NewEdge Wealth has recruited an AllianceBernstein Private Wealth team led by Jeffrey W. Thompson, who had managed $2.2 billion in client assets.
Thompson moved with Shannon Willems and Sara DeJay Willis, as well as three client service associates. Thompson and Willems joined NewEdge as managing directors, while Willis was named a vice president. The group will anchor NewEdge’s first Houston office and 20th location nationwide.
“This is further proof that the NewEdge model is working and resonating with advisors across the industry, whether they come from private banks, asset managers, RIAs or traditional wirehouses,” said Gershman Group CEO Roger Gershman.
The move reflects an increasingly popular career path as advisors like Thompson are waking up to the realities of working within a large asset manager or private bank. Bernstein has historically provided a strong research and investment management platform but retains substantial control over the client and investment model.
Advisors like Thompson, who had spent all 13 years of his career at Bernstein, are selecting independent firms for greater control over investment selection, branding and economics. He said in a statement that clients, including owners of closely held businesses and their families, were increasingly demanding more open architecture.
“As we got to know NewEdge, it became clear that their long history supporting successful entrepreneurs and multi-generational family businesses would enhance our ability to meet this need,” Thompson said in the announcement.
Other Bernstein departures have demonstrated that garden leave and restrictive covenants, while significant, do not prevent advisors from making the move or transferring substantial assets. In late 2025, another team led by 27-year Bernstein veteran Michael Ellington, along with Zachary Gardner and Danique van der Velden, left for RIA Cresset. They had managed approximately $1.4 billion.
The two moves represent $3.6 billion in client assets leaving Bernstein's Houston office in less than a year.
NewEdge has proven it can compete with large asset managers and private banks in terms of offering UHNW, family-office services. At $88 billion in assets, it has the scale to offer access to private equity and other deals wealthy clients expect.
In November, NewEdge poached Summit Trail’s Justin Waterman, a rising star who oversaw a $25 million team. Waterman was brought on to build an enterprise at a 20,000-square-foot office in New York. Thompson’s move could give NewEdge a similar opportunity in Houston.
NewEdge has 65 ultra-high net worth advisors. Its parent, NewEdge Capital Group, supports more than 550 advisors across different business lines.
Advisors joining NewEdge can determine how they want to affiliate, how much of their practice they want to monetize, and how much equity they want to take in the broader enterprise. Those options provide varying levels of liquidity, equity, and control depending on the arrangement.