OpenArc Corporate Advisory, a newly created registered investment advisor that broke away from wirehouse Merrill Lynch, has national growth plans as it kicks off operations from its 70,000 square-foot headquarters in Atlanta, according to Senior Managing Partner Erik Bjerke.
The RIA launched in September on the Dynasty Financial Network platform with Dynasty as a minority investor and Charles Schwab as its custodian.
To create the RIA, Bjerke and other lead advisors lifted out most of what had been Merrill’s Global Corporate and Institutional Advisory Services unit. Merrill responded by filing a lawsuit in federal court in Georgia, alleging that the three parties had breached the Protocol for Broker Recruiting in how they handled proprietary client information, prospecting and communication with other financial advisors who joined the breakaway.
OpenArc, Dynasty and Schwab disputed the claims. Within a few days of the filings, Judge Victoria Calvert of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denied the temporary restraining order that Merrill had requested for the firm. The wirehouse’s claims will now move into arbitration with FINRA in what could be a protracted dispute.
OpenArc leader Bjerke, however, is moving full steam ahead at the new firm, including an announcement Monday about it launching a charitable foundation that has donated $100,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with OpenArc team members pitching in another $6,360. That project, along with a fund that will annually donate a portion of the firm’s profits to underserved communities, is being spearheaded by Managing Partner Jim Kaufman.
Bjerke had been with Merrill for over 27 years before the move to launch OpenArc. He spoke with WealthManagement.com about the firm’s initial court success and future plans.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
WealthManagement.com: When and why did you and the team become interested in moving to an RIA model?
Erik Bjerke: We have built our team on the foundation of client first, team second and firm last in all things. We’ve long imagined what it would look like if our team could deliver advice in its purest form entirely through the lens of a fiduciary, with the flexibility to tailor solutions directly to clients’ needs for both corporate and family wealth clients.
To that end, I thought it would be a pretty special platform if we could one day provide product choice specifically for our corporate benefits sponsors and families. The benefits providers in the industry have varied strengths to their respective offerings, and the most effective combination of product choices could vary from client to client.
Our plan is to overlay that choice with our acclaimed education and relationship-based coverage model to help corporate sponsors manage their most important asset: their people. As the independent space has won its credibility with client assets surging, we discovered through a series of providential connections that the creation of such a platform might just be possible. We believe that open architecture and product choice will always end up in better outcomes for all clients.
WM: Were there any risks or challenges to the move, and how did you move beyond them?
EB: New businesses of this scale always carry complexity, and there were thousands of things that had to fall into place at the right time. The vision and leadership, the character of our teammates and the commitment of our partner firms overcame all hurdles that arose. The heartbeat of our team is a culture that promotes those who want to give their time and talent to clients and each other. Our hiring process seeks out people with that kind of generous heart, and they spend decades together living it. I honestly believe it is this team culture that bound us through adversity and gave people the courage to do something special.
WM: What opportunities ultimately drove you to make the move?
EB: Broadly speaking, it is the opportunity to scale the model both organically and through strategic acquisition. We can now pair fiduciary alignment with open architecture, top technology and greater flexibility. That combination unlocks broader investment choices, integrated services for corporate and family wealth clients, and the ability to innovate faster. It allows us to evolve a cutting-edge platform that grows with our clients’ needs today and into the future.
WM: Do you have any goals for the first year ahead beyond just getting up and running?
EB: We have a robust growth plan in place over the next 24 months. We will be onboarding new corporate clients to the OpenArc platform shortly and, in turn, hiring new advisors into our corporate training program. We will be hiring client associates to support our wealth clients with more time and talent. Further, we will expand by bringing on new professionals to our high-net-worth offering, such as accountants, bookkeepers and philanthropic consultants.
We will be bringing on a complete executive financial planning offering in 2026. We have a history of investing in our clients to effectively meet all of their family needs. With our new structure, we will be able to drive profitability directly back to the client. We are accustomed to delivering best-in-class service at scale, and now we can bring that discipline, speed and innovation to this new platform.
Even with our new 70,000-square-foot headquarters and sites across the country within the Dynasty and Schwab network, we have already begun high-level discussions to expand our geographic footprint further. If our human resource team can continue to hire and retain people generous with their time and talent, then business success should follow.
WM: How did you view the court’s decision to reject Merrill’s request for a preliminary injunction?
EB: The Court’s recent decision represents a defining moment for OpenArc, for the independent movement and for the industry at large. It shines a light on the intersection of corporate and wealth advisory, as well as the fact that delivering advice separate from where products are manufactured and sold is the future of the wealth management industry. Our mission at OpenArc, and together with our independent firm colleagues, is to promote client choice above all else, doing our best to support a more modern and connected industry.
