Four months ago, Matt Kilgroe broke away from his wirehouse career at UBS in St. Petersburg, Fla., and hung out his own shingle at Cyndeo Wealth Partners. And while he expected to bring in new blood to join his new venture (especially from advisors curious about the independent space) what he wasn’t expecting was advisors wanting to flee to his state.
The interest in the Sunshine State especially seemed to be coming from advisors in the Northeast. St. Petersburg in particular seemed popular. And Kilgroe believes Cyndeo can be a destination for those advisors who want to relocate.
The interest has been enough that Kilgroe said he has had to set time aside to manage his LinkedIn account, and that it’s become a major job.
“I have probably been having at least one face-to-face meeting per week [with potential advisors] and probably add in an additional phone call or two,” he said. “So, there has been a lot of interest.
“It’s not like we are reaching out to specific advisors in the Northeast and trying to get them to move to Florida. There are a lot of them that want to, and it’s an exploration that they are going through.”
Three Florida cities—Tampa, Miami and Orlando—were among the top five most popular U.S. relocation choices from March to September, ranking first, fourth and fifth, respectively, according to data from Orbital Insight. The other two cities were Phoenix, which ranked second, and the New York City area, which ranked third. The California-based Orbital Insight, which tracks the movement of goods and people, looked at migration in the 30 largest U.S. metro areas during the pandemic.
Kilgroe, who spent 21 years at Merrill Lynch before moving to UBS, teamed up with Dynasty Financial Partners when forming his new firm in June. Dynasty itself moved its headquarters from New York City to St. Petersburg last year. And Cyndeo, a firm with $1.1 billion in assets and a team of 15 people, became Dynasty’s first announced breakaway deal since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Kilgroe said advisors looking at the firm have come from all age groups. He recalled going to a conference about a year and a half ago, and the Northeast advisors he interacted with brought up a handful of topics, including these three: They were interested in the independent space, Florida and succession planning. All three are familiar things to Cyndeo, Kilgroe said.
The pandemic, he said, has accelerated some of the conversations he has been having with outside advisors. “People who may have been planning to do this in seven to 10 years are now saying there is no reason for [them] not to look now because they are working from home.”
Noting that the average age of an advisor is 57, Kilgroe said many people in that cohort or a bit older, somewhere between 58 and 65, are thinking about relocating. They may want to continue work after 65 for another three to five years but may want to do it from Florida, he said.