A $14 million Merrill team jumps to Rockefeller in Ohio

Rockefeller Global Family Office has hired a Merrill Lynch team in Ohio that produces $14 million a year, two people familiar with the move said. Jones Wealth Partners manages $2 billion from offices in Columbus and Canfield. Sidney G. Jones leads the group. He joined Merrill in 1982. That makes him a 43-year veteran. The roster also includes Natalie Lariccia, Jones' sons Quinn and Liam, junior advisors Dominic Corso and Stefanos Newman, and eight support staff.

Louis Diamond, a recruiter who has known the group for 15 years and introduced them to Rockefeller, said they wanted the firm but waited for it to open in their market. "What the team really wanted was a firm that felt like Merrill of years ago, and Rockefeller checked every box on their list," he wrote in an email.

The team reports to Brett Thelander, a former Merrill private wealth manager who runs Rockefeller's Northern Division. Michael Outlaw, the firm's president of wealth and a former Morgan Stanley manager, took over recruiting in February and leads the push. He said the Ohio group was "an exceptional fit" as Rockefeller expands into more wealth markets in the state.

The Ohio hire extends a run. In July, Rockefeller landed a UBS team in New York managing $800 million. In June, it brought in a solo Morgan Stanley advisor in North Carolina with $300 million. Across family office, investment management, and investment banking, the firm oversees $224 billion in client assets, according to its announcement.

The platform leads with Jones' tenure. A 43-year run at one wirehouse is rare, and for a family-office firm it tells clients the team is built for the long haul. Diamond's framing—that the group wanted the Merrill of years ago—captures the appeal of a place that doesn't feel like the modern wirehouse. Rockefeller has its own history, and the pitch is to pair that brand with a team that already holds deep relationships.

Merrill added a Morgan Stanley institutional team with $13 billion last month. The wirehouse still lands big books. But Rockefeller's hires are spread across Ohio, New York, and North Carolina, and each one is a team that chose a family-office platform over a large brokerage. That geography says the pull isn't confined to one market or one kind of advisor.

In the comments under the AdvisorHub story, one reader called Jones a Merrill lifer who made only one move and made it count. Another, who left Merrill four years ago, called his own decision the best of his career. Those aren't reported facts, just commenters' words, but they reflect how the move lands.

A wirehouse lifer can be moved, but not rushed. Diamond had known this team for 15 years, and they were willing to wait for Rockefeller to open in Ohio. The decision ran on a longer clock than a recruiting cycle. The most expensive hires in this industry are the ones that take fifteen years to land.