Ashton Thomas Private Wealth, a registered investment advisor acquired by Arax Investment Partners in 2023, has recruited a San Francisco-based team of advisors from SVB Private, a division of First Citizens Bank.
Advisors Lance Millar and Stewart Preziose will create the Speritas Private Wealth Team, with about $900 million in assets under management. Millar will be a partner, managing director and private wealth advisor, while Preziose will serve as wealth advisor.
The addition expands Ashton Thomas’s presence in the West Coast market.
“Arax and Ashton Thomas are pioneering a new approach to partnership in the wealth advisory space, providing the resources and capabilities necessary to support both advisors and clients across a growing national footprint,” added Haig Ariyan, CEO of Arax Investment Partners and chairman of Ashton Thomas, in a statement. “Just a few short months after putting down roots in San Francisco, Ashton Thomas is attracting top talent, supporting entrepreneurial advisors and delivering results for a robust Western client base—a validation of our strategy that continues to fuel expansive growth across the Arax platform.”
Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., Ashton Thomas was founded in 2010 and provides foundations, businesses and wealthy individuals and families with fee-based financial planning, investment portfolio management, retirement plan consulting and financial education. It manages over $8 billion in advisory and brokerage assets across its business
Arax, a wealth management platform backed by private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, has grown rapidly since entering wealth management with its multi-boutique platform. It announced its investment in Ashton Thomas in September 2023 and has made several acquisitions since then. In January, it acquired Cedrus Financial, a Littleton, Colo.-headquartered RIA with about $1 billion in client assets.
In March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank tallied massive losses when forced to prematurely sell lower-value securities after depositors fled to extract their cash. SVB became the largest bank to collapse since the 2008 crash, and its downfall set off a firestorm in the banking industry, with First Republic requiring a $30 billion cash injection, Signature Bank going under and Credit Suisse getting acquired by UBS. In late March, First Citizens agreed to buy SVB. But despite the purchase, many advisors in its SVB Private division fled.
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