Merrill Team Forms RIA to Serve 'Family Next Door'

A group of three financial advisors who managed $420 million in assets at Merrill Lynch have gone independent and launched RIA Steadmont Advisors in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Taylor Hart, Mimi Dunn and Amy Drinkard are now working with Dynasty Financial Partners. They will use Fidelity as their custodian, eMoney for financial planning and Black Diamond for performance reporting.

The team is “a great fit for the independent wealth arena,” Dynasty’s president and CEO, Shirl Penney, said in a statement. “Because of their commitment to staying on the cutting edge of technology and investing, they will flourish with access to the full marketplace of strategies, research, and tools.”

The Steadmont group defines its typical clients as “the family next door that quietly saved or is saving towards their goals of retirement and beyond,” according to a statement. This includes business owners, lawyers, doctors, engineers and others, who also are “multi-generational and family oriented” in their view of wealth. 

“Now more than ever, being able to be flexible and nimble in services provided and fee structures is imperative. We believe that with our newly added technological capabilities, we will be able to manage our client relationships, assets, and financial plans better and more efficiently,” Hart said in a news release.