Phil Scott, Jim Atwood launch self-funded RIA with $18.6 billion

Two J.P. Morgan Advisors teams led by Phil Scott and Jim Atwood launched Latigo Peak Partners on Friday. The new RIA has $18.6 billion in combined client assets and $130 million in revenue, per the announcement. The founders self-funded the launch and are the two primary owners through a holding company, ASO Meridian Holdings.

At $130 million of revenue on $18.6 billion of assets, the business yields roughly 70 basis points. The announcement said the pair's combined revenue had nearly quadrupled from $34 million over the past six years.

The announcement did not itemize the cost of self-funding. Two people close to the team told AdvisorHub that Scott and Atwood likely forfeited substantial deferred compensation and must repay unvested balances on forgivable recruiting loans granted when they joined a predecessor. Those sources said money was not the reason. "Nothing to do with money," one of them said of the move, describing the pair as "square pegs in a round hole," and cited frustration with the technology and bureaucracy at J.P. Morgan.

Latigo will use Charles Schwab & Co. and BNY's Pershing Advisor Solutions for custody and lending. It is based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, with offices in Bellevue, Washington, Boston and Los Angeles, and 48 employees.

Captrust says just over 68% of its more than 2,000 employees hold a stake; it cited that stake when a $3 billion Truist team joined earlier this month, as we reported.

Latigo runs nine in-house investment strategies and is listed as a separate-account manager on Schwab's Managed Account Marketplace, according to regulatory filings. The listing allows outside RIAs and family offices to hire the firm while keeping their client relationships. It also pays accountants a flat fee or an ongoing percentage of advisory revenue for client referrals. The release did not specify how much of the $18.6 billion is subadvised.

Scott and Atwood joined J.P. Morgan when its parent bank bought First Republic's assets out of government receivership in 2023. Dozens of First Republic brokers left in the year after the acquisition, and the brokerage unit holds around 600 brokers. Both men started at Merrill in 1984 and went on to rank among its top five producers; Scott joined First Republic in Bellevue in 2020 with an 11-person team that generated about $18 million of revenue on $2.7 billion in client assets.

One of the people close to the team said the pair are likely planning to recruit other top producers, pointing to their ties to a group of senior advisors who have met regularly in Beaver Creek, Colorado, for about two decades.

AdvisorHub reported that a J.P. Morgan spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.