🔒Longtime Worcester wealth manager co-founds new business downtown

After nearly two decades at the Worcester office of Wells Fargo Advisors, former branch manager Robert Cotter has teamed up with fellow former Wells Fargo advisor Chris Roering to launch their own Worcester-based wealth management firm. The new firm, IKON Private Wealth, will operate as part of Wells Fargo Advisors’ independent network channel, which will allow for the new firm to operate with more autonomous decision-making while avoiding competing priorities of the large broker dealers, according to a Sep. 21 press release announcing the new firm. IKON is located on the sixth floor of 100 Front St., the same building where Wells Fargo’s Worcester office is located. The firm will focus on families and businesses which meet a $1 million threshold of investable assets. The new firm comes after Cotter and Wells Fargo reached a mutual agreement, allowing him to move to the bank’s independent channel after frustrations with the lack of autonomy under Wells Fargo’s control, according to Advisorhub.com. Since 2020, more than 10% of Wells Fargo brokers have transitioned from working directly within the company to its independent network channel. Cotter grew up in Worcester in a neighborhood off of Burncoat Street and graduated from Burncoat High School before attending UMass Lowell. He later managed Wells Fargo’s Worcester office for about 18 years. “I built my practice here in Worcester, and when opportunities to manage offices in and around Boston presented themselves, I always chose to stay here,” Cotter wrote in an email to WBJ. “Many clients have come to me because we are in Worcester and support our Worcester business community.” A graduate of Purdue University, Roering has nearly 35 years of experience in the financial service industry. “I believe true success is built by a team that is deeply committed to prioritizing the client’s best interests—through every investment, every strategy, and every decision we make,” Roering wrote in an email to WBJ. “That client-first philosophy has been the cornerstone of the enduring success I’ve experienced throughout my career, and I’m proud to see that same level of dedication to excellence lived out every day at Ikon.” IKON is offering financial advice and management relating to topics including retirement, college saving plans, and investment products, according to its website. Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.