Three co-founders with experience across investment management for ultra-high-net-worth clients, alternative asset management and private banking have launched a New York-based registered investment advisor focused on high-level financial executives.
Nathan Romano, Jonathan Bergman, and Charles Friedberg are launching Collaborative Capital after careers overseeing more than $50 billion in alternative investments. The trio announced the new firm on Wednesday, calling it a firm “built by financial professionals for financial professionals.”
The new RIA declined to give its current assets under management, but is public with a few clients that point toward a strong opening book: Henry Swieca, co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management and founder of Talpion Fund Management, which Forbes most recently listed as having net worth of $2.6 billion, and John Brice, co-founder, previous president, and CIO of CarVal Investors LLC (now AB CarVal).
In an interview, co-CEOs Bergman and Romano stressed the importance of their relationships with high-net-worth entrepreneurs and business owners, both as a potential client pool and as an underserved market.
“What we discovered is that there is a lane, if you will, in serving the complex financial needs of financial services executives,” Bergman said. “Unlike other executives, financial services executives really understand the plumbing of financial products, as do we. We believe that there is an opportunity to provide services to these highly sophisticated and quite busy executives with an independent, objective approach.”
Bergman had most recently been president of multi-family office TAG Associates, where he also led the private allocation group during a more than 13-year stint with the firm. Co-CEO Romano was previously president of Atalaya Capital Management and York Capital Management, the alternative investing firm led by Jamie Dinan. He had also been a managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he helped to build the firm’s client relationship management and strategy group.
The third co-founder, Chief Operating Officer Friedberg, has worked as an investment management and fintech executive with experience scaling financial service and technology businesses, most recently as a managing partner and founder of Remma Ventures.
Romano said he and Bergman had been discussing the financial needs of high-level financial executives for over a decade. He said there are billionaires and “centi-millionaires” who aren’t being well-served by advisors and don’t want to take the time or energy to start their own family offices.
“There’s an opportunity to fill a niche that isn’t being filled,” he said. “They want to go and live their lives, while at the same time having the highest quality of service and excellence and commitment to excellence.”
Romano also noted, however, that these “masters of the universe” usually want to stay engaged. To that end, he said Collaborative Capital will be sourcing private market investments and startup business engagements that may lead to board seats or other opportunities.
Collaborative Capital’s services will resemble those of a family office, with tax and estate planning, as it works with families and individuals with $25 million to more than $1 billion in investable assets.
Bergman said one of his other reasons for starting the firm was advancements in financial technology that allow for less back-office management, more client engagement, and more service offerings.
“Building a modern wealth management firm in 2025 is very different from when I started my career in 1997, let alone 10 years ago,” Bergman said. “We and our clients benefit from that by starting our firm with a clean tech stack.”
In addition to its founders, Collaborative Capital has several advisors it cited at launch, including Barry Cohen, president of Elysium Management LLC and senior advisor to Apollo Global Management; Ed Newberry, global managing partner, Squire Patton Boggs; and Raj Shourie, formerly of Oaktree Capital Management.
The firm launched with custody options from Charles Schwab and Goldman Sachs. The firm expects to grow its client base quickly in the coming months, with expectations of keeping them with the firm.
“When you earn the trust of [UNHW clients], they are more than happy to let you make a really good return, a good living, and they are incredibly loyal too,” Bergman said.
#RIA #Collaborative #Capital #Target #Top #Financial #Execs