AdvisorHub | Long-time UBS Broker in Maine Leads $530-Mln Team to RIA Independence

A team of four brokers in Portland, Maine, whose leader had spent his 26-year career with UBS Financial Services, left the wirehouse on Friday to set up an independent registered investment advisory firm.

Steven E. Tenney, 50, who began his career in 1993 with UBS predecessor firm PaineWebber—where his father also worked—said he became convinced after about two years of due diligence that he can provide better service and advice to clients with the RIA model.

“We have always felt a strong obligation to do what’s right for our clients, and there’s no doubt that being independent is the best way to execute that,” he said in an interview.

His seven-person team—which also includes advisors Joseph W. Powers, Helen Andreoli and John M. “Jack” Piper—was managing around $530 million of assets for 310 customers, Tenney said. They produced around $4 million in annual revenue, according to a person familiar with their business. Each of the advisors is an equity partner in the new firm that they have christened Great Diamond Partners, named for an island off the coast of Maine.