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The Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors: Wirehouse Breakaways Build a Legacy Family Wealth OfficeThe Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors: Wirehouse Breakaways Build a Legacy Family Wealth Office
SpirePoint Private Client's Trent Leyda and Kay Campione offer a unique perspective on their time at Morgan Stanley, how it had come to diverge from their vision of building a family office and how they are better off now as an independent firm.
May 8, 2025
This episode features a few plot twists that differentiate it from the typical wirehouse breakaway story.
For instance, one advisor who spent a dozen years with the CIA before starting a career in wealth management.
The balance of the story is one that’s far less covert, but just as compelling.
Trent Leyda was at Morgan Stanley when he met Kay Campione, a former CIA field intelligence officer turned Merrill advisor. She later left Merrill for Morgan and, with Trent, built a business managing some $1.4B in assets.
They had a strong focus on managing family wealth, which often left them wondering if the firm they worked for was the firm they’d want to manage their own family’s wealth and legacy.
It was thoughts like these that inspired Trent to say, “Let’s put a Plan B together, just in case.”
That plan, which revolved around building an independent firm, was later put into action. And in October 2023, Trent, Kay, and three other team members left to launch the RIA firm SpirePoint Private Client.
In this episode with Louis Diamond, Trent and Kay talk about their transition, including:
Their goals in building a family office—and why they felt they could only achieve them in independence.
Building an RIA firm—and the role tru Independence played in the process.
Choosing custodians—and why both Schwab and Goldman Sachs were the right partners.
The tangible benefits of independence—and how that translated into a firm they would trust to manage their families’ wealth and future.
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