Va.-based Stewart Wealth Management is now a part of Cary Street Partners. Last month Fredericksburg, Va.-based Stewart Wealth Management Group severed its affiliation with Wachovia Securities to become part of Cary Street Partners, a five-year-old investment bank and RIA specializing in private-client advisory services and wealth management.

Stewart Wealth, which will become Cary Street Advisors, left Wachovia Securities in order to offer clients -- mainly high-net-worth individuals, but also businesses and endowments -- a broader array of services, including hedge funds, deeper investment research and start-up funding for new ventures.

More than double

"We felt that there were a number of opportunities that Cary Street provided that weren't available in our current format," Stewart Wealth's managing director Douglas Stewart told the Fredericksburg, Va., newspaper the Free Lance-Star late in June.

But Stewart Wealth isn't closing the door on Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia isn't altogether. As a part of Cary Street, it will use the clearing services of Wachovia's First Clearing subsidiary.

Assuming Stewart Wealth brings its entire book to Cary Street, its $600 million in client assets will swell Cary Street's wealth-business assets to around $1 billion.

Most of Stewart's employees are making the move to Cary Street -- and Stewart says he plans to add more staffers soon.

Cary Street is based in Richmond, Va.-based. It has offices in Atlanta and in High Point, N.C., and it plans to open offices in Bethesda, Md., and in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. -FWR

.