Trusted. Committed. Banking Forward.

South State Bank and CenterState Bank have joined together to create the leading regional bank in the Southeast. As trusted partners, we are commi ed to providing more locations, enhanced products and services and innovative digital banking technology to make our customers’ lives easier and more convenient.

We’ve provided financial solutions to individuals, families and businesses throughout the Southeast for more than 100 years. Both companies were built on the same founding principles of relationship banking and investing in the communities we serve. It’s the commitment to these values that made us the strong and successful companies we are today and these values will continue to guide us in the future.

Coral Gables Trust Company

Coral Gables Trust Company offers something extra that distinguishes it from many wealth management companies: trust and estate services. The firm advises clients on setting up Trusts –separate entities that hold client assets to minimize taxes and ease transfer of wealth to heirs when the client dies. The firm typically administers and handles most trust activities for the client and later for the beneficiaries. “We’re the largest independent, privately-held trust company headquartered in South Florida,” says Jim Davidson, CEO and founding chairman.

Coral Gables Trust generally serves clients with assets from $500,000 to $50 million – smaller amounts than many national firms with trust services will accept, says Davidson. Most of the firm’s accounts top $1 million. Clients include high net worth individuals, owners of small and mid-size businesses, executives at large companies, retirees, foundations, nonprofits, pension funds and endowment funds. The firm operates from four offices: Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Boca Raton.

Like many wealth management firms, Coral Gables Trust also offers financial planning and investment management services. It provides fee-based advice, sells no proprietary products and works with outside investment managers, choosing ones who perform better than most during a downturn. “We focus on capital preservation,” says Davidson, “by limiting risks rather than attempting to achieve the highest return.”

The firm takes pride in personalized service – “we’re on call 24/7” – and in community involvement. Executives are active with nonprofit groups including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Miami, Chapman Partnership and the Coral Gables Community Foundation.

EVENSKY & KATZ/FOLDES FINANCIAL

When it comes to wealth management – that unique blend of financial planning and specialized services to sustain and grow wealth long-term – Harold R. Evensky literally wrote the book, back in the 1990s. He’s also been teaching the practice for years, moving to Texas more than a decade ago to help develop the Personal Financial Planning Program at Texas Tech University.

Evensky began his firm in Coral Gables like most others, accepting commissions on sales. But in 1993, he and his partners switched to a different model, only taking fees for advice and never commissions on sales. Today, the firm employs some 30 people at its two Florida and Texas offices, including 20 certified financial planners. It helps executives, professionals, retirees, entrepreneurs, institutional clients and others keep and expand their wealth for future generations, philanthropy and other goals. Many clients have been working with the firm so long that their children and even grandchildren have become clients, too, says David Evensky, chief marketing officer. “ When you have clients for decades, you become like a family,” he says. “So, you really want to look out for them long-term.”

Evensky does not sell proprietary products. It manages client assets through third-party custodians and works under a fiduciary standard that puts client interests first. That differs from work by broker-dealers, says CMO Evensky. The 35-year-old firm also assists clients by developing a written financial plan, stating long-term goals. That helps clients “tune out the noise” in tumultuous times, says Evensky, “to stay the course.”

FOUNDED: 2004

ASSETS: MORE THAN $1.5 BILLION UNDER MANAGEMENT

LOCATION: 255 ALHAMBRA CIRCLE

KEY PERSONNEL: JAMES “JIM” DAVIDSON, CHAIRMAN AND CEO (ABOVE); JOHN HARRIS, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF WEALTH OFFICER

FOUNDED: 1985

ASSETS: APPROXIMATELY $2 BILLION UNDER MANAGEMENT

LOCATION: 4000 PONCE DE LEON BLVD.

KEY PERSONNEL: (STANDING) BRETT MCGRATH, CMO DAVID EVENSKY, CHAIRMAN HAROLD R. EVENSKY, LANE JONES. (SITTING) MATT MCGRATH, LANE JONES, PRINCIPALS.

Firestone Capital Management

When coronavirus pummeled stock values earlier this year, the team at Firestone Capital Management reached out to clients. They wanted to make sure investors had enough cash in reserve and to review their plans to sustain wealth. Few clients made major portfolio changes – a testament to the firm’s planning-based, long-term approach, says planner Jerad Waggy.

Firestone Capital focuses on “multi-generation family planning,” aiming to preserve, enhance and transfer wealth to heirs, to charitable causes and to others that investors hold dear. The boutique firm has one office and a staff of eight, mainly certified financial planners. It works on a fee-only model for advice, and emphasizes personalized service.

Clients can start accounts with $500,000, a smaller amount than many larger national firms accept. Clients also seek advice in times of transition: When selling a business, getting married, divorcing, facing sudden widowhood or preparing to retire.

The Coral Gables-based firm takes pride in community roots and relationships. “Three out of five partners were born or raised here in Miami-Dade, so we’re locals serving locals,” says Waggy. Advisors are active with nonprofit groups including the Woody Foundation, Miami Music Project and Lotus House. The firm also personalizes portfolios for clients who want investments to reflect their social values. That might mean putting money into mutual funds that don’t invest in the fossil fuel, tobacco, gun, or for-profit prison industries. Or it may mean investing in funds keen on renewable energy. Says Waggy, “We try to accommodate clients depending on what their interests are.”

FOUNDED: 1991

ASSETS: APPROXIMATELY $525 MILLION UNDER MANAGEMENT LOCATION: 1501 VENERA AVE.

KEY PERSONNEL: CARLOS CARBONELL, MANAGING PARTNER

When TotalBank was sold a couple years ago, outgoing president Jay Pelham looked around for a new venture to apply his skills as a certified financial planner and long-time private banker. Pelham already had a solid relationship with Blain Heckaman, CEO at accounting firm Kaufman Rossin, working together even on nonprofits. The two saw an opportunity to expand the accounting firm’s services to include financial planning and wealth management. In 2019, Kaufman Rossin Wealth was born.

The new wealth-management firm operates like many in South Florida: Planning-based, fee-only, with a fiduciary standard that puts client needs first. What makes it different are three main things: Its ties to 58-year-old Kaufman Rossin, which also offers tax consulting, insurance and other services; Pelham’s decades-long roots in local banking; plus its association with the Buckingham alliance, a decades-old group that advises investment management firms handling more than $36 billion in assets. Buckingham provides associates with investment research, a bond desk, access to mutual funds and other support services, says Pelham, “so we can stay focused on the client relationships.”

Kaufman Rossin Wealth now operates with five employees at its Coconut Grove base. It plans to add staff at some of Kaufman Rossin’s accounting offices in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and the Naples area, says Pelham. He sees a growing need for professional planning and wealth management services these days, since coronavirus has jolted business and markets.

“When we get into volatile markets like now, it tends to expose bad planning or lack of planning,” says Pelham, a Coral Gables resident for more than 20 years. “I think of us as a financial doctor.” ■

FOUNDED: 2019

ASSETS: APPROXIMATELY $40 MILLION UNDER MANAGEMENT LOCATION: 3310 MARY ST., COCONUT GROVE

KEY PERSONNEL: JAY PELHAM, PRESIDENT