Advisers leave Wells Fargo to create $4.5 billion RIA firm GYL Financial

A group of financial advisers has left Wells Fargo & Co.'s independent brokerage arm to create registered investment advisory firm GYL Financial Synergies with $4.5 billion of client assets. Gerald Goldberg, Jonathan Yolles, Michael Lepore and Claire McDonald left Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network to form the RIA in West Hartford, Conn., according to a statement Monday from Focus Financial Partners, which helped the group make the transition. GYL's co-founders spent more than 15 years working together at Wells Fargo and the firm's predecessors, becoming part of the bank's independent brokerage arm as Goldberg Yolles and Lepore LLC in 2014, according to the statement. They're seeking to increase the new RIA firm's business, in part through mergers and acquisitions, while expanding access to investment managers for its institutional and private clients. “The access to resources and capital we will have as a part of the Focus partnership will enable us to grow our new firm, both organically and through M&A transactions,” Mr. Goldberg, GYL's chief executive officer, said in the statement. GYL has $4.5 billion under advisement, according to a spokeswoman for Focus Financial. Emily Acquisto, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, confirmed the departure of the advisers but declined further comment. Focus Financial provides advisory firms with wealth management research as well as such services as compliance, best practices and succession planning.