Financial advisors Marc Angle, Stacey Cole, Johnny Gibson and Tara Pioli have joined Fieldpoint Private, a wealth advisory and private banking boutique headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., according to a news release.
The four advisors formerly were with Bank of America Private Bank, where they managed $1.2 billion in investment assets for ultra-high-net-worth families and institutions located in the eastern United States.
Under the new partnership, Fieldpoint will expand into Winter Park, Fla., an Orlando suburb, where its new team will reportedly advise clients on all aspects of wealth planning, investment policy and asset management, banking, credit, and governance.
The team has worked together for the past six years.
Angle joined U.S. Trust in 2013, following several years as a financial advisor with Alliance Bernstein. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he served eight years as an Army captain and Blackhawk helicopter pilot, with deployments including Kosovo, Iraq and South Korea.
Cole spent 13 years with Bank of America as a senior vice president and senior trust officer. Prior to that she was an attorney and partner with Akerman LLP, and an associate with Bender, Bender, Chandler & Adair. She earned her bachelor’s and law degrees at the University of Florida.
Gibson was a managing director and portfolio manager with U.S. Trust, spending 15 years there. He began his career as an investment consultant with Charles Schwab. The Indiana native is a graduate of Ball State University. He is a past president and director of CFA Society Orlando.
Pioli, the team’s associate, was with Bank of America for 13 years, serving in a series of roles that included lead operations representative, personal banker, and business development analyst. She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida.
The team’s decision to join Fieldpoint followed an extensive due diligence process of exploring other firms, Angle said in the news release.
“We met with a dozen firms before we found Fieldpoint,” he said. “We had a lot of boxes to check.”
Cole indicated that her team was looking for a partner that could wear many different hats in service to their clients, making the search a difficult one.
“We wanted client-focused delivery with a common sense, unconflicted approach, and we wanted a firm that would be nimble and give us ready access to senior-level decision making,” Cole said. “We also looked for great technology where it touches the client, and a fully integrated bank.”
In the news release, Gibson described the two-year process of seeking out a new partner and home for the practice.
“After talking to the big traditional firms, the regionals, and several independents, there were always gaps between what we were looking for and what they had to offer,” he said. “We concluded the firm we were looking for didn’t exist, and for a while it looked like we would have to build it ourselves. And then we found Fieldpoint.”
Christopher DeLaura, CEO and president of Fieldpoint Private Securities, said the team reflected a trend he has been seeing among advisors looking to break away from the industry’s traditional giants.
“A lot of advisors are actively considering independence, but the closer they get the more clearly they see the burdens, like managing compliance, technology and real estate instead of focusing 100% on clients,” he said in the news release. “And if banking and lending are important, the idea of starting a bank in order to do that in an integrated fashion is simply a non-starter.”
Established in 2008. Fieldpoint Private provides wealth planning and private banking services to highly successful individuals, families, businesses and institutions.
