the goal of attracting advisors on the inchoate TD-Schwab platform.
“Pershing has been a great partner of ours over the years,” said Snowden Lane President and COO Greg Franks. “Now that we are at a little more than $9 billion in assets, we just felt it was wise to add on another custodian—and TD, having been acquired by Schwab, is really a gateway for us into Schwab as they fully integrate in January. So, we just thought that, strategically, it opens up another avenue for us.”
Given the work that goes into establishing a multicustodial platform, Franks said not to expect any other additions for at least a few years.
“You just have to be very careful,” he said. “It's easy to say you're going do it, but to do it professionally is another thing. So, I think we'll probably take a breather now that we have two.”
Green is the latest advisor to come to Snowden Lane from boutique banking firm Fieldpoint Private, which she joined in 2017 following almost 18 years at Bank of America. She is the 10th advisor to join the firm this year—bringing combined assets of around $1.4 billion—and the ninth to join from Fieldpoint. (The 10th came from Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management.)
Green is one of numerous advisors who have left Fieldpoint following the collapse of a deal announced in early 2022 under which the Merchant Investment Management–backed Summit Financial would have acquired Fieldpoint's $1.5 billion investment advisory arm. Instead, the bank closed its wealth management practice, prompting an exodus of industry professionals.
“As I considered my career options, I felt Snowden Lane’s platform and values offered me the best opportunity to continue offering my clients a personal touch, in addition to sound financial advice,” said Green, noting that the firm “has garnered respect across the wealth management community.”
“We have had a terrific relationship with Fieldpoint for many years,” said Franks. “They were very similar to us philosophically and in structure: They were a private firm, boutique, very upscale, and their advisors were very high quality. All of which fits perfectly with us. And Fieldpoint made a strategic decision to exit the wealth management piece of their business and really focus on private banking. So, their advisors were in a position where they had to leave, and, thankfully, the majority of them chose Snowden Lane Partners.
“It was a tremendous amount of competition, of course,” he added.
Attracting much of its talent from the institutional space, Snowden Lane has built a national brand since it was founded in 2011. After recruiting 13 advisors and more than $2 billion in client assets last year, the firm secured an expanded $50 million credit facility from Orix Corp. this June, enabling further recruitment efforts.
“The last two and a half years or so, even though it was the pandemic, turned out to be probably the two best years we've had in the history of the firm,” said Franks. “In the last 24 months, we've added 25 new advisors, which has been fabulous, and they brought with them approximately $4 billion in new assets to our firm. So, we've really experienced tremendous growth.”
After bringing on another new advisor this year, Franks said, “Maybe we’ll take a slight pause and digest all the new accounts and new advisors and onboarding. And then, I think we’d like to replicate the last two years again in 2023.”
At this stage in its growth, Franks told WealthManagement.com that Snowden Lane has begun “actively” pursuing larger, independent firms—a few of which are in preliminary negotiations—but said that nothing has been finalized.
“We're really constructing something for the long term,” he said. “And we're proud of what we've built. So, we just want to continue to do that and not lose our way. We're very focused on a boutique feel and culture, and all of our advisors own equity in the company; they own a significant amount of the firm along with us.”
To date, Snowden Lane has 128 total employees, 73 of whom are financial advisors, across 12 offices around the country: San Diego and Pasadena, Calif.; New Haven, Conn.; Coral Gables, Fla; Chicago; Pittsburgh; Baltimore, Salisbury and Bethesda, Md.; San Antonio; Buffalo, N.Y., as well as its New York City headquarters.