(South Business Journal) - A wealth management team has left Bank of America Private Bank to join Tampa, Florida-based Fidelis Capital, a private equity firm founded in 2022 by former Wells Fargo and BofA advisors.
The five-person team, who managed more than $4.5 billion in assets of ultra-high-net-worth clients at Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), will be based at the firm's new office in Washington, D.C. Fidelis, which is among the first private equity firms launched by bankers from rival institutions, said the group represents one of the largest wealth management teams to exit a private bank.
The new members include Christopher Tate, partner and wealth strategist; Michael Sellers, portfolio manager; Benjamin Hilyard, partner and fiduciary specialist; Aaron Wall, portfolio manager; and Ashley Connor, client service associate.
They said they joined Fidelis due to being "frustrated by the constant turnover and inability to provide solutions that they believed their clients deserved at (BofA)."
"As the founders of Fidelis Capital did, this team is making the transition to independence in search of an environment more amenable to the complex, ultra-high-net-worth wealth planning that their clients need," said Rick Simonetti, the firm's founding partner, CEO and head of wealth planning, in a statement.
The group brings more than seven decades of combined industry experience to the table. Tate most recently served as a wealth strategies advisor and senior vice president at Bank of America Private Bank. Sellers' last role there was managing director and senior portfolio manager.
Hilyard served as managing director and senior trust officer with BofA Private Bank's trust division. Wall most recently held roles as a senior vice president and portfolio manager at the bank. And Connor was formerly BofA Private Bank's portfolio management senior associate.
Sellers and Tate said with the move, the group will have access to a wider range of offerings for its clients, as well as have the capability to provide more than one advisor to assist with their needs.
"Instead of the common industry practice of providing clients with access to one primary advisor, we surround families with a team of subject matter experts, who each specialize in a particular field and are in touch with the industry as a whole, to be able to seek out in-depth solutions to complex problems," Tate said in a statement.
The private bankers' move to Fidelis follows hundreds of other advisers that have left banking giants to join independent firms. For example, a group of advisers at Wells Fargo left the institution in March to launch their own Charlotte-based independent wealth management practice. And Amy Lawrence, a former BofA Private Bank adviser, left the firm to open her own practice in Miami in late May.
Fidelis Capital, with about $602 million in assets under management, has offices in Tampa, Dallas and Washington, D.C. It was established in August 2022 by two advisor groups who held a combined $6 billion in client assets at Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and BofA.
By Symone Graham
