Sanctuary Wealth, a fast-growing aggregator of registered investment advisors with $25 billion in assets and a focus on hiring wirehouse financial advisors, switched horses late Thursday and said its CEO, Jim Dickson, was being replaced by industry veteran and longtime Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. senior executive Adam Malamed.
At the moment, there is no explanation for Dickson's sudden departure from the firm, which he had led since 2018, when it was sold.
Dickson's name was not mentioned in the press release announcing the hiring of Malamed, and a spokesperson for Sanctuary said the firm's policy was not to comment about personnel matters.
Sanctuary has two business lines its financial advisors can sit under: its broker-dealer, Sanctuary Securities Inc., and its RIA, Sanctuary Advisors, which lists $12 billion in client assets on its form ADV.
Malamed, a member of the Sanctuary Wealth board of directors, is a 26-year veteran of the securities industry, and from 2006 to 2020 was executive vice president and chief operating officer at Ladenburg Thalmann. He was instrumental in building Ladenburg Thalmann into a network of 4,000 financial advisors at five broker-dealers by the time it was sold in 2020 to Advisor Group, right on the cusp of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dickson was a 20-year veteran of Merrill Lynch before being part of the group that in 2018 bought a 110-year-old broker-dealer in Indianapolis, David A. Noyes & Co., rechristening it as Sanctuary. The firm is owned by the Azimut Group, an Italian asset management company.
"Adam Malamed possesses an unparalleled track record of building high growth private and public wealth management enterprises and he knows Sanctuary’s business thoroughly," Massimo Guiati, CEO of Azimut Group, said in a statement. "We look forward to providing Adam and the Sanctuary team our enthusiastic support as they accelerate the firm’s forward momentum."
The "Crypto Mom" departure leaves the SEC commission with just two members and no Democratic commissioners on the panel.
IFP Securities’ owner, Bill Hamm, has a long-term plan for the firm and its 279 financial advisors.
Meanwhile, a Osaic and Envestnet ink a new adaptive wealthtech partnership to better support the firm's 10,000-plus advisors, and RIA-focused VastAdvisor unveils native integrations with leading CRMs.
A former Alabama investment advisor and ex-Kestra rep has been permanently barred and penalized after clients he promised to protect got caught in a $2.6 million fraud.
As more active strategies get packaged into the ETF wrapper, advisors and investors have to look beyond expense ratios as the benchmark for value.
Wellington explores how multi strategy hedge funds may enhance diversification
As technical expertise becomes increasingly commoditized, advisors who can integrate strategy, relationships, and specialized expertise into a cohesive client experience will define the next era of wealth management