Trend for advisers leaving big firms to strike out alone gathering momentum
A team of RIA’s managing $3 bn has left Deutsche Banks to set up Intellectus Partners, a boutique firm catering to entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. The group is following a growing trend for brokers to leave big banks and brokerages as technology makes reporting and trading easier and enables them to set up as independent firms. The creation of Intellectus Partners was aided by Dynasty Financial Partners, a firm that finds office space, sets up trading systems and deals with all the little details too. Dynasty has worked with 29 teams overseeing a combined $23bn and aided them setting up as independent advisers. It helped 12 teams in 2014, and expects to help a further 15 this year. 
Two advisers who ran one of the largest brokerage practices in California while at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. have jumped ship to start their own firm, according to an announcement.

The advisers, David La Placa and Jay Casey, founded Intellectus Partners after managing some $3.2 billion at Deutsche Bank, according to Sally Cates, a spokeswoman for Dynasty Financial Partners, a platform and service provider enlisted by the team.

The two advisers resigned from Deutsche last Friday, Ms. Cates said. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank, Catherine Wooters, declined to comment.

Intellectus, which is based in San Francisco, focuses on entrepreneurs and “newly created wealth in Silicon Valley in a robust initial public offering and [mergers and acquisitions] environment,” according to a statement from Dynasty.

The move is the latest in what some industry experts say is a trend of larger teams’ striking out on their own.

Mr. La Placa has more than two decades of industry experience, starting in 1993. He spent time at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. before joining Deutsche Bank in 2004, according to registration records with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

Mr. Casey has 15 years of industry experience and also worked until 2004 at Lehman, according to Finra records.