A Virginia-based advisor with about $245 million in client assets is joining Baird Private Wealth Management, a dually registered wealth management arm of Robert W. Baird & Co., from Edelman Financial Engines.
Robert Sargent is joining Baird as a director and financial advisor and will be accompanied by Client Assistant Kaitlyn Powell. Both are moving to Baird’s wealth management office in Fairfax, Va., which opened in January as part of the firm’s expansion in the state.
According to SEC records, Sargent entered the industry in 2008 at J.P. Morgan. He joined Merrill Lynch in 2010 and had subsequent stints at Fidelity and Sanders Morris before joining Edelman in 2014.
Since the start of the year, Baird has been bolstering its Virginia presence largely by luring advisors from Edelman. The Fairfax office opened earlier this year, and Brandon Corso came on board as a director. Like Sargent, Corso came to Baird from Edelman, where he managed approximately $585 million in client assets.
Last month, Baird hired advisor Darrell Reynard from Edelman to join its Fairfax office (he managed about $293 million at Edelman). Last week, Baird announced Robert Bowman and Matthew Preddy would leave Edelman to open a new Baird office in Richmond (the duo collectively managed about $510 million in client assets).
In addition to Fairfax and Richmond, Baird has Virginia locations in Lynchburg and McLean.
Baird’s private wealth business includes more than 1,400 financial advisors managing more than $310 billion as of late June. The company was founded in 1919 and is employee-owned. In addition to wealth management, the firm works in asset management, investment banking and private equity, with offices in Europe and Asia.
In March, Baird picked up a Wisconsin-based team from UBS managing about $680 million in client assets. Last year, the firm agreed to pay $15 million to settle SEC charges that it hadn’t supervised reps’ use of off-channel communications.
Last week, Josh Hederick, who filed a lawsuit in a federal court in North Carolina to break his non-solicitation agreement with Edelman, left for Prime Capital Investment Advisors.
In the suit, he called the Edelman covenant “overly broad” and argued the firm’s litigation history against ex-employees meant he couldn’t trust they’d work with him on his departure “in good faith.” In a statement to WealthManagement.com, an Edelman spokesperson said the firm disputed the allegations “in their entirety.”
