A group of former Merrill Lynch & Co. advisors launched an independent investment advisory company seven months ago in Houston that is already attracting advisors from other wirehouses.
Old Course Investment Partners LLC plans to double the size of its advisory staff and its $250 million in assets under management in the next 12 months, according to Blaine Douglas, one of its managing directors. How will it accomplish that? By adding advisors who are also disgruntled with the limitations of working at a wirehouse.

“We all got to a point where we were no longer seeing the huge advantage or huge differentiator of being at a wirehouse,” Douglas said. “We are now able to service our clients with the latest and greatest products from an independent platform. Ultimately, the decision as an advisor has to come down to what is best for our clients. The bottom line is the clients trust us and will come with us whether we work for an independent company or a wirehouse.”

On Thursday, the firm announced it hired its ninth advisor, Grace Yung, as a senior vice president. Yung, a certified financial planner, worked for UBS Wealth Management for 15 years and has $50 million in assets under management. She said the ability to offer a broader array of products and services to her clients ultimately led her to leave UBS.

“There are a lot of good investment products and services out there that you can’t offer in a wirehouse,” she said. “We were limited to certain companies that were approved by the wirehouse. There were limitations about software and technology. This channel just offered me the independence for me and my clients.”

Old Course, which offers securities through LPL Financial, is starting to develop traction, Douglas said. He said he expects to continue attracting advisors from the wirehouse firms. “We are seeing good opportunity and generating strong referrals and adding assets from our past relationships. The company is going to grow quickly from here,” he said.

Douglas said he and a group of seven advisors left Merrill after Bank of America Corp. acquired it because “the bull on our business card was no longer a benefit to our business. We ended up spending a lot of time defending the actions of the firm and that just wasn’t helping us develop business.”

Over the long term, Old Course wants to continue to add more advisors and assets, Douglas said. “We want to preserve the culture and the feel the office,” he said. “Quantity is great but we want to make sure individuals are the right fit and mesh well with what we have created here. If that means 20 advisors, that is great. If that means 50 advisors, fantastic, but our priority is having a cohesive group of individuals that feed off each other.”