Office address: 400 Atlantic St., 10th Floor, Stamford, CT 06901
Website: stewardpartners.com
Year established: 2013
Company type: financial services
Employees: 600+
Expertise: wealth management, investment advisory, portfolio management, retirement planning, trust and estate services, institutional consulting, insurance planning, private banking, financial planning, business solutions
Parent company: N/A
Key people: Jim Gold (CEO), Keith Taylor (chair), Hy Saporta (president), Gregor Maitland (chief risk officer), Mohan Gurupackiam (chief information officer), Gregory Banasz (CMO), Maria Condon (CoS)
Financing status: corporate-backed
Steward Partners (SP) is an employee-owned, full-service independent financial services firm based in Stamford. It serves family, institutional, and multigenerational investors through wealth planning, asset management, and private banking. The company manages nearly $50 billion in client assets across 80 offices, with 628 partners as of late 2025.
Steward Partners traces its roots to late 2012, when Mike Maurer, a former Morgan Stanley complex manager, began planning an independent firm. He and Jim Gold launched Steward Partners Global Advisory on July 3, 2013 – a date chosen to echo Independence Day.
The goal was to give wirehouse advisors a way to go independent while keeping W-2 benefits and equity ownership.
The company welcomed its first advisor in September 2013 and set up a clearing and custody relationship with Raymond James. Hy Saporta, now president and COO, joined as co-founder in early 2014, and a board of directors was formed that same year.
Assets crossed the $1 billion mark by 2015, and SP registered as an RIA with the SEC the following year. Maurer left the firm in 2017, and Gold and Saporta took the reins from there. Private equity firm Cynosure Group also committed a minority investment in 2019.
That outside capital opened the door to larger moves. Steward Partners acquired Umpqua Investments in 2020, which gave it its own broker/dealer for the first time. The deal also led to a new custody relationship with Goldman Sachs.
Then in 2021, The Pritzker Organization also made a minority investment in SP. By 2022, the company had launched a multi-custodial model.
In February 2024, the firm officially dropped "Global Advisory" from its name. It rebranded to simply Steward Partners, with a new spinning globe logo that nods to its origins. The three affiliates operating under the Steward Partners umbrella are:
All three are affiliates and separately operated. None is the parent of the others.
The company also acquired Longbridge Wealth Advisors, an Ohio-based RIA with $481 million in assets. This strengthened its Legacy Division and expanded services for clients at or near retirement.
That same year, SP earned an excellence award at the 2025 InvestmentNews Awards in the Thrivent Award for Employer of Choice category. This award recognizes firms that build strong workplace cultures and stand out at attracting and keeping top advisor talent.
InvestmentNews also recognized Steward Partners across several other programs in 2025:
The company offers a full-service lineup built around fiduciary advice and independent wealth management:
Steward Partners also operates a multi-custodial model, giving advisors access to multiple clearing and custody platforms. Every partner in the company holds equity, which ties advisor interests directly to client outcomes.
SP describes itself as a "family" model built on its founding values. It backs this up through an equity structure where every partner holds ownership:
Steward Partners also provides its employees with these benefits:
Beyond the workplace, SP states that its teams actively support local organizations and community initiatives. It calls this effort "Good Stewards in the Community."
Jim Gold is the CEO, founding partner, and board member of Steward Partners. Gold started his career at Smith Barney in 1995 as a financial advisor and spent 18 years there and at its successor firms. His most recent role before SP was executive director at Morgan Stanley. Gold attended Stonehill College.
The rest of the leadership team at Steward Partners includes:
This group oversees the company's operations, risk management, technology, and growth strategy. The team has been in place through several of SP's major milestones, including its rebrand and expansion to 80 offices.
In late 2025, SP brought in $475 million from Ares Management, a global investment firm, through expanded lending and a minority equity stake. The deal keeps control in the hands of the company's partners. With the fresh capital, it plans to ramp up recruiting, pursue acquisitions, and upgrade its technology to compete at a larger scale.
And that capital is already being put to work. In February 2026, Steward Partners added a three-advisor team from brokerage firm Stifel, bringing in roughly $630 million in client assets from Macon. The move builds out SP's Southeast presence and shows how its partner-owned model keeps attracting experienced teams seeking more independence.
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