Cofounders at &Partners say they’ve leaned on their past wirehouse experience to build their hybrid RIA, which has swelled to 83 advisor teams overseeing $35 billion in client assets (as of June 30, 2025).

At &Partners, a hybrid registered investment advisory firm founded by a cohort of former Wells Fargo leaders, the fruits of fast growth are bringing the firm rapidly toward its self-determined ideal size.

Since its 2023 launch, &Partners has recruited dozens of advisor teams, largely plucked from the likes of Wells Fargo Advisors and Edward Jones, overseeing tens of billions of dollars in client assets.

David Kowach, the chief executive officer and cofounder of the wealth management firm, told Financial Advisor IQ that his experience as the former president and head of Wells Fargo Advisors inspired him to create something new and pull in trusted peers to make it a reality.

“The bureaucracy that comes in big-scale players is impacting the speed of decisions,” Kowach said. “We saw an opportunity. We thought we could do something better for our advisor population and for clients.”

Kowach said that the “better” vision had nothing to do with disrespecting the years that he and &Partners cofounders Kristi Mitchem and John Alexander spent at Wells. Rather, they hoped to create a more close-knit organization that prioritized employees and advisors owning the company.

They see their firm’s size, which they intend to cap at 150 or so advisor teams, as an advantage that will allow it to be agile.

“We are small enough that we know all the advisors and that we can take … this very pragmatic approach to things like supervision and compliance,” Mitchem told FA-IQ. “But we’re also big enough to matter to our key providers.”

The firm is taking a measured, even-keeled approach to growth, Kowach said. The firm has recruited 83 advisor teams — “advisors that we know and trust,” he said — with a total of about $39 billion in assets under management.

“That group generates about $260 million in annual revenue,” Kowach said, though he noted that yield will be “significantly bigger” by year’s end based on the other teams of advisors that are planning to join this year.

The five-year goal for the firm, which is based in St. Louis and in Nashville, Tennessee, is to have about 150 advisor teams who generate about $800 million in annual revenue for the business with some $120 billion in client assets.

“Our plan called for us to get there in five years,” Kowach said. “We are ahead of plan. We feel great about how it’s going.”

The element of shared ownership is key to their business and their success, Mitchem said.

“We have experienced, tenured operators working with great advisors under a model of shared ownership, so you have great people and tremendous alignment, and that just yields success,” she said. “It sounds super corny, but it does have all the professionalism of a first-class advisory firm, but it still feels like family when people come to St. Louis.”

The parent of the RIA and broker-dealer is Ampersand Partners LLC, of which no owner represents more than 10% ownership, according to &Partners’ Form ADV disclosure brochure, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Reprinted with permission.