'One of the greatest decisions of my career': Inside Evertern Wealth's move to independence

Earlier this year longtime UBS veterans Jason Stephens and Mic Lundon took the leap to go RIA – no small undertaking, given that, between them, they had spent more than four decades at the wirehouse.

They founded Naples, Fla.-based Evertern Wealth, which is geared specifically towards the needs of their high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. But while the move has paid off, both in terms of client retention and growth, it was still a very difficult decision to leave UBS, according to Stephens.

“I have a lot of great relationships with senior management at my prior firm,” Stephens, who like Lundon, serves as the RIA’s managing partner, told InvestmentNews. “I've seen their kids grow up.”

“These firms are all great, and I don't want to say anything negative about them,” he added.

Clients’ best interests

But he and Lundon felt that the independent model was in the best interest of their clients. “We had been seeing the industry really evolving in the independent side of it, where clients have been demanding what I would say more access, more independence, and more what I would call sitting on the same side of the table as the client,” Stephens added. “Really the deciding factor is what's in the client's best interest would definitely be in our best interest.”

Certainly, the wirehouse and RIA worlds have seen plenty of mobility in recent years. Research released earlier this year by AdvizorPro noted that, between 2021 and 2025, total advisor movement accelerated sharply, with advisors switching between channels, firms and platforms. In 2025, for example, the RIA channel gained 17,453 advisors, while the wirehouse channel lost 1,864. For comparison, in the prior year, the RIA channel gained 13,736 advisors, while wirehouses lost 1,672.

For Stephens and his team, the jump from wirehouse to RIA was very much a deliberate one. “This was something that was not an overnight thought,” he said, noting that the whole process took about two-and-a-half years.  “We went down the due diligence, looked at a lot of avenues, both staying within a wirehouse community or looking at independence or a bank route or a lot of different areas,” he said. “It all circled back around to looking at the long term, what's going to build the best trust for the clients and what's going to be best overall, with the client base.”

While they opted for the RIA model, there was a year-long process of getting things up and running prior to the transition. Stephens also echoed a common sentiment about the role that technology plays in the decision to go RIA. “I think one of the things that you see within the independent world is that ability to spend what is right and have the latest and greatest technology based on, again, what the client's needs, objectives are, and customizing this to the actual client base,” he said. Specifically, Stephens highlighted the importance of up-to-date technology for client reporting.

What’s in a name?

Evertern was launched in April, with the RIA’s name chosen to reflect the “everlasting” aspect of its enduring work with clients, and also a certain migratory seabird. “The ‘tern’ came from the Arctic bird, the tern,” said Stephens. “That's a long-range navigational bird that goes out and then always comes and returns back home - that was very symbolic for a lot of our clients that may travel, they may go north for part of the year, they may do different things, but they always return back home.”

The company, which custodies with Goldman Sachs Custody Solutions, has enjoyed an almost 100% retention rate of the clients it targeted. “We wanted to really hone in on the families and the relationships - lately we've been gathering new clients,” said Stephens.

The Evertern team has also been growing – in addition to the 10 staff that made the transition from UBS, another three have been added.

So, four months on from taking the leap to RIA, how does Stephens feel? “When you look at it in the long run, it's been one of the greatest decisions of my career in a sense that you're able to build something that really resonates with clients and our client base to do the right thing,” he told InvestmentNews. “It's a long-term multifamily office that we created that will be a great thing for clients, a great thing for our team, and ourselves.”