Capital Guardian growing amid turmoil - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Today, Capital Guardian has seven offices, including new locations in Fort Lauderdaleand Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Raleigh; and its first officwe in Charlotte. By the end of the year, that numbe will increase to 12, with openings planneed in Atlanta, Hickory, Winston-Salem, and West Palm Beacyh and Boynton Beach, Fla. The numbe of advisers at the firm has jumped to 32 from 10 at the endof 2008. That will likeluy increase to 75 by the end ofthis year. And that dramativc growth has occurred amid a recessioh and a financial crisis that sent companies such as into the How has Capital Guardian pulledit off?
Alan the firm’s chief executive, acknowledges Capital Guardian’es expansion seems counterintuitive at a time when the financial-servicez industry is in turmoil. But without that turmoilp and its effect on retaiklbrokerage firms, Capital Guardian couldn’t expand now, he says. “We’re kind of benefiting from the debacle going on at all the large bankzs andlarge firms,” Boyer says. The financial crisids has led to changes in ownership at some ofthe nation’e largest brokerage firms.
and its “thundering herd” of more than 16,000 financiapl advisers — was purchased by Wachovia the retail brokerage armof Wachovia, which has nearlg 15,000 advisers, is becoming Wells Fargo Advisors this month, part of the bank’ds merger with And and are combining their brokerage with Morgan paying $2.7 billiom for a 51% stake in the new to be called Morgahn Stanley Smith Barney. Big brokeragee mergers often lead toadviser defections. But even before those mega the brand names of the large brokeragdor “wirehouse” firms had been badly tarnishec during the financial meltdown.
As the merger integrations more advisers will look to leave for smaller regional andindependent firms, some analystw believe. In a research note this Daniel Fannon, an analyst with Jefferiews & Co. Inc., wrote that “advisefr defections will likely gain going forward. Advisers and their wealthyu clients will depart firms such as Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch for firms such asRaymoncd James, Edward Jones or the growing number of independent “Given the reputational ‘blacik eyes’ and intensified regulatory scrutiny these firms are dealing we anticipate an accelerated shift away from the traditional powedr brokerage houses,” Fannon wrote.
For Capital Guardian, that shift means an acceleratedgrowth plan. The company aims to be a Southeasterh boutiquebrokerage firm. Boyer says now is the time to bring establishecd advisers on board and to open offices in the markets wherethey live. Duringg a single week in March, the firm opened its first officew outside ofBelmont — in Knoxville, Raleigh and Miami. The new Charlotte office is in the Morehead Place where the firm will have nine It likely will move its headquarters there this yearfrom Belmont.