Ex-Merrill Lynch Adviser Launches Valen Private Capital Via Sanctuary Wealth Platform
John Durham has launched Valen Private Capital LLC as a partner firm of Sanctuary Wealth, departing Merrill Lynch after more than two decades to establish an independent practice serving ultra-high-net-worth families. Durham managed $477 million at Merrill Lynch before the transition.
Valen Private Capital combines investment management, planning coordination, wealth transfer, and legacy structuring, with an emphasis on helping successive generations build independently of inherited assets, according to the firm.
Benjamin Durham, most recently a wealth management specialist at Merrill Lynch in New York, joins the new firm as partner and director of financial planning. Lisa Downey, a longtime assistant to John Durham, has also joined Valen Private Capital.
Sanctuary Wealth positions itself as a destination for wirehouse advisers seeking greater independence. The Indianapolis-based hybrid registered investment adviser offers advisers a range of affiliation structures alongside shared platform resources – technology, operations, compliance, and investment infrastructure – while allowing them to retain ownership of their practices.
The firm’s growth through wirehouse breakaways has been consistent in recent years. AltsWire has tracked Sanctuary’s expansion as the firm has added partner firms across multiple channels, including advisers focused on alternatives access for affluent and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
“As I evaluated independence, I wanted a partner that would allow me to build Valen Private Capital around my clients – not force my clients into someone else’s model,” John Durham said. “Sanctuary offered the combination of flexibility, experienced support and ultra-high-net-worth resources I was looking for, while allowing me to retain control of the firm I am building.”
Vince Fertitta, president of wealth management at Sanctuary Wealth, said John Durham’s departure from a wirehouse environment positions him to offer a broader range of services to the families he serves. Adam Malamed, Sanctuary’s chief executive officer, said the transition reflects a pattern of advisers seeking a platform that respects the practices they’ve built rather than constraining them to a proprietary model.
John Durham holds a Juris Doctor from Delaware Law School and a Master of Laws in Taxation from Villanova University School of Law.
The launch of Valen Private Capital reflects a broader pattern in the independent wealth management channel: advisers with practices anchored in ultra-high-net-worth relationships increasingly cite access to alternative investments, estate planning integration, and customized portfolio construction as reasons for leaving wirehouse platforms.
Sanctuary’s platform includes access to alternative investment strategies, the firm said — a consideration for advisers whose clients require exposure to private credit, private equity, real estate programs, and other structures that wirehouse platforms have historically limited or standardized.
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