J.P. Morgan Advisors Names Former Merrill Private Wealth Leader Linda Patel to Run the Southeast

J.P. Morgan Advisors hired Linda Patel, a former Merrill Lynch Private Wealth regional managing director, as Southeast regional director overseeing about 80 advisors.

J.P. Morgan Advisors has gone to Merrill for its next Southeast leader. Linda Patel joined the bank's traditional brokerage unit as Southeast regional director and will work from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, according to InvestmentNews, which reported the firm's announcement on Oct. 30.

Patel oversees market executives and about 80 financial advisors across Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton, Miami and Atlanta. She reports to Mollie Colavita, who took over J.P. Morgan Advisors after Phil Sieg retired, and succeeds Janet Sweeney, the previous regional director, who retired earlier this year.

She was most recently a regional managing director at Merrill Lynch Private Wealth, responsible for its private wealth, institutional and international businesses. Patel has more than 25 years in the industry. She started at PaineWebber in 1998, came to Merrill through Advest, one of its predecessor firms, and holds a BBA in international business management from Pace University.

"Linda is an exceptional leader with deep experience in private wealth," Colavita said in the announcement. She added that the Southeast "continues to attract individuals, families and businesses with increasingly complex financial needs" and that Patel's record of leading and developing advisor teams makes her the right person to capture that opportunity. The firm cited IRS data showing Florida gained more than $20 billion in adjusted gross income from interstate migration, the largest net gain of any state.

The hire lands in a market J.P. Morgan has needed to steady. Earlier this month, two of J.P. Morgan Advisors' largest teams broke away to launch Latigo Peak Partners, also based in Palm Beach Gardens. Patel now runs the region those teams left, and her first test will be holding the advisors who remain.