It seems the Houston-based wealth-platform provider is getting traction. Barely a week after wealth-management platform provider US Fiduciary publicized its first affiliate office in New York, the company has struck again – though this time in a quieter corner of the country.

Former Morgan Stanley broker Jay Batcha has opened a US Fiduciary-affiliated office in Traverse City in northern Michigan.

Both worlds

Batcha, an advisor for the past two decades, says he had wanted to make a change, but was caught between some attractive offers from rival brokerages and a desire to go it alone. He says US Fiduciary’s hybrid, or dual-registry, model that is both a broker-dealer and a registered investment advisory (RIA), together with US Fiduciary’s third-party investment platform, struck him as “a compelling solution.”

Elliot Weissbluth, head of the advisory part of US Fiduciary, says the company was designed with “breakaway” brokers like Batcha in mind. “Advisors with our firm have true independence to put their client’s needs first without giving up home-office support for compliance and technology or losing commission clients and revenue from products like life insurance or annuities,” he says. “It’s truly the best of both worlds.”

US Fiduciary is based in Houston and managed by founder and CEO Steven Graubart. Weissbluth’s side of the business provides administrative, compliance, marketing and business-development support to advisors. Scott MacKillop runs US Fiduciary’s investment platform.

The advisory part of US Fiduciary has been courting affiliates since last June. The investment platform has been serving advisors for a year or so already.

Batcha’s office gives US Fiduciary a total of six such affiliates, including a pre-launch acquisition in Houston, another in Chicago, and post-launch offices in Philadelphia, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and New York. US Fiduciary says it expects to open new offices in Atlanta and San Francisco before the second-quarter is out. –FWR

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