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Goldman Adviser Who Managed $1.4 Billion Leaves to Open Own Firm

Banks have been losing some of their most experienced and profitable wealth advisers to upstart firms.

Goldman Adviser Who Managed $1.4 Billion Leaves to Open Own Firm
The Goldman Sachs & Co. logo is displayed at the company’s booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S. (Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. veteran Gary Hirschberg is the latest executive to leave a high-profile bank and start an independent wealth-management firm.

Hirschberg, 39, is chief executive officer of Chicago-based Aaron Wealth Advisors, which will operate in partnership with Dynasty Financial Partners, according to a statement Monday. He worked at Goldman Sachs since 2006, where he supervised $1.4 billion in individual and institutional client assets, according to the statement.

Banks have been losing some of their most experienced and profitable wealth advisers to upstart firms. Over the past three years, ultra-high-net-worth assets overseen by independent multifamily offices have grown 10 percent on average each year, about five times as fast as assets held at private banks, Cerulli Associates estimates.

High-profile departures include Goldman Sachs’s Frank Ghali, who oversaw about $10 billion in client assets before leaving to start Jordan Park Group last year. In 2016, Margaret Dechant led her 13-person team, then managing $2 billion, out of Morgan Stanley to form 6 Meridian.

“I realized the world of independent wealth management had changed significantly,” Hirschberg said in the statement. “The wealth-management technology was now stellar, access to diverse investment options and research in the independent space had exploded, and it was very attractive to have the flexibility to run a brand free of institutional constraints.”

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs had no immediate comment.

Among those joining Hirschberg at Aaron Wealth Advisors are David VanFossen from BMO Harris Bank, who is chief operating officer; Bill Andrakakos from Northern Trust Corp., director of investments; and Morgan Stanley’s Georgette Condos, who oversees client service, according to the statement.

--With assistance from Simone Foxman.

To contact the reporter on this story: Reade Pickert in New York at epickert@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Dan Reichl

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