By Michael Wursthorn 

A half dozen financial advisers from Barclays PLC's U.S. wealth-management group, including its former head, have left the firm to form a multi-billion-dollar independent practice with national ambitions.

In doing so, they passed on joining Stifel Financial Corp., the regional brokerage to which Barclays has agreed to sell its U.S. wealth business.

Former Barclays U.S. wealth head Jack Petersen launched Summit Trail Advisers on Monday with five partners spread across New York, Chicago and San Francisco--and with more than $3 billion in client assets. Mr. Petersen, the firm's managing partner, is based in New York.

Mr. Petersen, who is starting the firm with the support of Dynasty Financial Partners, has lofty aims for Summit, from using his industry contacts to recruit more advisers to opening more offices to forming an in-house research desk.

"The footprint will be national," Mr. Petersen said. "We will develop that over time at the appropriate time, and the focus of this business is our existing clients."

The 49-year-old Mr. Petersen has the experience of running a large, national firm.

After 10 years as an adviser at Morgan Stanley through the 1990s, he left for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., where he eventually oversaw the firm's regional wealth offices through the firm's 2008 bankruptcy. He then helped negotiate the unit's sale to Barclays. Following that, he led Barclays's wealth operations in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean until 2010, choosing to step down then, take a sabbatical and finally return in 2011 as an adviser.

About two years ago, Mr. Petersen began exploring the independent space, a burgeoning segment within the wealth-management industry that is expected to surpass the traditional big brokerages, in terms of market share by assets, before this decade's end.

"What has been most impressive to me from the time I started looking into this is how positive and excited people are in this channel," said Mr. Petersen.

Mr. Petersen said he and his partners-- James Cantelupe, Peter Lee, Tom Palecek, David Romhilt and John Scarborough--plan to add more offices in other cities. They also aim to build a research team in New York under the direction of Mr. Romhilt, Summit's chief investment officer and the former head of manager due diligence at Barclays.

"It'll be a large research team built over the next coming months," said Mr. Petersen. "That team will be leveraged by all of our advisers and will be a similar model to what we used at Lehman, Barclays and Morgan Stanley."

The cost of building a research team can be onerous, which is why many independent firms opt to subscribe to third-party research providers. But Mr. Petersen says proprietary research will be a differentiator used to support the firm's growth as it looks to recruit advisers focused on the ultra-high-net-worth client segment.

For Barclays, the departures are the latest since the London-based bank agreed in June to sell its U.S. wealth-management operation to Stifel. Stifel, meanwhile, has been working to secure the employment of the 180 advisers employed there at the time of the deal's announcement.

But a number of those advisers have opted to depart from Barclays instead. So far, at least 12% of Barclays's 180 advisers, including the six who formed Summit, have turned down offers to join Stifel. Fifteen advisers managing more than $1.75 billion left for Merrill Lynch, and one adviser who managed $1 billion in client assets joined Morgan Stanley recently.

Mr. Peterson and his partners did evaluate Stifel's deal, which pays Barclays advisers 150% of their last 12 months of production in exchange for joining the firm. But he said they remained committed to their plan.

Barclays's sale includes an agreement for Stifel to be the U.S. private-wealth distribution partner for certain Barclays equities and credit new-issue securities in the U.S., a key aspect that will secure the employment of many Barclays advisers for Stifel, Mr. Petersen and industry recruiters have said. That access to new issues is "an attractive asset and why many numbers of advisers go to Stifel," said Mr. Petersen.

For Mr. Petersen and his partners, that agreement wasn't attractive since it represents a small portion of their business.

Brokerage recruiters have said they expect many Barclays advisers to join Stifel, but added that those who were unhappy or who don't find Stifel appealing will either shop for better deals or go independent. Firms like Merrill can offer big teams more attractive offers, sometimes more than double what Stifel is putting forward, recruiters said.

It wasn't clear how many Barclays advisers have signaled to Stifel that they plan to join the firm since a spokesman there didn't respond to a message seeking comment.

Stifel Chief Executive Ron Kruszewski said on June 8, the day the deal was announced, that the he expected a "significant majority of Barclays' investment representatives" to join. Mr. Petersen declined to say whether more Barclays advisers would join his firm, but he pointed to his leadership roles and time spent hiring advisers as being an asset during Summit's recruitment of advisers.

Write to Michael Wursthorn at michael.wursthorn@wsj.com

Access Investor Kit for Barclays Plc

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=GB0031348658

Access Investor Kit for Barclays Plc

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US06738E2046

Access Investor Kit for Stifel Financial Corp.

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US8606301021

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

Barclays (NYSE:BCS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Barclays Charts.
Barclays (NYSE:BCS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Barclays Charts.