David Kowach's &Partners starts hiring advisors

David Kowach, former head of Wells Fargo Advisors, and his new firm, &Partners, bought a broker-dealer in Nashville at the end of August. Now they're hiring and recruiting financial advisors, with recent pickups from Edward Jones and Wells Fargo Advisors.

Wendell E. Jones Jr. worked for Edward Jones for 17 years in Florence, South Carolina, before moving his practice to &Partners on Sept. 22, according to his BrokerCheck profile. He did not return a call on Thursday to comment.

The new firm, which told investors and advisors over the summer that its goal was to hire 100 “top performing Advisor Partner teams,” also hired a team from its former employer, Wells Fargo, led by Chon U. Nam of Henderson, Nevada, who joined the new firm Sept. 1, according to BrokerCheck.

Many in the industry believed Kowach, CEO of &Partners, and John Alexander, co-president of the new firm and also a former Wells Fargo Advisors senior executive, would target financial advisors from their old firm.

Nam, a 20-year veteran of Wells Fargo Advisors, also did not return a phone call on Thursday to comment.

It's not clear the amount of assets each financial advisor and team carry with them, but both are clearly veterans with decades of experience at big firms, the most desirable type of financial advisor to hire because they are routinely the most profitable.

Kowach did not return a phone message Thursday to comment. Industry news website AdvisorHub first reported the financial advisors' being hired by &Partners.

Kowach, Alexander and &Partners have been particularly quiet about the firm's rollout, not issuing any noticeable news releases or statements about the new effort.

"It's a bit strange," said one industry executive, who asked to remain anonymous. "We've heard nothing about them."

The new firm is dangling a big carrot in front of financial advisors, who currently have more options than ever to work and get paid. &Partners’ “compensation is significantly enhanced from the industry norm,” according to an investor presentation obtained by InvestmentNews over the summer.

The financial advice industry is replete with RIA aggregators and roll-ups like &Partners, as aggregators steadily gaining traction by buying so-called breakaway brokers, or financial advisors who leave Wall Street banks to work as part of a smaller firm or an independent RIA.

Ampersand Partners has raised $34.5 million from 64 investors, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August.