March 19, 2025
Louis Diamond Quoted
By Karmen Alexander and Mason Braswell
The &Partners model incorporates “independence with support and a community leadership team of likeminded folks,” said Louis Diamond, an industry recruiter who is not contracted to help the firm hire. It has convinced brokers from both employee and independent broker-dealers, including Wells Fargo Financial Network, to join.
“I can’t think of a firm that has attracted so much in AUM after starting from zero in such a short period of time,” Diamond said. “Many competitors who have similar strategies and have been around for years are in a similar spot or smaller.”
One challenge for &Partners will be to expand its recruiting outside of the pool of mostly Wells and Edward Jones brokers who represent relatively easier pickings because they remain loyal to Kowach, Alexander and others such as former Edward Jones executive Randy Bradshaw, Diamond added.
“That will be the true test of whether the firm and the business model can keep scaling,” Diamond said. Managers who have been competing for multi-million-dollar wirehouse producers have said they are not often running up against &Partners in recruiting conversations.
By comparison, Rockefeller Capital Management, which was relaunched in 2018 from the Standard Oil founder’s family office, had grown to around $150 billion in assets, including a portion at its asset management division, and 170 teams by the end of 2024. Independent brokerage Sanctuary Wealth, which launched in 2018, has 120 teams and $48 billion in assets, according to its website.
&Partners, which clears and custodies with a Fidelity Investments subsidiary, will also have to add larger teams to hit its asset target. On Thursday, it moved closer to that goal by hiring its largest team, a group of Wells Fargo Financial Network brokers managing $2 billion in client assets.
