FiNet wins back a UBS team and adds an Ameriprise practice

Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network has added $460 million in client assets. The larger move came last month in New York, where Frederick Spagnola and Jon Vallaro set up Murray Street Wealth Advisors under Sullivan & Associates Wealth Management, an existing FiNet practice. They manage more than $320 million.

It is a homecoming. Spagnola and Vallaro worked at Wells Fargo Advisors from 2009 to 2015. They spent the next 11 years at UBS. Their partnership dates to Citicorp in the early 2000s. Spagnola, a former managing director, has 38 years in the industry. Vallaro has 21.

On the West Coast, Gabriel Armancas registered with FiNet last week as Turquoise Private Wealth in Woodland Hills, California. The move takes his roughly $140 million practice off the Ameriprise platform. Armancas has spent 11 years in the business. He spent nearly four of those years at Ameriprise, according to FiNet and his LinkedIn profile.

The new business lands in a busy week for independent platforms. PWD's tracking shows $2.93 billion pulled from legacy employee books earlier this week. FiNet sells ownership to advisors who spent years on a wirehouse grid, and Spagnola and Vallaro are evidence the pitch works. The bank-channel breakaway is still early innings; each liftout makes the next one easier to close.