Three associates of HighTower Advisors have left the registered investment advisor to open a branch for LJ Partnership, a London-based private wealth manager that oversees more than $14 billion in client assets, including individuals, family offices and institutions across the globe.
Christopher Shin, who was previously a managing director and partner at HighTower Advisors, joined LJ Partnership as a partner and will head the firm’s first New York City office. Jeffrey Fulk, another former managing director at HighTower Advisors, is joining Shin as a managing director in the new branch.
Shin was previously the head of U.S. portfolio management at Guggenheim Investment Advisors and also held senior roles at Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns.
Katharine Drake also left HighTower for LJ Partnership’s new office where she will be a registered client service associate. Prior to that, she was part of the same U.S. portfolio management team and worked for private wealth groups at both Raymond James and Merrill Lynch.
It’s unclear the amount of client assets the new team was managing before joining LJ Partnership. Shin and Fulk were overseeing approximately $325 million in client assets when they left Guggenheim Partners for HighTower in 2015.
No one at the new office could be reached for comment on the move.
LJ Partnership’s New York City office is the firm’s eighth location and the second in the U.S. It also has an office in Miami and plans to continue to expand in North America, according to a statement from the firm.
The private wealth manager has more than 200 employees across the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Chicago-based HighTower Advisors, like other large registered investment advisors, continued to attract advisors in 2017, but also purchased other RIAs. including its largest to date, WealthTrust, with $6.4 billion in assets.
