Dickson out as head of Sanctuary Wealth, ex-Ladenburg exec Malamed in

Adam Malamed

The firm declined to comment about Jim Dickson's sudden departure from Sanctuary Wealth, which he had led since 2018.

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.

[More: Sanctuary fired CEO Dickson over alleged conduct issue]

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.”