Two veteran JPMorgan Chase wealth advisors have exited the bank with roughly $18.6 billion in client assets to form Latigo Peak Partners, an independent RIA that will operate without private equity backing. The move, announced Monday, ranks among the largest wirehouse breakaways in recent years, underscoring the growing appeal of independence for top producers.
Jim Atwood, based in Boston, and Phil Scott, based in Bellevue, Washington, previously ran two of the largest practices within JPMorgan Advisors. Their new firm, headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, launches with a 48-person team serving ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families. As a registered investment advisor, Latigo Peak will act as a fiduciary, charging fees for advice rather than earning commissions.
The scale of the practice grew significantly during its time inside the bank. Over the past six years, Atwood and Scott increased their combined annual revenue from $34 million to more than $130 million, according to the firm's launch announcement. Atwood told Bloomberg News that the bank's structure had become a constraint on client investing. "If you're working within one of these firms, you're confined to investment opportunities on their platform," he said. "It gets difficult to be as nimble as you want."
Why Latigo Peak passed on private equity
The decision to self-fund sets Latigo Peak apart in a market where outside capital typically fuels growth. Private equity backed 88% of RIA deals in 2025, according to a Fidelity Investments report cited by Bloomberg. That trend has continued into 2026, with PE-backed or PE-owned buyers accounting for 89% of RIA transactions in the first half of the year, per Fidelity's midyear data.
Atwood said the firm had other offers but turned them down due to the exit timelines attached to such capital. "We had a lot of opportunities out there to partner with PE – but when you partner with another firm ... they're going to want to get out in five or six years. They're going to have an idea of how to manage the business," he told Bloomberg. "Phil and I are backing this 100% ourselves, which is a big differentiator. It's not cheap to do that."
Scott framed the independence as a matter of control. "Independence gives us the ability to take responsibility for the future of our business and make decisions based on what we believe is right for our clients over the long term," he said in the launch announcement.
Custody, offices and growth plans
Latigo Peak will use multiple custodians, selecting Charles Schwab and BNY Pershing for custody and lending. Fusion Financial Partners advised on the firm's design and launch. Alongside the Florida headquarters, the firm operates hubs in Bellevue and Boston, plus a field office in Los Angeles. Scott told Bloomberg the firm is considering offices in Denver and Jackson Hole, Wyoming within the next year, citing rising wealth management demand in the Palm Beach market. "A lot of people are starting to have liquidity events — there wasn't nearly as much M&A activity five years ago as there is today," he said.
Investing will focus on public equities and fundamental research, with family-office services including estate and wealth planning, gifting, philanthropic strategy, and education for clients' heirs. Atwood estimated that more than 95% of new business comes through word-of-mouth referrals, according to Bloomberg.
Atwood, 65, and Scott, 71, both began their careers at Merrill Lynch and later moved to First Republic, which JPMorgan acquired in 2023. The firm's name draws partly from Latigo, a ski run at Colorado's Beaver Creek resort, where the two met 35 years ago.
Wirehouse breakaway support keeps building
The launch adds to a string of large teams leaving bank-owned brokerages, prompting major firms to respond. UBS has raised payouts for its U.S. advisors after a series of high-profile departures, reworking its 2026 advisor pay plan to add a new tier for advisors generating $20 million or more in annual revenue. The most prominent example came over a year ago when OpenArc Corporate Advisory, a team managing $129 billion at Merrill Lynch, went independent with a minority investment from Dynasty Financial Partners. Merrill Lynch filed a federal lawsuit alleging a coordinated raid, though OpenArc disputed the claims in court. Dynasty CEO Shirl Penney told InvestmentNews that the scale of that move would encourage other breakaways. "[A]ny advisor who might still be in some form of captivity or feeling trapped and looking to get liberated if you can, look at this and say if they can do it, then I can do it," Penney said.
Latigo Peak's founders say they are building for the long term. "We've been doing this for 40 years, and plan on going for another 20 years," Atwood told Bloomberg. "We want to build a family legacy business." The launch comes amid a broader trend of advisors seeking independence, as seen in recent moves like two advisor teams leaving Hightower and Merrill to start their own RIAs. Meanwhile, wirehouses are fighting back with enhanced compensation, as record alternatives sales and new tools reshape the competitive landscape.
