Another advisory team that joined J.P. Morgan Wealth Management after the firm bought First Republic is opting to leave.
In this case, a Boston-based team led by Brian Nagle, which manages about $1 billion in client assets, is leaving J.P. Morgan for Citizens.
Nagle’s departure follows that of a San Francisco team of former First Republic advisors with about $5 billion in managed assets, who also decided to join Citizens from JP Morgan in April.
Nagle is becoming a managing director at Citizens Private Wealth, running a team that specializes in managing equity and balanced portfolios for ultra-high-net-worth clients, trusts, endowments and foundations. Nagle joined First Republic in 2013. Before that, he was a vice president and senior portfolio manager with BNY Mellon Wealth Management, according to J.P. Morgan’s profile of Nagle.
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse sent shockwaves through the banking industry last March, with First Republic succumbing as one of the victims in its aftermath. It became the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history (and the fourth regional bank to fall after SVB).
Regulators briefly seized First Republic before JPMorgan Chase stepped in, acquiring about $173 billion of First Republic’s loans, $30 billion in securities and $92 billion in deposits. First Republic Wealth Management managed approximately $290 billion in client assets at the time of the crisis.
Many First Republic advisors opted to move to JPMorgan after the collapse, including Nagle, who became a managing director and wealth manager with J.P. Morgan Wealth Management while based in Boston.
“Citizens Private Wealth offers a platform that elevates how we serve clients with the most complex needs,” Nagle said about the transition.
Additionally, Citizens announced that Mark Thompson, the former CEO of Boston Private Bank and president of Cambridge Trust, would become the market executive for Citizens Private Bank’s Boston office, which opened this year. According to Citizens, Thompson’s appointment and Nagle’s move were part of a broader firm effort to focus on Boston.
In April, Citizens announced a former San Francisco-based First Republic team would join from JPMorgan. The team included senior managing directors Rick Gordon and Hugh Beecher and managing director Andrew Curto. Beecher previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, while Gordon cut his teeth at Barclays and Lehman Brothers; both joined First Republic in 2016, according to FINRA records.
The Citizens teams weren’t the only former First Republic advisors to leave JPMorgan in recent months.
The same week as the move by Gordon, Beecher and Curto, a Florida-based 12-person team with $3.5 billion AUM that made the move from First Republic to JPMorgan opted to leave for Merrill Lynch. The team included four wealth managers and six client associates.
In April, Cresset added two San Francisco-based teams totaling $5 billion in managed assets from J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. The teams, which originated at First Republic, included three lead advisors and 12 supporting advisors who managed assets for 160 client households. In March, Rockefeller Capital Management recruited another former First Republic, Califorinia-based team managing about $922 million in assets from JPMorgan.
The move from First Republic to JPMorgan was a “full circle” move for many of the former bank’s advisors. Many of them started their careers in massive brokerages before joining First Republic, only to find themselves back at a massive firm after the purchase. A 2023 WealthManagement.com analysis found that 69% of First Republic advisors joined from a wirehouse or large firm, including Ameriprise, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Raymond James and Credit Suisse, among others).
