Financial services firm Captrust is growing again, having recently moved into new, larger offices off Eastwood Road at 5535 Currituck Drive, Suite 110. The new quarters, roughly double the size of the firm’s previous office suite on Culbreath Avenue, accommodate a staff that has also doubled in size in the past year.
 
“We are probably the largest independent [financial advisory and wealth management] firm in the region, in terms of both people and assets,” Vinton Fountain, the local firm’s founder and principal, said Wednesday. “We have 11 advisers and 9 support people and about $1.3 billion under management in this office. That represents about 1,000 clients. So, we needed a bigger office: now we’ve got almost 10,000 square feet of space.”
 
The suite is in the Autumn Hall office development. Its first-floor location and ample adjacent parking were priorities for Fountain as he led the firm’s search for new space.
 
Part of Captrust’s recent growth in Wilmington came from the acquisition last October of another Wilmington investment and wealth management firm, IronGate Partners, whose personnel are now part of CAPTRUST and are housed in the new quarters.
 
In addition to Fountain, the firm’s financial advisers are Buck Beam, Steve Coggins, Evan Cumalander, Brice Gibson, David Hartness, Lil Mercer, Cleve Nordeen, Chris Riley, Bob Warwick and Susan Willett. Thompson Schollaert is an associate. Support personnel are Renita Brinkley, Madeline Clark, Nona Embry, Sarah Haynes, Tonia Houser, Colleen Johnson, Bonnie Murray and Nicole Nelson.
 
Fountain left his career in banking in 1998 to form Fountain Financial Associates, an independent fiduciary firm that earns its revenues by taking a small percentage of its clients’ investment earnings rather than getting a commission on every financial product it sells to a client.

At about the same time, an entity with a similar commitment to what Fountain calls this “disruptive model” of financial advice delivery took shape in Raleigh. That firm, Captrust, has grown to a network of 80 offices in 34 states plus the District of Columbia. It has about $800 billion worth of assets under management, according to Fountain. Fountain Financial Associates became part of that network in 2020.
 
“Captrust is leading the national scene of fiduciary [advising and management], working with retirement plans, endowments and individuals,” Fountain said. “Its revenue has grown by more than 20% annually over the past 20 years.”