LEVITT TO LEAVE IT: A TOP EXIT HITS EVENSKY FIRM; HOW MUCH OF THEIR $400 MILLION GOES WITH HIM?

Robert S. Levitt is moving from one of the best-known quartets in financial planning, Evensky Brown Katz & Levitt, to a duet.

The 38-year old planner quit the Coral Gables, Fla., firm and is registering Levitt Novacoff & Co. with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Both Mr. Levitt and former partner Harold Evensky insist the parting is amicable.

“Robert wants to focus more on portfolio management, and we still consider ourselves more traditional financial planners,” says Mr. Evensky

Evensky Brown has no immediate plans to replace Mr. Levitt, Mr. Evensky adds.

Mr. Levitt, who had worked out of a satellite office in Boca Raton, says his practice had gotten too big to be supported out of the Evensky Brown headquarters: “It just didn’t make sense geographically anymore.”

It’s unclear how much of Evensky’s $400 million in assets under supervision will depart with Mr. Levitt. He wouldn’t say how much money he’ll start with, though sources put the number close to $100 million. Not all of that would necessarily come from Evensky’s coffers, which observers say are among the most secure in the business.

“The remaining partners have a tremendous reputation in the community and nationally,” says Mark Tibergien, a financial planning consultant at Seattle accountancy Moss Adams LLP. “It’s a firm that many in the industry look at with some degree of envy if not admiration.”

Levitt Novacoff & Co., a fee-only investment advisory firm, will focus on managing money for tax-sensitive, wealthy clients. Headquarters will be in Boca Raton, and James Novacoff, formerly an investment adviser at American Express Financial Advisers, is expected to oversee back-office, compliance and technology functions at the new firm.