$275M Merrill team goes indie with Sanctuary Wealth

Sanctuary Wealth is expanding to the West Coast with two new recruits that managed $275 million at Merrill Lynch.

Founded in 2018, the Indianapolis-based service provider caters to 20 firms with more than 50 advisors and over $8 billion in AUM.

This summer will be a major inflection point, a company spokeswoman said, as Sanctuary Wealth plans to entice over more teams from wirehouses and other brokerages in the coming weeks.

San Francisco-based advisors Brian Westcoat and Terry Murray made their transition on Friday and, in a nod to Sanctuary, named their newly independent practice Ensconce Wealth Partners.

“In these volatile times, our clients are basically looking for shelter,” Murray says.

Westcoat and Murray have worked 19 and 17 years in the industry, respectively, according to FINRA Broker Check Records.

They began considering leaving Merrill three years ago, having observed what Murray describes as a cultural shift at the wirehouse in the years after its acquisition by Bank of America.

“Over time, the culture of Merrill became the culture of the bank,” Murray says.

Murray says he felt that Merrill encouraged advisors to spend more time acquiring new clients at the expense of helping current ones. “It became intolerable.”

While the team considered multiple career options, they opted for the independent model because they felt its flexibility and technology options fit their needs best, Murray says.

For its part, the bank says that both Merrill Lynch and Bank of America offer an unrivaled platform for advisors to serve clients needs. The company also states that experienced advisor attrition rates are at historic lows.

Merrill’s advisor headcount, at 14,761 for the first quarter, was down less than 1% year-over-year, according to the company’s most recent earnings report.

Merrill Lynch Team Goes for Independence with Sanctuary

The financial advice team of Ensconce Wealth Partners, responsible for $275 million in client assets, has left Merrill Lynch for independence through Sanctuary Wealth’snetwork of financial advisories, according to a Sanctuary press release.

Ensconce advisor Terry Murray says in the release that technology and business solution offerings were among the reasons the team made the switch.

“We have access to technology and business solutions that were not available to us before and that will only augment our clients’ overall experience,” Murray says.

Joining Murray for Ensconce’s move to Sanctuary are advisor Brian Westcoat and client service specialist Lynn Muzio.

“An expanded range of investment options, operational support, and client services through Sanctuary will enable us to maintain our client focus” and “grow successfully,” Westcoat says in the release.

Murray and Westcoat will help Sanctuary expand its advisor network in California, according to Sanctuary CEO and founder Jim Dickson.

The pair’s “strong client-centric approach” makes them an “ideal” fit for the Sanctuary network, Dickson says.

David A. Noyes & Co., the 110-year-old financial advisory firm, launched hybrid RIA and broker-dealer network Sanctuary in May last year, touting it as a new type of independence model.

Sanctuary is open to both advisors and brokers who want to go independent.

Sanctuary aims to provide its partners with operational, compliance and clearing support; access to a range of wealth management solutions and products; and the economies of scale that can help bring down business costs. Most of the brokers or advisors joining Sanctuary will get either some equity or a profit interest in the group.

Another Merrill Lynch Team Joins Sanctuary Wealth

Ensconce Wealth Partners Expands Sanctuary’s Network to California

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, June 10, 2019 – Sanctuary Wealth (“Sanctuary”) announced today that Ensconce Wealth Partners (“Ensconce”) will join its elite network of advisors. Based in Walnut Creek, California, the newly formed Ensconce was founded by Terry C. Murray, CFP® and Brian P. Westcoat, CFP®, CPFA, both of whom are highly respected and well-established investment advisors in Northern California. While at Merrill Lynch, they generated $1.6 million in revenue and managed $275 million out of two offices.

Ensconce is an independent wealth management firm dedicated to providing highly personalized service and sophisticated wealth management solutions which are designed to be optimized to each clients’ individual investment goals.

“We are very excited to join Sanctuary Wealth. We believe the additional resources and operational support we’ll gain as members of the Sanctuary network will greatly augment our clients’ overall experience,” says Terry Murray.

“Doing what is best for our clients has always been our top priority, so it quickly became apparent that Sanctuary was the right strategic partner to help us on our path to independence,” says Brian Westcoat. “We believe that we’ll be able to grow successfully with access to an expanded range of capabilities, support, and services through Sanctuary, which will enable us to maintain our client focus and continue to deliver best-in-class investment advice.”

“We are very impressed by the team at Ensconce and I am honored to welcome them to Sanctuary. We believe their strong client-centric approach makes them an ideal fit for our network,” says Jim Dickson, CEO and Founder of Sanctuary Wealth. “Both Terry and Brian have shown tremendous integrity and possess significant investment expertise, which undoubtedly makes them invaluable assets to their clients and to the Sanctuary community. We very much look forward to working with them and helping them grow their business. We’re excited to continue our aggressive growth plan and launch our network in California”.

More information about the services offered by Ensconce Wealth Partners can be found at  www.ensconcewealth.com.

About Sanctuary Wealth

Sanctuary Wealth, a partner-owned global wealth management firm, brings together an elite network of wealth advisors of the highest caliber, handpicked for their experience, impressive compliance and unparalleled performance levels. These talented advisors operate with their clients’ best interests as their primary focus, backed by Partnered IndependenceSM. Partnered IndependenceSM ensures Sanctuary Wealth advisors have comprehensive support in all aspects of serving clients and growing their businesses. Through its subsidiaries, Sanctuary Securities and Sanctuary Advisors, LLC, Sanctuary Wealth offers a comprehensive menu of products and services to individual and institutional clients.

Sanctuary Wealth
250 W 96th Street Suite 300
Indianapolis, IN 46260
(833) 608-5514
(317) 975-7729

[email protected]
www.SanctuaryWealth.com

Media Contact
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