Another Breakaway Wealth Team Joins Dynasty Platform

Tom Burroughes

14 May 2019

A group of advisors, who had been with UBS, have hooked up with Dynasty Financial Partners to start their own firm, Great Diamond Partners, based in Portland, Maine.
The move by the seven professionals - including four advisors - is part of a continued trend of people breaking away to form their own businesses, benefiting organizations such as Dynasty.

The wealth advisors at the new firm are Steven Tenney, Joseph Powers, Helen Andreoli and Jack Piper, Dynasty said in a statement. Great Diamond Partners intends to bring in more staff over time.

Tenney is the chief executive and founding partner of Great Diamond Partners. He has worked at UBS since 1993, most recently as senior vice president and senior portfolio manager.

Powers, who had worked at UBS as a private wealth advisor since 2000, leads the financial planning and insurance strategies focus for Great Diamond Partners.

Andreoli is the chief financial officer and a founding partner; she is a 20-year veteran of the financial services industry, having worked at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and UBS Financial Services.

As a founding partner, Jack previously worked as a financial advisor at UBS Wealth Management for four years. Prior to that, he worked at Bainco International Investors in Boston, holding a variety of positions before ultimately serving as a portfolio strategist.

Great Diamond Partners’ advisors are Certified Exit Planning Advisors and Certified Financial Planners.

Breaking away
Dynasty has told this publication that the trend of advisors leaving large, established firms to form their own organizations is not slowing down. A shift towards fee-based advice, demand for closer alignment between advisor and client, as well as regulatory and other challenges, are driving the change. Dynasty provides services, including capital-raising advice, to advisors building out firms, transitions, and other changes.

“The breakaway movement is reaching a tipping point. Again and again, some of the best advisors in the industry are seeking true independence as the model that is best for their clients, their employees, and themselves. We are seeing veteran advisors with 20 plus years at their firms choosing to take the road to independence and this movement is accelerating,” Shirl Penney, CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners, said.

In late April, Dynasty hailed newbie firm American Partners as the largest breakaway so far this year, overseeing more than $6 billion of client assets. To see a recent joiner to Dynasty's platform in May, click here.

Great Diamond is one of the largest financial advisory teams on the Dynasty platform, Penney added.

The new business has chosen Schwab to provide custody services for its clients’ assets and Black Diamond for consolidated asset and performance reporting.