The Bahnsen Group has hired financial advisor Grady Wirth from JPMorgan Wealth Management as it expands into the Steel City, the wealth management firm has announced.
Wirth leads The Bahnsen Group’s new Pittsburgh office, which is located at the Brush Creek Commons plaza of Cranberry Township. “To bring a nationally recognized boutique wealth management firm to the city I love and to families I hope to serve for many years to come,” he told InvestmentNews. “This is the most meaningful opportunity of my career.”
The local area has experienced significant economic growth in recent years, with Pittsburgh’s GDP climbing from $130.5 billion in 2013 to $194.2 billion in 2023. Pittsburgh has also earned a reputation as a technology hub thanks to Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the presence of tech firms such as Google, which has established regional headquarters in a former Nabisco factory, and Duolingo, which has its global HQ in the city. Last year the Council on Competitiveness noted that the city’s economy is running hot but warned that the availability of labor is “running lean.”
Wirth told InvestmentNews that he was won over by The Bahnsen Group’s RIA structure. “I was not looking to make a change. But large financial institutions typically operate within a broker-dealer framework, designed to serve millions of clients across many different lines of business,” he explained. “Over time, I could not ignore the growing gap between that model and the level of advice my clients deserved.”
“When I discovered The Bahnsen Group, I recognized immediately that I had found the right long-term home for my practice,” he added. “The firm operates as an independent Registered Investment Advisor – a structure designed specifically for fiduciary wealth management.”
The advisor explained that there were no regulatory or compliance considerations involved in the move. However, on the technology side of things, he did desire the independent, open-architecture framework of an independent versus proprietary tech stack.
Pittsburgh marks The Bahnsen Group’s twelfth office location after Newport Beach and Campbell , California, Austin and Dallas, Texas, West Palm Beach, Florida, Nashville, Tennessee, Phoenix, Arizona, Minneapolis and Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bend, Oregon, and New York City.
“The western and central Pennsylvania market has long been an area of strong client interest for us,” said David Bahnsen, Managing Partner, The Bahnsen Group, in a statement. “Not only is there a tremendous client base there already, but we are confident it will build into a significant market over time and so having a physical presence and putting resources and talent on the ground there was the logical next step.”
Pittsburgh also marks the second new office location for The Bahnsen Group so far in 2026 after the February opening of a Silicon Valley office in Campbell, California.
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