Jim Atwood, 65, and Phil Scott, 71, left JPMorgan Chase & Co. and introduced Latigo Peak Partners, a registered investment adviser based in Palm Beach Gardens. With $18.6 billion in client assets and 48 employees from day one, it lands among the largest RIAs and counts as one of the bigger recent breakaway moves where advisers form a new shop and bring many clients along.
Latigo Peak says it will prioritize public equity investing while providing services commonly found at multifamily offices, including tax planning, estate work, and guidance on charitable giving. The founders are financing the firm entirely with their own capital. "Phil and I are backing this 100% ourselves, which is a big differentiator," Atwood said. "It's not cheap to do that."
Barron's first reported the firm's creation. JPMorgan's press office did not return a request for comment right away.
Atwood and Scott started out at Merrill Lynch, then moved to First Republic, which JPMorgan acquired in 2023. Most recently they led wealth operations for JPMorgan in different markets, with Atwood in Boston and Scott in Bellevue, Washington. Experience across those platforms pushed them to seek more flexibility for client portfolios.
"If you're working within one of these firms, you're confined to investment opportunities on their platform," Atwood said. "It gets difficult to be as nimble as you want." He also pointed to the funding backdrop for RIAs: "If you look at at the top 25 RIAs, there are only one or two that are not PE-backed." Fidelity data echo that trend, showing private equity participated in 88% of RIA deals last year. The founders said they passed on outside backers in part because such investors typically aim to exit within several years and influence how the business is run.
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They reported that their combined revenue at JPMorgan was more than $130 million, nearly four times what it was six years ago. Atwood said referrals are responsible for over 95% of new business at the firm.
Both founders have residences in the Palm Beach area and picked Palm Beach Gardens for the headquarters after seeing rising local demand for wealth advice. Latigo Peak maintains locations in Bellevue, Boston, and Los Angeles, and Scott said the team is evaluating openings in Denver and in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with a goal of doing so within a year.
The name nods to a ski run at Beaver Creek in Colorado, where the two met 35 years ago and have long held an annual meetup with industry peers. "There's a run out of Beaver Creek called Latigo. We used to put on the helmets and see who could get down the fastest," Atwood said. "I always lost," Scott added.
Big firms are watching the trend. UBS Group AG recently boosted compensation for thousands of its U.S. wealth advisers after a string of notable departures. And last year, two other former JPMorgan bankers launched Alta Vera Global Capital Advisors with $400 million under management.
The bottom line: a sizable, self-financed entrant focused on stocks and high-touch planning just hit the RIA landscape, led by advisers with four decades in the business who plan to keep going. "There are not a lot of things out there where you get better as you get older. We've been doing this for 40 years, and plan on going for another 20 years," Atwood said. "We want to build a family legacy business."
For investors tracking where assets and advisers are moving, note the scale at launch, the rejection of private equity funding, and the emphasis on referrals-driven growth. Those choices can shape service models, investment menus, and fee structures that may affect how such firms fit into your portfolio options.
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