Janney opens Houston office with $3.5B team as Rockefeller adds Naples group

Janney Montgomery Scott opened a Houston office on Oct. 16 with four advisors from Raymond James overseeing nearly $3.5 billion in client assets, its second Texas foothold after Dallas in 2025. Rockefeller Global Family Office added The Kellam Group to its Naples, Florida, presence from Truist, led by Gordon Kellam, a private advisor and managing director with more than 25 years of experience.

The four Houston advisors carried nearly as much as the 13 advisors Janney added in all of the first quarter of 2026. That period was the firm's strongest recruiting in more than a decade, when more than $3.5 billion in client assets came in. Against 2025, when 33 advisors joined with more than $6.5 billion, the Houston team alone accounts for more than half of a record year's recruited assets.

The group is anchored by the Edwards Fitzpatrick Group, led by managing directors Sean Fitzpatrick and James "Jim" Edwards, both previously recognized by Forbes as Best-in-State Wealth Advisors and by Barron's among its Top 1,200 Financial Advisors. Lance Murphy, a senior vice president, and Christin Simon, a vice president of investments who has worked with the group since 2013, join them.

Fitzpatrick said the team evaluated platforms, cultures and capabilities and that Janney "stood out for the combination of personal attention and sophisticated resources." Kevin Reed, president of Janney's Private Client Group, said the hires show advisors choosing the firm for "greater flexibility, personalized support, and the capabilities they need to serve complex clients."

Both additions are established teams, not solo breakaways. Each unit arrives with named leaders and shared tenure — Simon has been with her group since 2013 — which is the employee-channel block trade this publication has argued is now the unit of transfer.

Janney's disclosed numbers show how much a single team now moves. The 33 advisors who joined in 2025 averaged roughly $200 million each; the four Houston advisors average roughly $875 million.