The registered investment advisor space has seen some new entrants in recent days, with advisors breaking away from insurer Northwestern Mutual, wirehouse Merrill and RIA Hightower, and one Raymond James executive launching his own financial advisor consultancy.
Blake Butler, who is leaving his Northwestern Mutual affiliation after 16 years, said client demand for additional services such as tax and estate planning motivated him to start Canterbury Capital Wealth Management, based in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“The biggest motivator was bringing as much value to clients as possible,” Blake said. “We wanted to add in additional services like tax planning for clients and estate planning along with investment management and insurance planning … we saw a huge need there for clients, and the RIA space allows us to do that.”
Canterbury, which has launched with a seven-person team, has already hired a new tax and accounting lead to build out that division, including more hires in the near future.
Butler said he worked with Fusion Financial Partners to identify its technology stack and support the client transition. The firm is using Charles Schwab as its primary custodian.
“It was fun for me to find all the new technology out there that we have access to now,” Butler said. “But it was also eye-opening because there was so much of it.”
Butler, who managed $500 million in assets when Canterbury was with Northwestern Mutual, said that all of his clients are moving over, though the transition process is still underway. Many are current and retired business owners and physicians who Butler said are looking forward to expanded services.
“Our goal is to offer that multifamily office structure where they can come get everything they need,” he said. “I think that will be a huge competitive edge and a lot of our clients we talk to are excited about that.”
Canterbury Capital is named after a family farm in Demopolis, Ala., where Butler said people used to gather for barbeques run by his grandparents.
MarketCounsel Consulting and the Hamburger Law Firm worked with Blake for compliance and legal counsel.
Merrill, Hightower Advisors Start Granite Islands
Separately, two advisors have departed from Merrill Lynch and Hightower to start a new RIA in Guilford, Conn. called Granite Islands Private Wealth.
Founders and managing directors Charles Andriole and Robert DeLucca worked together for over a decade at The Andriole Group at Hightower and Merrill Lynch, overseeing over $1 billion in client assets.
The firm is now partnering with tru Independence, a services-based platform for RIAs offering infrastructure, compliance, technology and operational support, and using Sanctuary Securities as its brokerage, according to the announcement.
The duo is joined by wealth and retirement plan advisor Lorenzo Gaudioso and operations manager Michele Arsenault.
“We know what it means to be a fiduciary—and have designed Granite Islands as a highly focused, planning-driven firm to cater to the unique and evolving needs of clients, protect their best interests, and align the right services and opportunities to help them achieve their goals,” Andriole said in a statement.”
Raymond James VP Voss Launches FA Consulting Firm
Steve Voss, a vice president of business consulting at Raymond James, has left the firm to start CPX Partners, a boutique financial advisory consultancy based in Tampa, Fla.
Voss moved after climbing the ranks at Raymond James for a little over nine years, ending in a role where he guided “hundreds of advisors through successful business transitions over the past decade,” according to the announcement.
CPX offers services to financial advisors who want to transition to a new model, launch a new practice or grow their practices.
Those services include transition planning and execution, business infrastructure and support, succession and continuity planning, growth strategy and branding, and fractional CFO and CPA offerings, including tax strategy.
Voss also noted in a LinkedIn post and in the announcement that he beat cancer in 2023, which in turn helped motivate him to start his own firm.
“Life has taught me that time and purpose are invaluable,” he said in a statement. “Surviving cancer clarified my priorities in a profound way. Starting a business while raising a young family isn’t easy, but the opportunity to build something lasting and impactful was too important to postpone.”
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