The recapitalized Rockefeller family office continues its expansion bid and has hired a $8.3 million team from regional bank Truist Financial Corp. to fill out new offices in Florida and Maryland, according to a person familiar with the move.
The group is led by senior advisors Peter Clarke, Drew M. Karr and Neva Hagopian, who are joining Rockefeller Capital Management as managing directors and manage $1.5 billion in customer assets, the source said. The team, which is keeping its moniker of The Atlantic Group, also includes junior advisors Jack Traxler and Jack Mutchnik and client associates Serena Burns, Caryn Mims and Natalie Smyth.
They will be opening a second D.C.-area office for Rockefeller in Bethesda, Maryland and a new branch in Palm Beach, Florida, according to an announcement.
They are the 66th team to join Rockefeller since the family office began expanding into traditional brokerage in 2018 under Chief Executive Greg Fleming, the source said. Rockefeller has focused on hiring multi-million dollar wirehouse teams but has also dipped into the regional banking pool, including with a $2.1 million hire from Stephens Inc. in Atlanta in August.
As with the Stephens hire, the ex-Truist team reports to Michael Outlaw, a former Morgan Stanley manager who was elevated this month from his post as eastern divisional director at Rockefeller to be national field director with responsibility for expanding the firm’s family office and core private wealth business.
Rockefeller’s success in hiring has been due in part to a deep bench of former wirehouse managers it hired and assigned to scout veteran brokers in addition to offering payouts of around 50% and some equity to early teams, recruiters have said. Headhunters say Rockefeller’s hiring bonuses can be around 275% to 300% of trailing-12 production, including remuneration for forfeited deferred compensation, which is competitive but slightly below some of the highest payers, including 300%-plus offers at Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and First Republic.
“They have excellent managers and that helps a lot,” said Michael King, a New York-based recruiter. “These managers have been around and know the people and are seen as trustworthy.”
A Rockefeller spokeswoman confirmed the move but did not immediately return a request for comment on their offers. A spokesperson for Truist said he could not immediately comment.
Two advisors listed on the Atlantic Group’s former Truist website, William Brinkley and Eli Weissman, were not listed in Rockfeller’s announcement and remain registered with Truist, according to BrokerCheck.
Clarke, a 36-year industry veteran, started his career at Dean Witter Reynolds in 1985 and also worked at Wells Fargo and predecessor firms before joining regional brokerage BB&T Securities predecessor Scott & Stringfellow in 2009 and then becoming part of Truist through its 2019 merger with SunTrust Banks Inc. He had been based in Palm Beach, according to BrokerCheck Karr, who was working from a Truist branch in McLean, Virginia, started at Wells Fargo in 2006 and also made the move to Scott & Stringfellow in 2009, according to the database.
Hagopian, who is registered in Palm Beach, began her career at Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. in 1987 and also moved to Wells predecessor Prudential Securities in 1989. She also worked for six years at Merrill Lynch before returning to Wells and then moving to Scott & Stringfellow in 2009, according to BrokerCheck.
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