DFX-RESEARCH-2026-0018: Nine ex-First Republic advisors leave J.P. Morgan to launch Latigo Peak

Statistics

DFX's records date Latigo Peak Partners' first Form ADV Part 2 brochure in the SEC monthly file to September 4, 2026, and its first Form ADV in DFX to September 28, 2026, which gave a Sarasota, Florida head office and listed RIA Ventures, LLC as managing member with ownership code E (75% or more), status acquired 02/2026. The October 16, 2026 filing moved the head office to Palm Beach Gardens and raised other offices from 0 to 3.Counted over: DFX RIA firm filings and owners, CRD 344428, 7 records, 2026-09-04 to 2026-10-16
All 10 IAPD registrations at Latigo Peak Partners began on October 16, 2026. Nine of the 10 registrants have IAPD moves from J.P. Morgan Securities LLC that closed on October 18, 2026, recorded by DFX as two same-day groups: seven from Boston, Massachusetts and two from California (San Francisco and Los Angeles). The tenth registrant's J.P. Morgan Securities LLC registration was still open in DFX's latest read.Counted over: DFX IAPD registrations, moves and teams into CRD 344428, 10 records, as of 2026-10-20
From October 1, 2025 to October 18, 2026 (about 12 months), DFX recorded 613 group departures (two or more advisors leaving together) from the five wirehouses: Merrill Lynch 179, Wells Fargo Advisors 176, UBS 97, Morgan Stanley 93 and J.P. Morgan Securities 68. Of the 613, 10 went to newly formed firms, 46 to existing registered investment advisers, and 35 had seven or more advisors. Of J.P. Morgan Securities' 68, 42 went to other wirehouses, 21 to independent broker-dealers, 3 elsewhere, and 2 (both to Latigo Peak Partners on October 18, 2026) to a newly formed firm; none went to an existing registered investment adviser. 47 of the 68 were pairs; monthly counts ranged from three to eight in full months (3 to 8); the largest was nine advisors to Morgan Stanley in May 2026 and the Boston group of seven is second.Counted over: DFX advisor team moves (IAPD), five wirehouses, 613 records, 2025-10-01 to 2026-10-18
All nine advisors who moved to Latigo Peak Partners began their J.P. Morgan Securities LLC registrations between November 20 and November 29, 2023; each one's previous registration was with J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC (CRD 108559) and ended in March 2025. That firm filed as First Republic Investment Management, Inc. until its October 2023 name change. Eight of the nine had earlier been registered with Merrill Lynch.Counted over: DFX IAPD registration history of the nine movers; CRD 108559 name change, 9 records, registrations through 2026-10-18; name change filed 2023-10-02
339 advisors had registrations at the former First Republic adviser (J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC, CRD 108559) that ended in March 2025; 338 of them also registered with J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and 250 still show a current J.P. Morgan Securities registration in DFX's latest read. Of the 709 advisors who left J.P. Morgan Securities from October 1, 2025, 31 had been registered with that First Republic adviser; nine went to Latigo Peak Partners, the most of any destination, and five to Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, the next.Counted over: DFX IAPD registrations, former First Republic adviser cohort, 339 records, registrations ending March 2025; moves 2025-10-01 to 2026-10-18
From October 1, 2025, 709 advisors left J.P. Morgan Securities LLC in IAPD; 118 of them moved to registered investment advisers or newly formed firms. Latigo Peak Partners received nine, the most of any destination; the next, IEQ Capital, LLC, received five, on five separate dates between March and August 2026.Counted over: DFX individual advisor moves (IAPD) from J.P. Morgan Securities, 709 records, 2025-10-01 to 2026-10-18

Interpretation and confidence

DFX reads Latigo Peak as a firm assembled for one team rather than a platform that recruited it: the formation owner was replaced in the filing made the day the advisors registered, and the controlling holding company belongs to two of them. Measured against J.P. Morgan Securities' own year, the move is unusual by destination and size, not by the monthly count of departures. A tally of wirehouse departures files this as one more breakaway. The registration histories tell a narrower story: the nine are a First Republic group, part of a cohort of 339 whose registrations at the old First Republic adviser ended in March 2025, and that cohort, rather than J.P. Morgan Securities' adviser force at large, is where further exits of this kind would come from.

Confidence: Tentative. The interpretation is DFX's reading of the evidence, not an established fact. What cuts against it: J.P. Morgan Securities lost 118 advisors individually to registered investment advisers and new firms in the year, so independence is not new for its advisors; and 22 of the 31 former First Republic advisors who left went to firms other than Latigo Peak, so the cohort's exits are not only this team. The text extraction of the Form ADV does not show which Item 2 box is checked, and a firm can reach eligibility on another basis; the date is computed from the effective date, not printed by the SEC. What would change this assessment: If more former First Republic groups leave J.P. Morgan Securities for new or independent firms in the coming months, Latigo Peak is the start of a pattern rather than a single exit, and DFX would treat it as one. Separately, the 120-day approval status means the firm expects to be eligible for SEC registration by about February 2, 2027; a later filing still showing no regulatory assets, or a move to state registration, would mean the clients did not follow in the numbers the registration assumes.

The 2 inferences in detail

Latigo Peak Partners was formed for this team rather than recruiting it as an existing platform, and the departure is the exit of a First Republic legacy group from J.P. Morgan Securities, not evidence of a broad change in J.P. Morgan Securities' adviser retention. (consistent pattern)Against it: J.P. Morgan Securities lost 118 advisors individually to registered investment advisers and new firms in the year, so independence is not new for its advisors; and 22 of the 31 former First Republic advisors who left went to firms other than Latigo Peak, so the cohort's exits are not only this team.Assumes: IAPD registration and move records in DFX are complete for the nine advisors and for J.P. Morgan Securities' departures in the period. The Schedule A ownership in the October 16, 2026 amendment reflects actual control. DFX's destination classification (move_type) separates wirehouses, broker-dealers, registered investment advisers and new firms correctly.Would be invalidated by: Further groups of former First Republic advisors leaving J.P. Morgan Securities for new or independent firms in the following months, which would make this a pattern. Latigo Peak adding advisors from firms other than J.P. Morgan Securities soon after launch, which would make it a recruiting platform. A spike in J.P. Morgan Securities group departures among advisors without a First Republic history.
The "120-Day Approval" status means Latigo Peak Partners registered with the SEC as an adviser that expects to be eligible for SEC registration within 120 days of October 5, 2026, that is by about February 2, 2027; for a firm notice-filing in five states, that eligibility ordinarily rests on reaching $100 million in regulatory assets, so the registration assumes the team's clients will move. (tentative)Against it: The text extraction of the Form ADV does not show which Item 2 box is checked, and a firm can reach eligibility on another basis; the date is computed from the effective date, not printed by the SEC.Assumes: The IAPD status corresponds to Form ADV Item 2.A.(9), rule 203A-2(c), which the form describes as an adviser that expects to be eligible for SEC registration within 120 days. Eligibility would come from regulatory assets under management rather than another Item 2 basis.Would be invalidated by: A later Form ADV from Latigo Peak still reporting no regulatory assets after February 2, 2027 while it remains SEC registered. Latigo Peak withdrawing from SEC registration or registering with a state instead.

Nine ex-First Republic advisors leave J.P. Morgan to launch Latigo Peak

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