Sanctuary Wealth Services Announces Strategic Investment by JMP Group

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanctuary Wealth Services LLC, a provider of wealth management solutions and services to independent advisors, announced today that it has received strategic funding from San Francisco-based Harvest Capital Strategies LLC, the alternative asset management subsidiary of publicly traded JMP Group Inc.

The investment by Harvest Capital Strategies will enable Sanctuary to complete the build-out of its service platform, which provides a financial advisor the tools and strategic guidance necessary to establish and run an independent wealth management business.

"There has been a huge exodus of brokers and advisors from traditional firms over the past several years, and we believe we are in a strong position to take advantage of this continuing trend," said Jeff Spears, Sanctuary's chief executive officer.  "The resources and visibility of HCS and JMP should make Sanctuary's unique platform even more appealing to breakaway brokers and other financial advisors currently working at large financial institutions."

"We are enthusiastic about our partnership with Sanctuary," said Craig Johnson, president of JMP Group.  "Among the many synergies and benefits of this new relationship will be the opportunity for independent wealth managers working with Sanctuary to access the broad array of services and products which JMP can provide, including our Harvest family of funds."  Johnson will serve as JMP Group's executive representative on Sanctuary's advisory board.

Founded in 2008 by industry veterans Jeff Spears, Randall Baum and Keith Ogden to address the unprecedented changes taking place in the financial services and wealth management industries, Sanctuary provides technology, expense management, accounting and other core business support services to registered investment advisors that operate independently of large financial institutions.  Recognizing that the client-advisor relationship is often compromised by the traditional brokerage and financial advisory model, Sanctuary does not attempt to position itself between the client and the advisor—making Sanctuary unique among its competition.

Sanctuary co-founder and chief executive officer Jeff Spears has over 24 years of experience in wealth management as a wealth advisor and a national manager of the wealth management businesses at Montgomery Securities, Bank of America Private Bank and Presidio Financial Partners LLC.

Sanctuary co-founder and director of sales Randall Baum has over 30 years of experience in wealth management as a wealth advisor at Morgan Stanley, Montgomery Securities and Bank of America Securities.  Baum was formerly the managing general partner of Exponent Capital LP, a San Francisco-based hedge fund.

Sanctuary co-founder and chief operating officer Keith Ogden has over 21 years of experience in the financial services industry, including 10 years as chief operating officer of several hedge funds.  Ogden was previously the chief operating officer and a founding partner of East Avenue Capital Partners, Neuberger Berman Technology Management and Bowman Capital Management.

About Sanctuary Wealth Services

Sanctuary Wealth Services provides services and support to breakaway advisors, independent wealth managers, family offices and self-directed individual investors.  Sanctuary's turnkey solution enables clients to consolidate reporting, improve efficiency and grow their operations.  For more information, visit www.sanctuaryws.com.

About JMP Group

JMP Group Inc. is a full-service investment banking and alternative asset management firm that provides investment banking, sales and trading, and equity research services to corporate and institutional clients and alternative asset management products to institutional and high-net-worth investors.  JMP Group operates through three subsidiaries, JMP Securities, Harvest Capital Strategies and JMP Credit Corporation.  For more information, visit www.jmpg.com.

SOURCE Sanctuary Wealth Services LLC