A $700 million Miami-based team managing assets for about 20 U.S. and international families is joining Sanctuary Wealth.
Hillguard Wealth Management will become a partner firm of Sanctuary Global, a subsidiary launched in 2021 built from several Florida and Texas-based teams from Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. Hillguard is joining Sanctuary from Truist and will be based in Sanctuary’s corporate office in Miami.
The firm includes CEO Marcello Zaffaroni, Chief Investment Officer Juan Martin Campuzano and Wealth Associate Ivan Flores. It offers cross-border wealth management services, including banking, investment and credit services. According to Sanctuary President Vince Fertitta, Hillguard’s international practice is “the perfect fit” for them.
“Having led and supervised international advisors for over a decade at Merrill Lynch, I know there is significant demand in the marketplace for an alternative to the way most banks and wirehouses treat that sort of business, which in far too many instances is to tolerate international clients under restrictive conditions rather than seek them out,” Fertitta said in a statement.
Zaffroni has 25 years of wealth management experience, including stints at Wachovia Wells Fargo and HSBC, before joining Truist’s predecessor firm, SunTrust. At Truist, Zaffaroni was an international wealth advisor and managing director. Campuzano was a vice president and portfolio manager with Truist Wealth (and SunTrust) and was previously an advisor for MetLife.
As part of the deal, Hillguard staff will have access to Sanctuary Open, a platform that will help them advise clients on assets held at non-custodial banks worldwide. The firm will also leverage Sanctuary’s relationships with the Bank of New York and Goldman Sachs to custody their client assets. According to Zaffaroni, this structure will be crucial for their clients.
“Sophisticated international clients want a portion of their assets in large, creditable U.S. banks,” he said in a statement. “We are pleased to work with Bank of New York, as well as Goldman Sachs, and are equally excited to add the ability to offer advice on the wealth our clients hold around the world.”
Sanctuary currently includes more than 120 partner firms in 30 states, with about $50 billion in assets on its platforms. Its subsidiaries include Sanctuary Advisors and Sanctuary Securities, as well as Sanctuary Alternative Holdings, Sanctuary Asset Management, Sanctuary Insurance Solutions, Sanctuary Global Family Office and Sanctuary Global.
Sanctuary launched its global subsidiary in 2021, mainly to reach clients in the Latin American wealth management space. The move followed Wells Fargo’s announcement earlier that year that it was withdrawing from serving international clients in its wealth divisions.
Other wirehouses had made similar moves to scale back their wealth services for foreign clients (partially due to stricter anti-money laundering regulations), but Sanctuary saw an opportunity to enter the space, according to then-President Jim Dickson.
In October, Sanctuary announced it was expanding its business consulting unit to include marketing help for its partner firms. CEO Adam Malamed told WealthManagement.com that the initiative would focus on expanding partner firms’ online presence and boosting their “digital agility.”
In May, the firm acquired tru Independence, a Portland-based RIA support platform working with 30 firms managing $12.5 billion in client assets (tru continued to operate as a separate entity from Sanctuary).
Sanctuary also recently agreed to jointly dismiss a lawsuit filed by EverNest Financial Advisors. The lawsuit centered on whether Sanctuary was justified in halting a buyback of a management interest it held in the latter firm.
