A prominent team of UBS advisors have left the broker/dealer to start their own independent firm and joined the Dynasty Financial Partners network.
Phil Fiore, Jeff Farrar, Lou Gloria, Tom Gahan and Chris Foster are all founding partners in Procyon Partners, a new firm based in Shelton, Connecticut. The team of five previously formed the FDG Group at UBS and oversaw more than $8 billion in institutional assets and $400 million in private assets. Advice to institutional clients was both discretionary and nondiscretionary.
Procyon Partners will offer strategies and investment advice to institutions and high-net-worth individuals, families and business owners.
Fiore, the CEO and executive managing director of Procyon Partners, was a senior institutional consultant and a senior retirement-plan consultant at UBS for seven years.
He said the new firm will operate under two separate registered investment advisors and divisions: institutional services and private wealth management. All five partners have some degree of ownership of both practices.
“Our rationale behind the move to independence is simple,” Procyon Partners COO and Executive Managing Director Jeff Farrar said in a statement. “What is best for our clients? We are embracing our fiduciary status, and our singular goal is to enhance our ability to help clients navigate their financial life and achieve their goals by providing more in-depth solutions.”
Fiore also said that, in addition to seeking an opportunity to better serve clients, the group has always been interested in expanding its footprint, and creating an independent brokerage will facilitate that. Building a private wealth management business with a national presence was difficult at a wirehouse because the group couldn’t partner or acquire other advisory groups, Fiore said. The group’s institutional book of business already spans the country.
In addition to Dynasty Financial Partners, the firm has also partnered with Charles Schwab and institutional researchers such as Callan Associates and Envestnet, to support institutional clients.
Dynasty continues to grow its network of independent advisory firms, which now number 45. In May, the firm launched a new division called Dynasty Capital Strategies, which brought together its lending business and a new revenue-participation note program to offer more liquidity and attract more advisors.
It also recently partnered with a former Goldman Sachs team in Florida overseeing more than $1 billion in client assets.