There was a time not so long ago when top advisors who served the ultra-wealthy would never have considered leaving behind the big brand names upon which they built their businesses to strike out on their own. It was a common belief that no other firms but the big brokerages could support the unique needs of their high-net-worth clients.
Yet, we’re seeing more and more top-of-the-food-chain players leave the wirehouse world to build their own firms: headliners, like Frank Ghali, who left Goldman Sachs with $12 billion in client assets; or the $5 billion New York City Merrill Lynch team led by Eric Bodner and Ben Sax; or Gary Hirschberg’s departure from Goldman Sachs with $1.4 billion in client assets. When these advisors left the wirehouse world, they took along with them clients who had investable assets in the $10 million to $50 million range.
