When Gryphon Wealth completed its transition to a fully independent, fee-only registered investment advisor last month, the move was years in the making – and entirely intentional.
Like many other breakaways, the Jacksonville, Florida-based firm with more than $3 billion in assets under management could have gone RIA under a supported aggregator model. But that's not what its co-founders wanted.
"We wanted total control of the client experience," Jason Hyrne, CEO and co-founder of Gryphon Wealth, told InvestmentNews. "We have a pretty strong opinion about how we want to run the client experience, things that we want to build out, and how we want to do that."
That conviction has roots going back to 2005 when Hyrne and co-founder Jeffrey Wyatt, who's also now the chairman at Gryphon Wealth, first partnered up. The two had previously worked separately at First Union and Wachovia, which came together to ultimately become part of Wells Fargo's wider empire.
Back then, they didn't have any grand vision of independence; as Hyrne tells it, they just wanted to split the cost of a service employee. But soon the two saw an opportunity that went far beyond shared overhead.
"In the first three months, we realized there's a lot of synergies to our business, and we should do more than just split expenses on service people," Hyrne said.
Even as W2 employees within Wells Fargo's private bank, the pair maintained their own internal books – tracking their own profit and loss separately from the firm's official accounting. It was an entrepreneurial best practice that would ultimately define their multi-stage path to independence.
In 2023, the team took the opportunity to move to Wells Fargo's independent Finet channel, lifting out their entire staff in the process. From there, they took the final step to full RIA status, with TradePMR as servicing broker-dealer and Wells Fargo Clearing Services remaining as a custodian.
"What we did not want to do is do a heavy lift on our clients and make it a very, very difficult process to transition over," he said, acknowledging Wells Fargo's support in "[making] it as easy as possible on our clients for us to go from employee to independent to now full RIA."
Gryphon Wealth's clients have retained the same account numbers and the same online access they had under Wells Fargo, something Hyrne described as a key factor in selecting TradePMR.
Compared to simply accessing Wells Fargo's tech infrastructure – "We just woke up in the morning, rolled out of bed, went to the office and it was all working", Hyrne said – owning infrastructure decisions was a major adjustment, but one the Gryphon Wealth team looked forward to.
"It's a daunting task to put all that together and make sure it's best-in-class and integrated and train the team on it," Hyrne said. "But it's worth it."
Beyond TradePMR's Fusion platform – which combines digital account opening, trading, and client relationship management in a single interface – Gryphon Wealth is operating with Black Diamond, Microsoft 365, tax planning software, and estate planning AI tools. The firm is also building what Hyrne described as a proprietary "native operating system for Gryphon Wealth" with a technology partner, running in parallel with existing systems.
Robb Baldwin, founder and general manager of TradePMR, has served as a technology sounding board throughout the process, connecting the firm with vendors and helping shape the stack. Hyrne said that support from TradePMR "has exceeded our expectations."
Looking further ahead, Hyrne pointed to the potential upside from Robinhood, which officially acquired TradePMR last year to become its parent company.
"I think Robinhood is the leader in fintech right now – they're on the cutting edge, they're on the frontier," he said, noting that access to both TradePMR's tools and Robinhood's emerging technology would give the firm flexibility to identify what works best for clients over time.
With a $3 billion book of business, Hyrne argued Gryphon Wealth occupies an ideal middle ground in the RIA landscape – large enough to afford institutional-grade technology, but still able to pivot as needed.
"We're not a $100 billion RIA or a wirehouse," he said. "We're still small enough to be nimble and able to make quick decisions and move more quickly."
Compared to the wirehouse environment, Wyatt said the team now has more liberty to develop and share educational and market-related material with clients, prospects, and referral sources. That supports Gryphon's national growth ambitions, with Hyrne set to lead a content marketing strategy they believe will expand their reach beyond Florida.
"Having the freedom to do that ... is definitely going to give us the ability to try to grow a little bit more quickly and a little bit more nationally," Wyatt said.
While private equity capital could provide a valuable boost for RIA growth, Hyrne said their long-term vision is to build a "forever firm" that outlasts its founders by eventually transferring ownership to employees through an employee stock ownership plan – akin to what leaders at Ritholtz Wealth, Edelman, Mercer and other RIAs are implementing – rather than selling to an aggregator or financial buyer.
"We really want to make sure that we honor that relationship that we've been entrusted with," Hyrne said. "They're not being sold off to the highest bidder."
The firm is also watching Robinhood's emerging advisor referral network with interest. The program, launched as a pilot in March, is designed to connect advisors with $500 million or more in AUM to eligible Robinhood clients with at least $250,000 in investable assets.
Having experienced referral programs through Wachovia and Wells Fargo, the partners at Gryphin Wealth are leaving the door open for Robinhood's program to support their growth goals.
"We'll be very selective with any new clients we bring on," he said. "It has to be a win for our team and for the client. To say that we're not excited about this potential partnership would be an understatement."
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