Greg Fleming’s latest venture bets on the Rockefeller brand

Greg Fleming’s launch of Rockefeller Capital Management is fully stocked with brand recognition and the lofty goal of growing assets under management to $100 billion within five years.

Now comes the hard part: Executing a growth strategy that involves spreading the stalwart Rockefeller brand beyond the East Coast to develop a national footprint serving wealthy families and institutions by recruiting breakaway brokers and registered investment advisers.

Mr. Fleming, 55, who was an executive at both Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, corralled the financial backing to engineer the acquisition of Rockefeller & Co., a multifamily office managing more than $18 billion.

The wirehouse veteran has also been busy recruiting friends and former colleagues from across the financial services industry to join him in building the venerable family office into a broker-dealer, asset manager and investment bank that will welcome brokers and investment advisers alike.

“We will be a broker-dealer in case we hire a financial adviser who has some commission business,” Mr. Fleming said. “But a fee-based RIA can certainly operate within our firm. They won’t have to change their model.”

Mr. Fleming is president and CEO of the company. Hedge fund Viking Global Investors is the majority owner. Minority ownership is shared by the management team and the Rockefeller family.

A lot is riding on the Rockefeller name, according to Mr. Fleming. “At a macro level, we’re very excited about the Rockefeller name,” he said. “We have two Rockefellers on our board, and they are also shareholders.”

As strong as the Rockefeller name is, Mr. Fleming acknowledges the footprint has been until now limited to the northeastern United States, and more specifically, New York.

“We are going to grow geographically,” he said. “We might buy a smaller firm in Texas or Chicago to get us going there. We’ve already had firms call us and say they want to be a part of Rockefeller.”

On the wealth management side, being a part of Rockefeller can include a couple of access points.

There is the global family office, which is essentially the multifamily office that made up the original acquisition. And there is the wealth management model that will operate like a traditional brokerage.

“We’ll hire advisers and, similar to the wirehouse model, they’ll be paid percentage of book,” Mr. Fleming said.

In terms of recruiting RIAs to join the fold, he said “it will depend on the firm, but I believe in equity incentives. We’re going to be smart and strategic about how we structure our acquisitions.”

“The Rockefeller name is incredibly sexy, but it’s not just the name that we’re talking about now,” said Mindy Diamond, president of the recruiting firm Diamond Consultants. “The Greg Fleming connection is really the interesting part of this,” she added. “He comes from the wirehouse world, and the language he speaks will resonate with brokers.”

Mr. Fleming, who left his role as head of Morgan Stanley Wealth and Asset Management in January 2016 and is also a former president of Merrill Lynch & Co., last year helped Derek Jeter purchase the Florida Marlins professional baseball team.

With the new business less than a month old, Mr. Fleming said it will be a few months before they start bringing on new advisers.

“In the first six to 12 months we will definitely do some acquisitions,” he said. “We have hired a first-class veteran team of some great people here.”

Among the executive announcements at Rockefeller over the past few weeks, there is Christopher Randazzo, who worked at both Merrill and Morgan, as the head of wealth management as well as technology and operations.

Michael Brakey, another alum of both Merrill and Morgan, is head of credit and banking at Rockefeller.

Grace Yoon, also formerly of Merrill and Morgan, is the new chief operating officer of strategic advisory and head of strategic initiatives of the overall firm.

Ms. Diamond believes the business model has a solid chance to succeed in attracting brokers, but might still need an RIA presence to attract independent advisers.

“There are some really interesting models in the quasi-independent space, but most are run by RIA leaders that don’t often connect with wirehouse brokers because they don’t talk the same talk,” she said. “If (Mr. Fleming) recruits some leaders from the RIA space then he’ll have a good mix of leaders from both spaces.”

Elliot Weissbluth, chief executive of HighTower Advisors, recognizes the strength of a solid brand, but said it is also easy to put too much stock into a name.

“It will be interesting to see if these people build a business that is an homage to the Rockefeller name,” he said. “The name is very important if it’s associated with the brand’s purpose.

Mr. Weissbluth, who has grown his firm to nearly $50 billion, said the key to Rockefeller’s success will depend on how well they distance the new business from the wirehouse model.

“Those folks launching the new businesses, even on the backs of old names, need to stand for fiduciary duty, otherwise they’re just replaying yesterday’s news,” he said. “This is an opportunity for some well-known names to stand on behalf of the clients. Brands are promises, and those promises have to be fulfilled.”

Related Topics: Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley & Co.