Daryl Seaton will take on a new role as president of Sowell Management, a $4.5 billion, privately held Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm based in North Little Rock, while founder Bill Sowell will transition to CEO, the company announced Friday.
Sowell formerly served as the firm’s president and CEO and Seaton as its COO.
Sowell Management provides services to independent financial advisors, and has experienced major growth in recent years. It grew from $537 million in regulatory assets under management (AUM) and assets under administration (AUA) in June of 2016 to a current total of $4.5 billion.
Regulatory assets under management are assets for which Sowell provides continuous and regular supervisory or management services to client portfolios. Assets under administration is a measure of the total assets for which Sowell provides administrative services.
“We continue to experience tremendous success at Sowell, marked by our own team accomplishments as well as our amazing advisor partners we serve every day,” Sowell said in a statement. “Being an EOS-run company [Entrepreneurial Operating System] means we intentionally focused on our people. With an amazing team in place, and the vision to achieve a bold future, the time is now to separate the role of president and CEO, and I know Daryl is the right person to take over the helm of president.”
In his role as CEO, Sowell will remain the visionary of the firm, looking to the future to ensure the company remains steadfast and relevant in its growth, while staying true to its core values, the firm announced.
“Daryl will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations as he did as COO while taking a larger role strategizing key growth initiatives for the company,” Sowell said. In the next few years, Sowell said he expects the firm to be a $10 billion firm*, and with Daryl’s help to drive the growth, he said, we believe that number is well within grasp.”
Seaton joined Sowell in May of 2020, transitioning from northern California to Little Rock. He was the founder and CEO of a successful RIA, Solera Asset Managers, that provided financial advisory services. Solera utilized Sowell Management’s resources, so as an advisor-partner, Seaton was familiar with the high expectation of service that has contributed to our success, Sowell said.
Prior to founding Solera, Seaton was the senior partner of the northern California office of New York Life Insurance company, a flagship office for the Fortune 100 company. In his role there, he drove the growth of the firm and recruited, trained and led more than 150 financial advisors.
“I’m proud of the trust the company has in me, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with the Sowell team members to set the bar high, ensuring we exceed the expectations of our advisors every single day,” Seaton said.
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