Sowell builds in-house tax and estate depth for wealthy clients
The Arkansas RIA's new Advanced Planning Group is meant to anchor Cache River Private Wealth, its division for households with $5 million or more.
Wealthy clients increasingly expect the estate, tax, and succession answers that used to live inside family offices, and Sowell Management is betting that the RIA that staffs those answers in-house keeps the relationship when a liquidity event arrives. On August 31, the North Little Rock, Arkansas firm launched an Advanced Planning Group to serve high-net-worth individuals, wealthy families, and small-business owners, with specialists spanning estate planning, tax strategy, business succession, asset protection, wealth transfer, and multigenerational legacy planning.
The unit will sit across both the Sowell platform and Cache River Private Wealth, the wholly owned division Sowell started in April 2026 for households with $5 million or more in net worth. The firm calls Cache River purpose-built for 'discerning advisors and high-net-worth families,' and the new planning group is meant to be its centerpiece.
Carrie Quraishi, JD, director of advanced planning, will co-lead the group with JR Quraishi, director of tax planning, who will head a tax overlay discipline that weaves tax efficiency through every planning service rather than sitting in a separate column.
Bill Sowell, founder and chief strategy officer, framed the move as equipping advisors with tools beyond conventional portfolio management: 'As clients accumulate wealth, their financial lives become increasingly complex, with needs that extend beyond traditional investment management.' Carrie Quraishi added that wealthy clients increasingly expect the level of service historically reserved for family offices — business sales, liquidity events, succession planning, and multigenerational wealth transfer.
The wider RIA industry is running the same play. InvestmentNews notes that Homrich Berg recently added a tax planning specialist to strengthen its ultra-high-net-worth offering, as mid-sized firms build planning depth in-house rather than referring it out. For a household with $5 million or more, the firm that can answer the estate, tax, and succession questions internally keeps the relationship in the building.
Data