Elevation Point backs $2.5B UBS breakaways' new RIA

Continuing the trend of departures from UBS this year, a trio of longtime advisors overseeing roughly $2.5 billion in client assets at the wirehouse has launched their own firm with support from Elevation Point.

The group, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, has formed Family Office Partners with backing from Jim Dickson's RIA growth accelerator, whose strategy focuses on minority stakes from RIAs.

Elevation Point announced the deal Friday, describing it as part of its broader push to support firms focused on multigenerational wealth and private business transitions.

The 12-person team is led by Benjamin Domingue, Travis Frayard, and Shawna Prejean, all of whom have spent their careers working with ultra-wealthy families, founders and closely held business owners.

The three advisors had been affiliated with UBS since before 2010, according to their BrokerCheck records.

Their new firm will focus on business succession planning, investment management, estate and tax structuring, philanthropic strategy and other advanced planning services typically associated with multi-family offices.

“In launching Family Office Partners, we didn’t simply move from one destination to another, we set out to build our own,” Domingue said in the announcement. “One that’s purpose-built for the evolving and diverse needs of our clients and families navigating the complexity of private company ownership.”

“This team has built deep trust with some of the most sophisticated families in the country,” said Dickson, Elevation Point’s CEO and founding partner, asserting that the move "speaks volumes about where the industry is headed.”

Elevation Point, launched in 2024 by Jim Dickson and Mark Penske, has been ramping up its activity in the family office advisory space. It recently received capital backing from Emigrant Partners, which operates under Emigrant Bank and the Milstein family office umbrella.

"Our partners and the families that represent us, they want us thinking 10 to 20 years out, and I think that fits better to what we're doing," Dickson said of the family office space in a May interview with InvestmentNews.

The Lafayette deal comes amid a steady stream of advisor exits from UBS. According to recent data from Wolfe Research, UBS saw a net loss of 110 advisors through the first week of June, which is among the highest attrition rates among major firms this year.

Among the largest defections of late, a Beverly Hills-based team managing more than $1 billion in client assets joined RBC Wealth Management earlier this week.

Brad Smithy, Elevation Point’s head of wealth management, described the team’s practice as both sizable and highly specialized, noting a long-standing relationship with the partners. “Their scale and specialized nature is exactly the type of firm we’re built to support,” he said in the release.

With this deal, Elevation Point continues to position itself as an alternative destination for advisors seeking independence with capital support particularly those focused on complex, high-net-worth client needs outside the wirehouse framework.