An all-female financial advisor team with more than $1.2 billion in assets under management has left J.P. Morgan for RBC Wealth Management – U.S., the company announced today.
Eden Lopez, Leslie Schwartz and Paula Steinberg, who all serve as managing directors, have worked together for 23 years and have more than 100 years of combined industry experience. They operate as LSS Group, and are joined by Katie Bishop, vice president and marketing consultant; Carmilita Aching, senior registered client associate; and Alanna Hitscherich, registered client associate.
Based in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, the team serves clients in the music and entertainment industries in Los Angeles, Nashville and New York, the release said.
“Not only does our team have a long-standing relationship with local RBC Wealth Management leadership in New York, but we also see the firm’s relationship with City National Bank as an opportunity to even better meet the very unique financial needs of our clients, especially those in the entertainment industry, where managing money is very different,” Lopez said in a statement.
City National, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada, has a long history of specializing in and serving the entertainment industry, and provides financial advice and personal service to over 80% of the country music industry in Nashville, as well as half of all Broadway shows and much of the film and television industry, the release said.
Schwartz added that the team was also drawn to RBC’s fixed-income trading capabilities. “The fixed-income market is a negotiated market, so the ability to have a conversation and interact directly with traders is critical,” she said. “Still, most firms don’t allow advisors direct access to the traders. But at RBC, trading isn’t purely electronic. There is a human element in the business that really appealed to us,” she said.
The move reconnects the team with RBC's New York Complex Director John Moran, whom the women worked with more than a decade ago at Smith Barney. “Having worked with these incredible women in the past, I can say first-hand how their drive, ambition, expertise and strong wealth management practice will be a great fit for our team,” Moran said. “They have become the gold standard for wealth management, and I look forward to helping them grow their impressive practice even further.”