&Partners draws Upstate New York team with $864 million in assets

&Partners has added another advisory practice to its growing roster in the East Coast.

The hybrid RIA founded by a group of wirehouse veterans led by David Kowach announced that it has welcomed Foothills Legacy Wealth Management, a seven-person team serving clients in Upstate New York, with prehire assets under management of $864 million.

Foothills Legacy Wealth Management was founded by Andrew Cook and Gerard Mehan, two experienced advisors from Wells Fargo, who serve as co-founders and managing director and director, respectively. The practice provides wealth planning that combines investment management, retirement planning, tax planning and estate planning for clients across multiple life stages.

The rest of the team includes Christopher Cassidy as partner and director, Joanne Windas as partner and director, Brandie Mulligan as director of planning, Courtney Fagan as financial consultant, and Susan Mallery and Gregory St. Denis as senior client relationship managers.

A recruiting pace that hasn't slowed

The Foothills Legacy addition follows a stretch of rapid growth for the hybrid RIA. As of June 30, &Partners had grown to 117 advisor practices and roughly $58 billion in combined assets under management.

That trajectory builds on a run of additions disclosed earlier in the summer. Last month, the firm brought on three advisor teams in a single week, Wavewood Private Wealth, Brookside Wealth Advisors and Three Points Wealth Planners, which managed roughly $1.6 billion in combined prehire assets from Wells Fargo.

In May, &Partners added two practices from Wells Fargo and Edward Jones, which together accounted for almost $700 million in prehire assets.

Kowach and his co-founders set a steep recruiting goal for the firm when it was launched in 2023, stating a target of 100 "top performing Advisor Partner teams" in a presentation about at the time. The firm shattered expectations by crossing that milestone in just over two years, declaring the mission accomplished as it welcomed the St. Louis-based Mannen Financial Group from Wells Fargo.

Read more: &Partners crosses 100-practice milestone with Mannen Financial Group

The equity cap and what comes next

&Partners' recruiting strategy has always been tied to a finite pool of equity. The firm has capped its equity distribution at 40 million shares, a limit designed to support growth to roughly $120 billion in assets under management before the firm shifts to cash-based recruiting. Once that threshold is reached, the firm intends for its advisors to have the biggest stake.

"When we complete our five-year plan and we've recruited the advisors we want to recruit, advisors will be the single largest group of shareholders within our firm,” co-founder Kristi Mitchem previously told InvestmentNews.

&Partners has already pulled more than 100 practices from firms including Wells Fargo, Edward Jones, UBS and Merrill Lynch since its founding, and it has reportedly piqued some additional interest from advisors at Commonwealth Financial Network.

If history's any guide, a major minority of the incoming teams at &Partners will have women at the top. As of March, &Partners had claimed 41% of its partner advisor teams were led by women, nearly doubling some oft-cited measures level of gender representation across the industry

"When women can own a piece of their own business, when they can be an equity participant in the platform that truly supports advisors in terms of freedom and flexibility, it appeals to women," Mitchem said in an interview at the time. "We think that's a really incredible proof statement around what this industry needs to do to attract and retain more female talent."