A team of Wilmington-based financial advisers with more than $400 million in client assets is starting its own firm, according to an announcement Friday.

The new company, TOVA Wealth Management, is launching in partnership with Sanctuary Wealth, a nationwide firm that provides financial advisers with an independent platform.

TOVA's four-person financial advising team was formerly part of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. Founder and managing partner Katie Medina, who joined Merrill Lynch in 2008, leads the team.

Medina wrote in a news release on Friday,  “Deciding to move forward with our own firm is a consequential decision and is not something we take lightly. Sanctuary speaks our language and comes highly recommended by others who have left Merrill to start their own business within the network. We only want to make this type of transition once, so we had to find the right partner to ensure success.”

Medina’s team includes advisers Michael Tunney and Eric Starkey and client associate Amy Kepler. The group will operate as TOVA Wealth Management with offices on the seventh floor of Skyline Center at 929 N. Front St. in downtown Wilmington.

In May, the Wilmington City Council approved leasing 846 square feet on Skyline Center’s seventh floor to TOVA Wealth. The full-service lease has a five-year term and an annual cost of $32,480.

TOVA Wealth will be supported by Sanctuary Wealth’s multi-custodial integrated platform, which offers “hands-on support and best-in-class infrastructure” to accelerate growth, according to the company’s news release.

“After spending their entire careers at a wirehouse, Katie and her team wanted the autonomy to run their business and serve clients as they felt best,” Vince Fertitta, Sanctuary Wealth’s president of wealth management, wrote in the company’s release.

“They believed that remaining employees of a large bank was no longer the best environment, which is why they sought a platform that provides everything they used at their prior firm and much more.”

An Indianapolis-based firm, Sanctuary Wealth has 120 partner firms in 30 states nationwide with $42 billion in assets on the platform, which, according to the release, aims to offer financial advisers the “freedom, flexibility, control and choice to thrive in an evolving industry.”

“The network is multi-custodial, which was essential to us, and they have the experience of supporting the transition of practices like ours to independence without missing a beat,” Medina wrote in the release. “Our multi-generational business has a long runway, and we are extremely pleased Sanctuary will be with us for our entire journey.”

Sanctuary Wealth CEO Adam Malamed wrote that the firm is honored to be chosen by the TOVA Wealth team.

“Over the past several years, we have been diligently building the infrastructure and services that provide groups like theirs with the freedom, flexibility, control and choice to build on their previous success and thrive in the evolving wealth management landscape,” Malamed wrote.