NewEdge Hired a Bank of America Private Bank Team in Fort Lauderdale. The $3.1 Billion Figure Is From a Source, Not the Bank.

By Intersection Advisory · Advisor Moves

Published: September 1, 2026

Category: Advisor Moves

Paul J. Yates, Alexandra G. Escobedo, Trace R. Shapiro, and Michael J. Wohlgemuth joined NewEdge Wealth and opened its fourth Florida office, in Fort Lauderdale, on September 1, 2026. NewEdge Capital Group’s announcement that day names the four, says they have worked with ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families, business owners, and professional athletes, and does not mention assets or revenue. AdvisorHub, in a September 3 story, attributed both economics to a person familiar with the move: about $3.1 billion overseen at Bank of America Private Bank, and around $20 million in annual revenue. A Bank of America spokesperson did not comment to AdvisorHub. The names, the office, and the date are in the firm’s release. The dollars are not.

The release calls NewEdge Wealth a registered investment adviser for ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth families, family offices, and institutions, and a division of NewEdge Capital Group. It says the firm has more than 70 ultra-high-net-worth advisors in 20 locations, including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and that the parent supports over 475 financial advisors. AdvisorHub described NewEdge Wealth as the employee channel, with around 70 advisors, and NewEdge Advisors as the sister firm for independent contractors. AdvisorHub also reported that NewEdge Capital, with $120 billion in combined assets, sits under EdgeCo Holdings, backed by Parthenon Capital and Waterfall Asset Management. That ownership and the $120 billion figure are AdvisorHub’s, not lines in the September 1 release.

What do the registrations show?

BrokerCheck does not treat the four as a single registration event, and it does not, by itself, prove a Bank of America Private Bank title. Several of the securities registrations run through Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith in Fort Lauderdale, which is a common registration home for Bank of America Private Bank advisors. The firm’s biographies and AdvisorHub’s account are what attach the private-bank label.

| Advisor | What BrokerCheck shows | What the firm or AdvisorHub adds |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Trace Shapiro (CRD 5549572) | Fidelity Brokerage Services, December 2010–September 2011; Merrill Lynch, October 26, 2011–August 31, 2026; NewEdge Securities, September 1, 2026 | Firm bio: senior vice president and private client advisor at Bank of America Private Bank, formerly U.S. Trust, plus earlier Merrill Lynch advisor and sales-manager work. AdvisorHub: joined the private bank in 2011. |

| Paul J. Yates (CRD 6545604) | Merrill Lynch, November 24, 2015–August 31, 2026; NewEdge Securities, September 1, 2026 | AdvisorHub: personal banker at Bank of America in 2009, private bank in 2015. Firm: more than a decade, including lending, estate, trust, and philanthropy; previously Bank of America Private Bank. |

| Michael J. Wohlgemuth (CRD 4609721) | Banc of America Investment Services, May 2003–April 2004; Merrill Lynch, February 19, 2016–August 31, 2026; NewEdge Securities, September 1, 2026 | AdvisorHub: joined the private bank in 2002. Firm: also Barry Financial Group and Thomson Financial Research; clients include real estate developers and professional athletes; more than 20 years. |

| Alexandra G. Escobedo (CRD 5675537) | TradeStation Securities, August 2009–July 2011; New Edge Wealth investment-adviser registration September 4, 2026; NewEdge Securities September 21, 2026. No earlier investment-adviser employment on the record reviewed | Firm: CFA, CFP, more than 15 years; prior roles at Bank of America Private Bank, TradeStation, and Franklin Templeton. AdvisorHub: portfolio manager, at the bank from 2011. |

Escobedo’s securities registration at NewEdge Securities begins September 21, three weeks after the announcement and after her teammates’ September 1 broker registrations. Her advisory registration is dated September 4. The gap between a bank biography and a thin BrokerCheck file is the point, not a contradiction to paper over. Private-bank work is often a bank job first and a broker-dealer registration second, or not a FINRA registration at all for stretches of a career. Wohlgemuth’s file has a long gap between 2004 and 2016. Yates’s file begins in November 2015, which lines up with AdvisorHub’s private-bank date and does not show the 2009 personal-banker job, because that job would not have required a securities license.

What did they say they were leaving for?

Yates’s statement in the release is about service and scale, not about a book of assets: clients have “complex needs and evolving expectations,” and NewEdge “values elite client service” and has “the scale to invest in the right solutions.” Rob Sechan, founder and managing partner, said the team understands “innovators, athletes and families,” that he has lived in Fort Lauderdale full time since 2023, and that the office strengthens the coast between Miami, Coral Gables, and Boca Raton. AdvisorHub carried the Florida-growth portion of that comment. The release also says the four have more than half a century of combined experience. It does not say how many households, how much is advisory versus lending and deposits, or what happens to bank products that do not transfer with a business card.

AdvisorHub framed the hire as the second multibillion-dollar addition in two weeks. A person familiar with the moves told AdvisorHub that NewEdge had just opened its first Texas office with a Bernstein Private Wealth team in Houston, around $2.2 billion and around $8 million of revenue. On those source pairs, the Florida group’s roughly $20 million on about $3.1 billion is a higher revenue-to-asset ratio than the Houston group’s roughly $8 million on about $2.2 billion — about 65 basis points versus about 36, if you do the division. Both pairs are the same class of unnamed source. The comparison is useful only as a warning not to rank the teams by assets alone. AdvisorHub also reported a November hire of a team that had managed $6 billion and generated $25 million at Summit Trail Advisors in New York. The pattern AdvisorHub drew is recruiting outside the classic wirehouse producer pool: private-bank teams and at least one large RIA team. The September 1 release supports the private-bank description. It does not support the dollar figures.

NewEdge’s release says the firm is invitation-only for advisors who are already successful, and it cites Barron’s Top 100 RIA, Forbes America’s Top RIA, and a CNBC Elite Advisor recognition, with the award footnotes printed in the release. Those are firm-level rankings. They are not a client count for Fort Lauderdale. The office address on NewEdge’s location page is 515 Las Olas Boulevard, Suite 1050. Titles on that page: Yates and Escobedo as managing directors, Shapiro as principal, Wohlgemuth as director of client service. Shapiro’s biography calls him a private wealth advisor, managing director, and co-founding principal.

An advisor reading a private-bank move against an employee RIA can use the questions in the [Crossroads report](https://intersectionadvisory.com/crossroads-report) to separate a bank balance sheet from a portable advisory relationship. The Fort Lauderdale facts that are firm-published are the four names, the date, the client types in the release, and Sechan’s and Yates’s words. The $3.1 billion and the $20 million stay on the AdvisorHub source until someone puts a name to them.

Sources

- https://www.newedgewealth.com/newedge-expands-florida-presence-with-four-wealth-managers/ — September 1, 2026 announcement: names, Fort Lauderdale as the fourth Florida office, client types, Sechan and Yates statements, headcount, prior-employer sketches. No asset or revenue figure.

- https://www.advisorhub.com/newedge-lands-3-1b-bofa-private-bank-team-in-florida/ — September 3, 2026: source figures of about $3.1 billion and about $20 million; Houston Bernstein comparison; Summit Trail comparison; Bank of America no comment; EdgeCo, Parthenon, Waterfall, and $120 billion.

- https://www.newedgewealth.com/location/fort-lauderdale/ — Office address and titles.

- https://www.newedgewealth.com/team/trace-shapiro/ — Shapiro biography, including U.S. Trust and Merrill Lynch detail.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/5549572 — Shapiro.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/6545604 — Yates.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4609721 — Wohlgemuth.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/5675537 — Escobedo.

- https://intersectionadvisory.com/crossroads-report — Questions for separating bank balances from portable advice.