The wealth management giant Rockefeller Global Family Office recently announced that it was adding Charlotte, North Carolina-based Variant Path Group to its team. The move is just the latest sign of the growth of the Southeast as a hub for family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.
Besides Walton Enterprises — the largest family office in the world, with $224 billion in assets and based in Arkansas — other prominent offices in the region include Belvedere Capital in Miami; Amzak Capital Management in Boca Raton, Florida; and Sunny River Management in Atlanta.
Rockefeller President Christopher Dupuy said the family office connected with Variant because “the Charlotte area is one of the fastest-growing in the United States, and Variant Path Group brings deep ties to the community dating back more than 60 years." The group will report to Kristen Sario, Rockefeller's southeast divisional director.
Charlotte is also the country’s second-largest banking center after New York, as the headquarters of Bank of America Corp. and a regional hub for Wells Fargo.
Rockefeller plans further forays into the region. “The Southeast region is an incredibly important and vibrant market across almost every industry," National Field Director Michael Outlaw tells Crain Currency. "Whether it be business owners, executives, employees of fast-growing companies, those tied to the entertainment and athletic space or retired individuals who call the area home, the longevity of the Rockefeller brand and the capabilities that our advisers can deliver resonates strongly in the area. We’ll look to continue adding deeply experienced teams in the Southeast region and have very exciting plans to do so in 2024.”
Last year, Rockefeller picked up a team from UBS Wealth Management USA in Atlanta and a Merrill Lynch team in Palm Beach, Florida.
Overall, the region is booming, with the Southeast contributing more to GDP than the Northeast — the longtime center of the country’s economic power, according to Bloomberg. Since the pandemic, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina saw a boost of $100 billion in new income while the Northeast lost about $60 billion. The Southeast is also home to 10 of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the country.
Between 2020 and 2021 alone, Florida gained 27,500 high earners (those earning $200,000 or more) as well as a few billionaires.
Among them are Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who left his longtime residency in Washington state, and hedge fund kingpin Ken Griffin, who moved his $51 billion firm’s headquarters to Miami from Chicago last year.