$1.2B Legacy Edge Names Former Citizens Wealth Head as First CEO
Legacy Edge Advisors, a Syosset, N.Y.-based registered investment advisor with $1.2 billion in client assets, has hired Christopher Weyrauch as its first CEO.
Weyrauch had been head of wealth management at Citizens Financial Group from 2021 to 2024, a role he took after a 28-year run at TIAA, where he was the last CEO and president of TIAA Life Insurance Company.
Legacy Edge Advisors was founded by TIAA wealth management advisors Scott Israel, Robert Rom, Jason Kass and Tim Urie, who split off to start their own firm. They have since added more former TIAA advisors and an advisor for Merrill Lynch, according to Israel.
“Our focus was to build something that was viable, profitable and a place that our colleagues from TIAA and [advisors from] elsewhere could have a place that would give them what TIAA clients are used to,” Israel said. “I’ll call that phase one, and we did that.”
Israel and the other three founders, partly through work with the consultancy FP Transitions, decided they needed a CEO to oversee ongoing growth and capital needs while they continued their own work with clients, advisors and investment portfolios.
As RIAs scale to higher asset and advisor counts, they are also considering whether to add executives to help manage business operations and growth. Earlier this week, $15 billion Coldstream announced it had expanded its leadership team through a combination of an external hire and promotion from within.
In his new role at Legacy Edge Advisors, Weyrauch will oversee the firm’s overall strategy, which includes assessing and recruiting advisors who Israel said are showing interest from TIAA and the wirehouse channels.
“Chris was a great fit to implement our vision for both inorganic and organic growth,” he said. “He also has a lot of experience in building things from scratch. At TIAA, he was involved with building up its wealth management, then he went to Citizens and did it again, and now he is on the board of M Financial and helping them there.”
Israel had known Weyrauch for more than 25 years, partly from TIAA, and had often called him to discuss his new business. The CEO joins at what Israel called a “modest” salary, but with growth targets that will give him equity in the firm.
Israel also noted that Legacy Edge is working with FP Transitions to find ways to share equity with employees beyond the initial four advisors.
He said the firm has kept some of the TIAA practices that the advisors liked, including customized investment portfolios for clients, each with a dedicated portfolio manager they can speak with, rather than being “put into some model or computer program.”
Weyrauch will also be responsible for considering what Israel says are frequent overtures from external investors for a firm that has so far grown off its own cash flow.
“We have been approached countless times, needless to say,” Israel said. “We are not opposed to it, but one of the primary roles of Chris is to be strategic with how we look for capital.”
