Jarrett Cohen broke away from Merrill Lynch in 2015; now he owns a $60 million financial services firm in New Orleans' historic Cotton Exchange Building, and Schwab just named him to an advisory board

Jarrett E. Cohen needed a building for his RIA business, and he wasn't afraid of a little irony. 

The engraved stones above the front door of his new offices read "New Orleans Cotton Exchange." The re-purposing is "quite ironic for a black-led firm," Cohen says.

The former ace Merrill Lynch cold-caller just brought aboard four more advisors and added 7,500-square-feet of new offices in New Orleans; they will join a team of about 12 people.

When asked about balancing business goals with idealism, Cohen says his objective is to “try to help everyone.”

His aspirational and iconoclastic vision has not gone unnoticed.

His firm's custodian, Schwab Advisor Services, which has $4.26 trillion in assets and about 15,000 RIAs, has named him to its 12-member advocacy board. He will serve a two-year term that began last month.

Schwab declined a request for comment.

Cohen hopes his appointment to the board will help extend his influence nationally in "cultivating diversity, equity, and inclusion in the RIA industry" as well as "lead to client referrals, new advisors, and additional revenue."

Life goals

Despite his success at Merrill Lynch, where he built a $43-million AUA practice on the strength of his cold calling, Cohen felt uneasy with the Wall Street brokerage's high account minimums and low workforce diversity.

Cohen says he became aware that the wealth management industry is overwhelmingly white. Only about 3% of the employees in his office were black, he noted. Houston's population was around 25% black at the time. 

An estimated 72.3% of RIAs nationally are white compared to 61.6% of the population, while only 5.6% are black compared to 12.4% of the population, according to career site Zippia. 

The percentage of Asians in the industry roughly aligns with the U.S. Asian population -- 8.2% and 6%, respectively. 

Working at Merrill made it difficult if not impossible to achieve his life goal – to run a financial advisory practice that serves the kinds of people he grew up with.

Client growth

He founded his own firm in 2015, with “a handful of clients from Merrill Lynch,” he says. 

He is determined to accept small clients and has grown his firm to $60 million in assets as of June 6, he says, without a minimum account size. The SEC ADV shows just $24.9 million for JECohen as of April, which doesn't include the firm's private equity real estate business.

Cohen's average account now ranges between $260,000 and $300,000. Many RIAs target minimums of $1 million or higher and have averages that range even higher, he adds.

His growth generated a need to hire advisors who shared his vision after his clients exceeded his ability to serve them personally. 

His most recent hires, announced last month, include: Justin Smallwood, Luther McClain, Barry Kimbrough and Selina Harrell. (See Below) 

“We are focused on diversifying the wealth management space and building a team of professionals with varied backgrounds and experiences," he stated in a release. 

Cohen's approach to expanding capacity at his firm is to allow advisors to work part-time. “Starting out is very difficult,” he says. “They will all be part-time.”

The SECADV lists eight staff.

Historic offices

Cohen says he "is working" both on a business and idealistic level. He said he has financed the business both by bootstrapping and using supplementary bank loans.

Cohen's 7,500 square foot office was financed through a loan. It's a two-story condo comprising the bottom two floors of the historic, seven-story New Orleans Cotton Exchange building.

Cohen moved operations to the building in 2023; the upper floors are currently occupied by a hotel group.

The exchange became the second cotton market in the United States when it was established in 1871. At the time, one-third of the cotton produced in the country passed through "The Big Easy." 

The interior of the exchange, according to some sources, is depicted in the 1873 painting “A Cotton Office in New Orleans” by French impressionist Edgar Degas, who was visiting cotton-rich relatives at the time. 

Learning the ropes

Cohen was raised by his parents in a middle-class household in Greenville, South Carolina.

JECohen's website shares an anecdote about how, when Cohen was a sophomore at Louisiana State University, his mother asked him how her 401(k) plan "really worked." 

“I knew nothing about 401(k)s,” he says.

His knowledge of 401(k)s may have been limited at the time, but he began to understand the need for financial literacy among middle-class black families like his own.

Justin Smallwood, AWMA, developed a passion for helping individuals and families achieve their financial goals during his time in commercial banking. When he shifted his focus to the wealth management sector, he began working with clients from diverse backgrounds. Smallwood earned his FINRA Series 65 license and a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of New Orleans. 

Luther R. McClain, a native of New Orleans, previously served as a financial analyst with a local boutique investment advisory firm, where he was responsible for research, due diligence, and managing of assets of approximately $200 million. He also served as a financial advisor with global wealth management firm Merrill Lynch. He attained the FINRA Series 7 and Series 66 licenses. McClain earned his Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of New Orleans and his Masters of Finance from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business.

Selina Harrell earned her FINRA Series 65 license and is committed to providing comprehensive financial solutions tailored to meet the diverse needs of her clients. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, specializing in risk management and insurance and is currently pursuing an MBA from the same institution. 

Barry Kimbrough, FINRA Series 65, has a background in commercial real estate, financial analysis and securities licensing. He earned his Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Houston.