Sanctuary Wealth Picks Up $1B Advisory Team From Merrill

Hybrid RIA Sanctuary Wealth picked up a Chicago-based advisory team from Merrill Lynch with $1 billion in client assets, Sanctuary said Friday.

Burnham Harbor Private Wealth includes managing partners James M. Corrigan, David Holtkamp, Sean M. Jucas and Kenneth Shay, as well as wealth associates Basel Alwawi and Cindy Hehr.

Corrigan has been a wealth advisor with Merrill for more than 17 years, serving private and institutional clients. Holtkamp joined Merrill in 2006 and has been a wealth advisor for 17 years. Jucas has been a wealth advisor at Merrill for the past 16 years and earned the Sports & Entertainment Accredited Wealth Management Advisor designation. All three are certified financial planners.

Shay started his career in the securities business in 1966 and has been a securities analyst, institutional portfolio manager, institutional equity salesperson and, since 1985, a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley and then Merrill.

Merrill did not immediately respond to a request for comment about losing the advisor team.

The team has “run an incredible business for years by catering to the unique needs of the multi-generational clients they serve,” according to Adam Malamed, Sanctuary CEO. “Their mix of next generation and veteran advisors is exactly what’s needed to succeed in the wealth management space going forward,” he said in a statement.

He added: “We look forward to giving them the freedom and flexibility, along with the support they need to meet their goals of growing their business organically and through acquisitions.”

Burnham has been providing complete wealth management solutions to high-net-worth families, business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, doctors, professional athletes and philanthropists, according to Sanctuary.

The team “focuses on helping multi-generational families achieve and maintain their wealth and lifestyle goals through their expertise in financial guidance, legacy implementation, estate coordination, risk management strategies, retirement lifestyle continuation, tax minimization and transition counseling,” Sanctuary added.

“Sanctuary was created to provide firms like Burnham Harbor the ability to confidently break away from wirehouses and enjoy the benefits of independence,” according to Vince Fertitta, president, wealth management, at Sanctuary.

“When the team decided the confines of their current situation no longer fit their needs, they embarked on an 18-month due diligence process to find the best long-term solution for themselves and, more importantly, their clients,” Fertitta said in a news release announcing the latest recruitment win for his firm.

“Theirs was a much sought-after business, and after hearing what others had to offer, they determined that Sanctuary’s partnered independence was the right way to transition their sophisticated practice and grow it for the next 25 years,” Fertitta added.

Although they “knew we had outgrown the wirehouse, our team didn’t want to go out on our own,” according to Corrigan. “In Sanctuary, we found a partner that provides the right balance of support, freedom, flexibility and optionality we were looking for in a new home.”

Corrigan added: “Sanctuary’s management team understood the model we were coming from. Through our due diligence process, Sanctuary provided us the means to operate in a way that was familiar, with more efficiency, fewer distractions, and the respect to allow us to run our business the way we think is best.”

The Sanctuary Wealth network now includes partner firms in 28 states across the U.S. and has about $25 billion in assets under advisement, Sanctuary said.

The firm includes the fully owned subsidiaries Sanctuary Advisors, a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment advisor; Sanctuary Securities, a member of the Financial Regulatory Authority; Sanctuary Alternative Holdings; Sanctuary Asset Management; Sanctuary Insurance Solutions; Sanctuary Global; and Sanctuary Global Family Office.

 (Pictured: Adam Malamed, Sanctuary Wealth CEO)