Executive Moves in Wealth Management and Investment Banking
The finance sector has seen several key leadership changes. Evolve Private Wealth named former Morgan Stanley advisor Brett Cohen as its new managing partner. Separately, investment bank E.F. Hutton & Co. appointed Priyanka Mahajan as a managing director in its investment banking division.
- Brett Cohen’s move from Morgan Stanley is part of a larger industry trend of financial advisors transitioning from major brokerage firms to independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firms. This shift is often driven by a desire for more flexibility, greater control over client service, and the ability to act as a fiduciary without the constraints of a large corporate platform. - With the addition of Brett Cohen, who oversaw around $800 million in client assets, Evolve Private Wealth's total assets under management now exceed $2.5 billion. His arrival also establishes a New York office for the Los Angeles-based firm, creating a bicoastal presence to serve its high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients nationwide. - Cohen specializes in providing an outsourced family office approach for private business owners and multigenerational families. His expertise lies in navigating liquidity events and implementing tax-aware planning across intricate family balance sheets. - Evolve Private Wealth itself is a relatively new entity, having rebranded from SLK Private Wealth in January 2026. The firm's founding partners left Wells Fargo in 2022 to create an employee-owned firm. - Priyanka Mahajan brings over 17 years of experience in advisory services and transaction execution to E.F. Hutton. Her background includes extensive work on Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), and various forms of equity financing. - Before joining E.F. Hutton, Mahajan held Managing Director positions at investment banks like ThinkEquity and WestPark Capital, where she focused on emerging growth sectors including healthcare, technology, and consumer products. - E.F. Hutton has recently been active in the M&A space, serving as the exclusive advisor on transformative deals. This includes advising on the acquisition of Circle8 Group, a European IT staffing platform, which created a global entity with approximately $1.2 billion in annual revenue. - The appointment of Priyanka Mahajan is part of E.F. Hutton's strategy to expand its senior leadership and enhance its capabilities in delivering innovative financial strategies and capital market services to a global client base.
