Bahnsen Group Names New President, CFO in Leadership Reshuffle

The Bahnsen Group, a $7.5 billion national wealth management firm, has a new president in Joseph Klein, who previously led the firm’s Family Office division. 

It’s one of several leadership shifts in the Hightower Advisors-supported firm, including the promotion of a chief financial officer and a new hire as family office director to succeed Klein.

According to the firm, in the newly created role, Klein will work with founder and Managing Partner David Bahnsen to formulate company strategy, while overseeing the firm’s management committee. Meanwhile, Luis Garcia will take the role of CFO (which is also new) after overseeing the firm’s operations for a year. Previously, he was CFO at Pacifica Christian High School in Orange County, Calif.

In a statement about the moves, Bahnsen said Klein and Garcia were respected in the organization and would help the firm “relentlessly compete” while pursuing its goals, noting that in the past three years, the firm had organically grown AUM by $3 billion and created tax and risk departments.

“We have never shied away from investing the resources into our business that are needed to continue serving clients at the very high standards we set for ourselves,” he said.

Additionally, Nicholas Stanley is moving into Klein’s previous position as family office director. He arrived from Morgan Stanley, where he was a vice president for financial planning (with previous stints at Merrill Lynch in New York and UBS in California). 

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Stanley will be heading an office for ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families that now represents about one-fifth of the firm’s total revenue and managed assets. Under Klein’s leadership, the firm opened its family office division in 2021.

Finally, Anastasia Wiese is joining the firm as a senior financial advisor from a role at Grand Wealth Management. She’ll join the firm’s Grand Rapids office as Bahnsen Group looks to expand into the western Michigan region.

Bahnsen founded the firm as a lift-out from Morgan Stanley in April 2015, accompanied by eight team members and $600 million in assets. The firm received transitional support from Hightower and opened a satellite office in New York City in 2017. 

Since then, the firm has grown its AUM annually by about 29%, and now has 85 team members at 10 offices nationwide, including Newport Beach, Calif.; New York City; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Minneapolis, Bend, Ore.; Dallas, Austin, Phoenix and Grand Rapids, Mich.