News

From the ashes of 2008, a thriving firm was born

From the ashes of 2008, a thriving firm was born

Four Merrill wealth advisers go out on their own in the heart of the crisis to start something new On Oct. 16, 2008, the six-column subheading that crowned the Wall Street Journal cried, “Stocks Post Biggest Drop Since 1987 Crash.” Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch & Co. was...

Growing Up

AS FIRMS EXPAND, HOW SHOULD THEIR ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES EVOLVE? By Ed McCarthy The private wealth management business continues to grow rapidly. According to Financial Advisor magazine’s 2014 RIA (registered investment advisor) survey of 529 firms, total asset growth was up 20% in 2013, following 19% growth the previous...

Brokerages face exodus as advisers get better deal in indie firms

Brokerages face exodus as advisers get better deal in indie firms

NEW YORK, Aug 12 (Reuters) –The four biggest U.S. brokerage firms are facing an exodus of employees who are finding they can make more money and save on taxes by taking their clients and starting an independent firm before they retire. Prices are rising for independent brokers...

Growing Advisory Firms Learn How to Be Lean

Advisers cut paperwork to make more time for clients, prospects To really grow, a financial advisory business needs to find ways to become more efficient. Those ways often involve new technology and systems to make their expanding ranks of advisers more effective at tending to clients and their...

Advisers Go Extra Lengths to Keep Wealthy Clients

Bill Loftus, one of the founders of LLBH [d/b/a Coastal Bridge Advisors], a high-net-worth advisory firm that is part of Focus Financial, said that a couple of years back his firm engaged in a complicated and lengthy program to protect a client’s $15 million deferred compensation package in...

Protecting Deferred Comp with Credit Default Swap

Protecting Deferred Comp with Credit Default Swap

This client had been a senior executive at a Fortune 50 company. During that time, he’d socked $15 million into a nonqualified deferred compensation plan. Now, early in his retirement, he was concerned that the plan was not guaranteed. He was essentially an unsecured creditor of the corporation,...

Coastal Bridge Advisors Surpasses $1 Billion in Client Assets – Firm Doubles in Size in Less than Five Years

WESTPORT, CT, May 8, 2013 – Coastal Bridge Advisors, an independent Registered Investment Advisory firm offering a full range of family office and wealth management services to families across the country, announced today that it has eclipsed $1 billion in client assets. Based in Westport, Connecticut, with an...

How an ex-Merrill team broke free just under the BoA takeover wire and doubled its assets in four post-crash years

How an ex-Merrill team broke free just under the BoA takeover wire and doubled its assets in four post-crash years

Brooke’s Note: It often makes news when a big Merrill Lynch team breaks away to freedom. But the timing of this breakaway is particularly notable as has been its trajectory and the creativity that LLBH d/b/a Coastal Bridge Advisors has brought to bear on behalf of its clients....

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¹ This award was issued by Five Star Wealth Professional on September 29, 2022 for the time period 2/28/2022 through 9/2/2022. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. To receive this honor, a wealth manager must satisfy 10 objective eligibility and evaluation criteria.

² Award evaluated time period of January 2021 through December 2023 team AUM. Top 100 RIA category awarded June 20, 2023. Participation in this ranking is free, and AdvisorHub receives no compensation from the participating advisors.

³ This award was issued on 11/1/23 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 2/13/23 through 8/31/23. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 3,564 Connecticut-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 313 (9% of candidates) were named 2023 Five Star Wealth Managers.