Providing client-focused advice in a values-driven culture is the central objective of Snowden Capital Advisors LLC, a new independent, advisor-owned financial services firm created to provide wealth and corporate advice to individuals, families, and institutions around the world.
Co-founded by Rob Mooney, Managing Partner and CEO, and John Morris, Managing Partner, Snowden aims to deliver independent, holistic advice customised for each client’s wealth, corporate and impact investment objectives. Snowden provides its clients with a broad range of services and solutions to meet their investing needs in an increasingly interconnected world, ensuring that their investments align with their broader life goals.
"We launched Snowden as a new-model firm to help restore traditional partnership values and client focus in our industry," says Morris. "Clients and advisors are increasingly wary of the conflicts of interest inherent in the largest financial institutions. Snowden offers client-focused, open-architecture solutions, coupled with a boutique approach that allows us to act quickly and intelligently in the interest of our clients."
Strategic investors in Snowden include Lyle LaMothe and Greg Franks, both of whom serve on Snowden’s Advisory Board. LaMothe is the former head of US Wealth Advisory for Merrill Lynch and Franks is a former Division Director of that firm. Seed investors in Snowden include Bob Caruso and Pete Mooney, who additionally serve on the firm’s Advisory Board, and Cynthia Mullock, Snowden’s General Counsel. Messrs Mooney and Morris each spent more than 20 years at Merrill Lynch working in Wealth Management. Mooney was General Counsel and Head of Business Risk Management for Global Wealth Management and Morris, among other roles, served as Chairman of the Latin America Region for the International Private Client Group.
"We have assembled a world-class leadership group with the industry experience to build an innovative global advisory firm," Mooney says. "Advisors continue to move to the independent channel, and we are confident that our commitment to a values-driven partnership with global reach will set us apart for leading advisors and their clients."
According to data from Cerulli Associates, client assets and financial advisors continue to flow to the independent channel. Assets at wirehouses fell from USD5.5 trillion or 50% of the market at end 2007 to USD4.8 trillion or 43% of the market at end 2010, and the trend is expected to continue. Snowden is poised to provide best-in-class services for advisors who seek to go independent. Several advisor teams are expected to join Snowden in 2012.
"Snowden is building the kind of culture needed to restore credibility in the financial services industry today. It will be the right environment for a select number of high-performing, client-focused, values-driven advisors who want to create a superior brand," LaMothe says. "It is exactly the kind of firm I want to be involved with."
Franks says: "I have great confidence in Snowden, its people and its core philosophy of being a client-focused company."
Snowden is headquartered in New York City and its management has lived in and serviced wealth management practices throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The firm operates an SEC-registered investment adviser and affiliated broker-dealer. Snowden provides a multi-custodian, multi-currency platform, with aggregated performance reporting and leading analytical tools for clients and advisors. It further provides full operational, finance, compliance, human resources and advisor transition support to its advisors through a highly experienced management team.
