Elevation Level, an funding agency launched in June by former Sanctuary Wealth CEO Jim Dickson, has employed Caitlin Douglas, former managing director of transition companies and co-head of service at Dynasty Monetary Companions, as its chief working officer.
“As we have been able to launch and begin to transition groups, and spend money on groups, it was actually vital for us to have a COO that would actually do this at a excessive degree and construct a workforce at a excessive degree,” Dickson stated.
Douglas has almost 20 years of expertise within the wealth administration business. She spent the final six years at Dynasty, the place she transitioned numerous breakaway advisors in addition to M&A tuck-ins to current accomplice companies. Previous to that, she was director of shopper companies at Keeney Monetary Group in Columbia, Md., an RIA that was acquired by Beacon Pointe earlier this yr.
The Elevation Level function represents the following stage in Douglas’s profession, she stated. She’ll lead the agency’s operations and repair group.
“I undoubtedly have the monitor document of transitioning groups, however I feel my greatest value-add is actually going to be in that COO function,” she stated. “What I’m most enthusiastic about is the chance to take not solely the learnings of transitioning groups and constructing out a shopper service mannequin, however I even have been in a position to construct these RIAs from the bottom up, time over time. And that’s actually each single piece of the enterprise, something from compliance to investments to actual property. You identify it; I’ve had my arms in it.”
Douglas stated she’s going to construct the workforce over the approaching months and conduct analysis into the know-how programs the agency will use, with an emphasis on full integration.
Dickson introduced the launch of Elevation Level in June. The agency will take minority stakes in RIAs with $200 million to $3 billion in shopper property and contribute assets to assist these companies develop. He partnered with Mark Penske, founder and chairman of United Atlantic Capital, a privately-owned monetary companies holding firm, on the brand new enterprise.
Along with the launch, the agency acquired Mount Yale Capital Group, an RIA and outsourced chief funding officer with $3.4 billion in property underneath administration, to supply the middle- and back-office enterprise capabilities to help advisors.
Since then, Dickson has been constructing out his workforce. In July, he added Bradford Smithy and Robert B. Tamarkin, former UBS executives, as founding companions. They serve on the chief committee and concentrate on partnership improvement and Elevation’s development and enlargement efforts. That may embrace working to establish partnership alternatives, serving to set the general strategic imaginative and prescient for Elevation Level and expertise acquisition.
The agency additionally employed Ryanne Gardner, a former BNY’s Pershing govt, as head of accomplice integration.
In August, Naomi Stein joined from Corient as director of platform.
Most lately, Kelly Berenbaum, founder and lead planner at Blue Tree Monetary, got here on as director of shopper expertise.
Dickson stated the pipeline of potential RIA companions is “overflowing.” He expects to shut just a few offers within the fourth quarter and see much more exercise within the first quarter of 2025 as Elevation Level launches its breakaway enterprise.
Elevation Level was launched by means of an oversubscribed funding spherical from a mixture of household workplace buyers and a few debt capital.
One other business publication lately reported that the agency was pursuing a sale of a minority stake, however Dickson stated they aren’t seeking to promote any a part of the agency however solely partaking in a regular technique of vetting company financing choices. The agency is, in reality, seeking to increase its household workplace capital with some debt, as rates of interest go decrease.
“Like all giant establishment, you’re at all times taking a look at your supply of capital, and with charges coming down, we’re taking a look at doubtlessly utilizing debt in our capital construction and seeing if that’s proper,” Dickson stated. “It’s simply good company citizenship that you’d at all times have a look at what’s on the market, and after we began to take a look at the debt markets as a possible alternative to overlay over our current capital, we had a ton of curiosity. We’ve very merely requested any individual to coordinate that course of.”
