Sanctuary Wealth, a support platform for breakaway advisors, announced its latest addition, with SkyPath Private Wealth, a Short Hills, N.J., team with approximately $1.2 billion in client assets, joining from Merrill Lynch.

The six-person team comprises founding partners Kevin Pearly, James Rohmann, Steven Filiaci and Ken Hopkins, along with Senior Registered Wealth Associate Susan Hoyt and Registered Wealth Associate Jessica McGowan.

Related: RIA Edge Podcast: Sanctuary Wealth’s Jim Dickson on Balancing M&A and Organic Growth

“Breakaway advisors just want to be free,” Sanctuary CEO Jim Dickson said during the 2022 RIA EDGE Conference in Hollywood, Fla., this month. “They don’t want to be told not what to do anymore. That’s the heritage of where Sanctuary was founded.”

Dickson, who spent more than 20 years in leadership at Merrill before launching Sanctuary in May 2018, said in the Mindy Diamond on Independence podcast that an increasing focus on shareholders at the wirehouse, exacerbated by a merger with Bank of America, is what caused him to shift focus four years ago.

Related: Mindy Diamond on Independence: Sanctuary Wealth $25B Later

“Honestly,” he explained, “I felt over time that the advisor just kept getting pushed out more and more.”

“There is an amazing amount of young talent in the breakaway space,” Dickson said in Florida, pointing out that larger institutions don’t exactly teach departing advisors the finer points of running their own firm. “What we try to figure out is how we can take what they do best and bring them into our culture, bring them into our process, to become better.”

Pearly spent nearly 22 years at Merrill, where he ended his tenure as a senior vice president.

“We want to solve all of our clients’ financial needs with the ability to use the best financial planning tools, investment solutions and banking/lending platforms the industry has to offer,” Pearly said in a statement announcing the deal. “Joining Sanctuary allows us to do that.”

Pearly also said that Sanctuary’s own history and experience with the institutional space provided an “added benefit,” adding that Paul Sullivan, who currently serves as managing director for Sanctuary’s first New York office, was his direct market executive early in his career at Merrill.

“Kevin and I began talking about the benefits of partnered independence,” said Sullivan, who was instrumental in recruiting the SkyPath team. “His interest grew and spread to three other financial advisors from Merrill Lynch.”

Rohmann, Filiaci, and Hopkins all joined Merrill in 2013, rising to leadership positions before bringing their combined 70-plus years of experience to SkyPath and Sanctuary. Both Rohmann and Filiaci also previously served in leadership positions at Morgan Stanley.

“We were really impressed with Sanctuary’s open architecture platform and how intuitive they are in terms of adding technology, investment solutions and other tools that allow partner firms to better serve the needs of their clients,” said Rohmann.

Hopkins said he is looking forward to having “access to not only the best investment platforms, but also the best planning software” in crafting customized solutions for clients.

Sullivan said that Sanctuary has leased space in the same New Jersey location as SkyPath, "to ensure that we give New Jersey its rightful attention and I have the opportunity to source and further develop market share for Sanctuary."

“New York City is the financial capital of the world, and we will continue to aggressively build out our presence in the area,” said Dickson, who told WealthManagement.com last summer that expanding into the New York City metropolitan area would help to establish the rapidly growing firm as “a global player.”

“In addition to SkyPath Private Wealth,” he said, “we’ve recently added top teams in the tri-state region as we maintain and develop our community of the industry’s best talent.”

Sanctuary has added eight new teams in 2022, including Questar Capital in Paramus, N.J.

Currently, the Sanctuary Wealth network includes more than 70 partner firms across 25 states with around $25 billion in assets under advisement. The Sanctuary Wealth Group includes the fully owned subsidiaries Sanctuary Advisors, its RIA; the broker/dealer Sanctuary Securities; Sanctuary Asset Management; Sanctuary Insurance Solutions; Sanctuary Global; and Sanctuary Global Tax and Family Office.

American Real Estate Partners in collaboration with Independencia Asset Management have sold Merrill Lynch’s corporate campus in Hopewell Township, N.J., for $95 million. The asset comprises three Class A office buildings totaling 380,417 square feet.

READ ALSO: New York City’s Recovery: Can History Help Estimate the Timeline?

Located at 1100-1200 American Blvd., the property was built in 2000 as Merrill Lynch’s corporate campus. Amenities include a high-quality technology infrastructure, meeting and conference space and fitness and cafeteria options, AREP told Commercial Property Executive.

The office space is fully leased to Merrill Lynch, which was acquired by Bank of America in 2008, until November 2024, AREP also told CPE. With a reliable tenant, AREP and Independencia acquired the office campus in 2013. Following the sale, AREP will continue to lease and manage 1100-1200 American as part of the agreement. Cushman & Wakefield was the exclusive agent for the transaction.

According to David Bernhaut, executive vice chairman of Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets Group, the corporate campus is situated in the fifth-largest market in the U.S., between New York City and Philadelphia. AREP also broke ground on a 260,000-square-foot office tower in a Philadelphia suburb alongside its development partners, Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp. and Partners Group. Bernhaut added in his prepared statement that 1100-1200 American was a quality property with a long-term tenant which kept the offices well-maintained over the years.

Negative absorption in North and Central Jersey

The neighborhood is part of New Jersey’s Princeton/Route 1 Corridor submarket that has seen a 20 percent increase in Class A asking rents since 2004, according to AREP. However, the overall North and Central New Jersey office market is suffering due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to CBRE’s first quarter report of 2020.

According to the report, net absorption of North and Central New Jersey hit a negative 252,000 square feet and ended the momentum of three previous quarters of positive absorption. Alongside the negative absorption, the market’s availability rate increased to more than 19 percent. Looking at just Central New Jersey, the submarket saw a 60 percent increase in leasing activity totaling 502,000 square feet and registered a positive net absorption of 175,000 square feet.

Brian Katz, president & co-founder of AREP, said in prepared remarks that all parties were able to get the transaction done despite operating in the most complicated environment they’ve experienced.

For eighth year in a row, New Jersey's Kugel named to Barron's Top 1,200 list

Neighbor

Bridgewater, NJ – Merrill Lynch announced today that Financial Advisor Elliott Kugel of New Jersey has been recognized as a top advisor by Barron’s magazine in its annual "America's Top 1,200 Advisors: State-by-State" list for 2017. This is the eighth year in a row that Kugel has made the list.

“Elliott’s recognition on this list demonstrates the high standards he upholds to ensure consistent quality service and experience for his clients. He embodies what it means to be a top advisor in the financial industry. It’s not just about following the market and trends; it’s about following the life priorities and goals of your clients and coming up with sound financial strategies to help achieve them. We are proud to support Elliott as he continues to lead by example in years to come,” said Keith Henry, Managing Director- Market Executive.

Advisors considered for the "America's Top 1,200 Advisors: State-by-State" ranking have a minimum of seven years’ financial services experience and have been employed at their current firm for at least one year. Quantitative and qualitative measures used to determine the advisor rankings include client assets, return on assets, client satisfaction/retention, compliance records, and community involvement, among others. Barron’s does not receive compensation from advisors, participating firms and their affiliates, or the media in exchange for rankings.

Kugel resides in Skillman, NJ, and has been a part of Merrill Lynch’s Bridgewater office for 25 years.

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management

Find out what's happening in Bridgewaterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management is a leading provider of comprehensive wealth management and investment services for individuals and businesses globally. With 14,629 financial advisors and $2.1 trillion in client balances as of December 31, 2016, it is among the largest businesses of its kind in the world. Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management specializes in goals-based wealth management, including planning for retirement, education, legacy, and other life goals through investment, cash and credit management. Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management is part of Bank of America Corporation.

Merrill Lynch makes available products and services offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (MLPF&S) and other subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation.

Investment Products:

MLPF&S is a registered broker-dealer, a registered investment advisor, Member SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation.

© 2017 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. AR8DMJWL

New Jersey-based Alex Guiliano, founder of Resonate Wealth Partners, left Merrill Lynch to join LPL under the IBD’s Strategic Wealth Services division.

Financial advisor Alexander “Alex” Guiliano left Merrill Lynch and launched a new independent practice, Resonate Wealth Partners, through an affiliation with LPL, the independent broker/dealer announced Thursday.

Guiliano managed some $1 billion in advisory, brokerage and retirement assets at Merrill Lynch, according to a press release, and will join LPL under its Strategic Wealth Services division.

Related: Nebraska Team With $750 Million AUM Joins LPL’s Strategic Wealth Services

“I was at a stage in my career where I wanted to look at options across the landscape in search for the best home for my clients and their families over the next few decades,” Guiliano said in the release. “I wanted the freedom and flexibility to set up the client experience the way I wanted and build the business on my own terms with the right partners.”

Based in Ridgewood, N.J., Resonate Wealth Partners was founded by Guiliano “with the mission to help multi-generational families own their ambitions and long-term

goals while also navigating the many financial decisions in front of them,” stated the release.

Related: Exclusive: LPL Recruits First Independent Practice Into SWS

Guiliano is joined by Debbie Appaluccio and Renee Purita, both directors of client relations.

In April 2020, LPL Financial went live with its SWS offering, which was created for advisors with over $200 million in AUM coming out of the wirehouses or regional full-service firms.

LPL provides SWS advisors with a “high-touch” personalized service meant to replicate the kind of business support many got as employees of a full-service firm. That includes transition advice, assistance onboarding clients, securing real estate, installing technology and setting up compliance and marketing programs.

After the advisor has moved, LPL gives ongoing support with a chief financial officer consultant, a senior marketing strategist, technology support, and provides remote administrative assistants and a dedicated service team.

“The Strategic Wealth program lets me focus on building the client experience without having to focus on day-to-day operations,” Guiliano said.

Guiliano, whose clients include a number of high net worth investors, said he was also attracted to LPL’s private client services, including specialty planning around charitable giving, legacy planning and trusts.

This past summer, LPL unveiled the LPL LPL Private Client Services Network, connecting advisors with outside financial service providers for HNW clients who need customized finance and investment options for situations like diversifying concentrated stock positions or executive compensation plans.

Twenty six firms have joined LPL in the SWS channel since it launched, according to a spokesperson. In March, Richard DeYoung and Jessica Boehm, principals of Highland Wealth Partners based in The Woodlands, Texas, joined LPL SWS from Wells Fargo Advisors, where they managed about $280 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets.

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — A sprawling, 450-acre Merrill Lynch office campus overlooking Interstate 95 here would be sold and leased back under a Bank of America plan to raise cash by unloading real estate.

Built in the late 1990s, the horseshoe-shaped complex comprises 1.7 million square feet of office space. In 2009, the Merrill campus was valued at more than $386 million, and Real Estate Alert, a commercial real estate publication, estimated this week the property exchange could mark the largest-ever real estate transaction in New Jersey.

Up to 6,500 workers were employed at the Merrill offices in 2008, a number that Bank of America, the parent company, declined to update. Bank of America acquired Merrill in 2009 after the once-proud brokerage lost its footing amid the recession.

Bank spokesman T.J. Crawford said “there will be no immediate impact to employees” in Hopewell, although Bank of America last September began a multi-year effort to shed 30,000 jobs.

“Commercial real estate ownership is not a core business for Bank of America, which is why we’ve decided to sell our interests in the Hopewell campus,” Crawford said.

The bank will lease and continue to utilize the campus space following the sale, Crawford said. The campus currently houses employees of Bank of America and its Merrill unit, Crawford said.

Merrill originally developed the office campus as a place for servicing the brokerage’s customers via phone operations. Other back office functions were also intended to be stationed there. The brokerage subsequently underwent many upheavals due to market and other conditions.

Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is overseeing marketing for the sale of the Hopewell property. A representative declined to comment on the process.

However, the New Jersey property may fetch about $400 million, making it the biggest office sale ever in the state, Real Estate Alert said yesterday, attributing its information to “market players.”

A deal at $400 million would exceed the $377.5 million paid in October by a partnership including Seattle-based Bentall Kennedy LP for the 36-story, 1.1 million-square-foot Newport Tower in Jersey City. That was the highest price on record for a New Jersey office property, said Dan Fasulo, managing director for Real Capital Analytics Inc., a New York research firm that tracks commercial property sales.

A Bank of American spokesperson revealed in February that the bank was considering selling all of its offices — with the exception of its headquarters in North Carolina and New York City — in order to cut up to $8 billion in annual expenses.

In March, the bank sold its property at 100 Federal St. in Boston for $615 million. Bank of America agreed to sell the Hearst Tower in Charlotte, N.C., to Parkway Properties for more than $250 million, it was reported earlier this month.

“The company continues to sell non-core business units and assets that don’t support its strategy,” a statement from the bank said, “thereby strengthening the balance sheet, and improving capital and liquidity.”

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.