HighTower stakes its claim to Palm Desert wealthy

With its second lift-out this year of a team of high-end financial advisers in Palm Desert, Calif., HighTower Advisors has staked a claim to one of the wealthier retirement areas in the country

HighTower Advisors LLC signed up another trio of high-end financial advisers in the Palm Desert, Calif., area late last week, staking a claim in one of the wealthier retirement areas in the country.
William Blanke, Robert Schein and Michael Shields managed about $300 million in assets and produced a little more than $2 million in revenue last year in the Indian Wells, Calif., office of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, according to Mike Papedis, HighTower’s managing director of business development. Mr. Schein had worked for Morgan Stanley since 2000 and Mr. Blanke is a 30-year veteran of the wirehouse. A representative of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney confirmed that the three advisers had left the firm.
The trio will join a three-person team from Bank of America Merrill Lynch who jumped to HighTower and opened an office in Palm Desert at the end of April. The two teams — the Blanke Schein Group and the Amidei Romano Group, are currently looking for permanent office space.
“They were the top team for Merrill Lynch in the area and we were the top team for Morgan Stanley,” said Mr. Schein. “We both did our independent due diligence and we ended up at the same place. That says a lot.”
With the improvement in the financial markets and having granted retention packages to many brokers a couple of years ago, Wall Street firms have experienced historically low turnover in their adviser ranks over the last 18 months. HighTower, however, has found success luring high-net-worth advisers away from the wirehouses with the promise of an open architecture, including choices of custody and clearing firms. It also helps that the firm offers upfront cash and company stock to advisers.
“Retention packages are not a barrier for us in recruiting advisers,” said Mr. Papedis. He said the firm looks for four factors when recruiting: The advisers care about clients; they act as a fiduciary; they’re No. 1 or 2 in their geographical area of operation; and they serve high-net-worth and/or institutional clients. “We’re a partnership of advisers and cultural fit is one of our primary filters in recruiting.”
The firm has signed up four adviser teams this year that collectively managed $1.7 billion and produced about $10 million in annual revenue at their former firms. The two other teams were from Merrill Lynch and are based in Portland, Maine, and Naples, Fla. A Merrill representative was unable to confirm the departures of those teams, but the advisers were listed in the Finra BrokerCheck database as working for HighTower.