A team of Merrill Lynch advisors with more than $1 billion in assets under management is going independent, choosing to deal with Schwab.
Michelle Gruber and Alex Markowitz are forming Alteri Wealth in Westlake Village, California, about 10 miles outside of Malibu. The firm will specialize in working with business founders and entrepreneurs, doctors, athletes, entertainers, women in transition to retirement and “caregivers” who want multigenerational planning.
“We found ourselves wondering if there was a better way to serve customers,” Gruber said. “The establishment of Alteri Wealth is the culmination of our vision and provides us with the freedom and framework necessary to fulfill our mission, embracing the standard of trust and always acting in the best interest of our clients.”
Senior Vice President Matthew Mullaly is also joining Gruber and Markowitz; the trio worked together at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. The Alteri team also includes Veronica Hoy as chief operating officer, Roseann Higgins as chief compliance officer, Breann Young as client relationship manager, Celina Whinery as client operations manager and Cheyenne Meinecke as client experience manager.
In addition to wealth management services for high net worth clients, the firm will operate as a family office for very high net worth families, with a focus on tax and trust planning and wealth transfer.
Gruber and Markowitz spent 15 and 13 years at Merrill, respectively. Gruber joined the industry in 2002 at UBS after working in commercial mortgages, and she focuses on financial planning, tax minimization and generating wealth transfer. Markowitz originally pursued a medical degree, but he moved into financial services with Merrill in 2011, eventually becoming a senior vice president.
According to Markowitz, the firm needed a custodian/intermediary after going on its own, and they chose Charles Schwab “because of their powerful platform” and the access independent firms get thanks to Schwab Advisor Services and the Advisor Family Office Schwab.
In recent weeks, Merrill has lost several teams in the freelance space, including one The $490 million Florida-based team who left the wire to start his own firm connecting to Raymond James' independent advisor channel. In late April, a Texas-based adviser with about $820 million in assets under management jumped ship from Merrill Lynch to join LPL's independent model.