Merion Wealth Partners, Cambridge Investment Research and Mariner Holdings make hires with big-league experience

With a shift in emphasis to rolling in new advisors, Merion Wealth Partners LLC has hired Richard Hughes to serve as the firm’s president. Most recently he worked for Envestnet Asset Management where he was co-president of Portfolio Management Consultants, a unit of the Chicago-based company.

The Berwyn, Pa.-based firm with $260 million of assets under management believes that he will bring the business development edge based on his 25 years of experience that includes helping to build Haverford Trust, an RIA and trust company. When he was there it was called Rittenhouse Financial Services, Inc.

“Rich has a track record of recruiting well and he had a great rapport with the advisors he consulted with while at Envestnet,” says a spokesman for Merion.

The goal is to make Merion a good landing place for advisors with an entrepreneurial mindset.

“Merion is designed to become a 100 percent advisor-owned firm and it will be Hughes’ challenge to help the firm integrate advisors who not only want to offload back-office operations but want to remain active equity partners in the firm,” the company said in a prepared statement.

The majority of Hughes’ career was spent with Rittenhouse Financial Services Inc., where he was grew the firm prior to its acquisition by Nuveen Investments. As president of the separate accounts division for Nuveen Investments, which included Nuveen Asset Management and Rittenhouse Asset Management, Hughes played a role in growing assets under management to over $30 billion.

Envestnet PMC has more than $100 billion in assets under management and administration. See: Envestnet hires Marion Asnes to tackle its marketing challenge.

Cambridge hires 'social media’ officer

Cambridge Investment Research Inc. may be the first independent broker-dealer to hire a de facto chief social media officer. The Fairfield, Iowa-based Mark Cohen has joined its management team in the newly created role as assistant vice president – product owner, digital media projects.

Cohen, formerly the first webmaster for Janus Capital, will oversee the firm’s efforts to refine a digital media strategy that ranges from website presence to social media platforms.

Mark Cohen is a former Janus
Capital webmaster who will try to
pioneer a social media strategy for
Cambridge Investment Research.

“Digital media is evolving very quickly, and Mark expands our in-house expertise and extends the scope of resources we offer our advisors in social media, as well as the full scope of digital media,” said Jim Guy, chief marketing officer. “We are looking to enhance our digital media strategy based on a comprehensive look at all forms of digital media – ranging from websites to social media – while keeping an eye on the future and assessing what will be important to our advisor clients over the next five years.”

By its own calculation, the company is taking a gamble on social media, it acknowledged in the press release. (It declined to comment further on this). “While the long term outlook regarding the value of social media in our industry is unclear, we think the next few years may be very interesting and bring clarity as to what social media means for our industry, advisors, and our advisor’s clients,” said Amy Webber, president and COO.

Cohen has had a long career in digital media – he co-produced the first concert broadcast on the web in 1994 – The Rolling Stones live from Dallas, Texas, and then co-founded one of the first interactive marketing agencies in New York – Premiere Interactive Media – which he later sold to his partner when he was recruited by Janus.

Palmer Square hires chief investment officer

Palmer Square Capital Management, a subsidiary of Mariner Wealth, announced the appointment of Angie Knighton Long as the firm’s chief investment officer. Long has key responsibilities for all investment-related activities, with a particular focus on portfolio and risk management. She joined the firm in February.

Angie Knighton Long will bring her
J.P. Morgan pedigree and expertise in
alternative investments to Palmer Square Capital
Management.

“During her 13 years in New York, Knighton Long made some significant contributions to the investment community,” said Christopher D. Long, president of Palmer Square, in a release. “Her insights, investment perspective, and deep relationships across the senior levels of Wall Street will be essential in our continued pursuit of alternative investments that give our clients a greater level of portfolio diversification – and the reduced risk that goes along with it.”

Prior to joining Palmer Square, Knighton Long worked for J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in New York. There, she held a variety of management and trading roles, including deputy head of credit trading for North America, head of high yield trading, and head of credit derivatives trading. She has been a trader within many products and strategies including high yield bonds, high yield credit derivatives, distressed debt, capital structure arbitrage and structured credit.

Among other career achievements, Knighton Long is credited with creating the High Yield Debt Index, the first liquid credit trading index and the predecessor to all of today’s indices (the Dow Jones CDX.) Named a managing director of JPMorgan Chase & Co. at age 29, Angie is considered a pioneer in the Credit Derivatives industry. Angie also built JPMorgan’s High Yield Credit Derivatives business and Credit Options business.

Earlier in her career, Knighton Long was an analyst with Fisher, Francis, Trees, and Watts. She received an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University.

Palmer Square Capital Management provides investment advisory services, proprietary funds, and customized allocations focused specifically on alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity funds. The firm’s clients include high net worth individuals, registered investor advisor firms and institutional clients. Palmer Square is owned by Montage Asset Management, which is owned by Mariner Wealth, an RIA practice whose CEO Marty Bicknell, who was a broker and branch manager for A.G. Edwards before breaking away to start his RIA.

See: Big Midwestern RIA buys itself a national presence in deal with CBIZ.