Back to InsightsJune 30, 2026 • Christopher C. Williams, Financial Advisor magazine
Just six days after his June 18 launch as a solo advisor practice on the Sanctury Wealth platform with a $350 million book of business he grew at Morgan Stanley, Kyle Young had already gotten commitments from his clients to transfer more than $200 million to his new independent firm.
Located in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City, Pierstone Wealth Management serves the LGBTQ+ community. And in the City That Never Sleeps, Kyle, who was born and grew up across the Hudson River in New Jersey and has worked in Manhattan since 2016, hasn’t been getting any shut-eye, as he’s zipping past the transitioning phase of going independent. The 22-year industry veteran is confident he can get the full $350 million in the next month.
“I haven’t slept for six days, but it’s been worth it,” Young, the firm’s managing partner and senior wealth advisor, told Financial Advisor. “This transitioning business is a lot of work, and it’s distracting from what I do day to day. So, we will work day and night to get this done over the next several weeks and move on with our business.”
Young’s client relationships were developed through stints at two large wirehouses, Wells Fargo and most recently Morgan, where he was senior vice president and financial advisor.
Young said his superpower is “my values, my authenticity, consistency and ability to execute.” He not only serves the gay community; he’s a part of it and is intimately familiar with its challenges and financial needs.
He said he was intentional in launching during Pride Month, which ends today.
“The goal with this practice is to better align Pierstone with my personal values and with the values of my clients,” Young said. “And I cannot stress the importance of that enough. I have said this for 20 years, if I did not work with the L-G-B-T-Q and ally community, I would not do this work.”
In its announcement welcoming Pierstone to its platform, Miami-based Sanctuary called Young “a passionate advocate for financial empowerment” and noted he’s a leading voice on financial issues affecting LGBTQ+ individuals and families.
Growing Assets, Revenue At 20% Clip
Young wants to eventually grow his solo practice into a $1 billion RIA, with several advisors. He’s banking on growing his practice organically, through new clients and referrals and recruitment of advisors. His team now includes Steven Salton, partner and director of business operations, and Randi Speedling, director of client relations.
“Pierstone was put together intentionally to attract advisors that work with underserved communities,” he said. “If you are an advisor that works with the L-G-B-T-Q space, if you are an advisor who works with women executives or women in general or any number of diverse sets of clients that generally do not get served properly, this is a firm that the advisor should be working at. That billion-dollar number is in sight from several different paths.”
Young said his practice is growing revenue and assets at a 19% to 20% annual clip, and he expects that pace to continue. He noted he received three unsolicited referrals within the past 10 days.
“That is because my clients want to promote what I’m doing with them,” he said. “I don’t work on marketing, I don’t do advertising. I do really well for clients, and they want their friends and family to work with me.”.
Addressing Complex Needs of LGBTQ+ Clients
Providing wealth management and financial planning to the LGBTQ+ community has its challenges, especially around retirement and estate planning, which persists even after the 2015 passage of Obergefell versus Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage, according to Young.
Before that law, advisors had to help LGBTQ+ couples navigated a patchwork of legal protections, with some states recognizing marriages, others offering civil unions or domestic partnership and many offering no protection at all, he noted.
In addition, even career moves to other states would create unique challenges for gay couples. Moving would result in profound implications for healthcare decision-making, property ownership, retirement benefits, taxes and estate planning if the new state didn’t recognize the couple’s legal status, Young said.
The passage of Obergefell “didn’t erase decades of complexities that are built into families, estate and financial planning,” he said.
The advisor, who went through the surrogacy process with his husband, added, “These challenges of adoption, surrogacy, parental rights, healthcare directives, the larger estate planning challenges—these things still very much exist today.”
Why Sanctuary?
Young said that while he grew as an advisor at the big wirehouses, those places didn’t have the culture that aligned with his values. “Was it personally rewarding to work there?” he asked. “The answer is a solid no.”
And unlike his speeding through the transition period, choosing a launch pad to go independent is where Young advises caution. He said he chose the “boutique” culture of Sanctuary after almost three years of a “ton of research and due diligence.”
“In Sanctuary, [Young] found a partner that understands the world he is coming from, stands ready to support the sophisticated needs of his clients and champion his growth,” Vince Fertitta, president of wealth management at Sanctuary, said in the release announcing the launch.
Young added, “What Sanctuary, frankly, is getting with a firm like Pierstone on their platform is a firm that’s committed to a culture of inclusiveness, respect, mutual engagement, all of the things that frankly, larger firms speak about, but very infrequently execute on.”
To view orginal article: https://www.fa-mag.com/news/as-pride-month-ends–lgbtq–focused-pierstone-wealth-readies-for-liftoff-87592.html
