ELMIRA — Utica–based Ascent Wealth Partners has expanded into the Southern Tier region with a new employee and new office in Elmira. The firm has hired Douglas Bissonette as a managing director to head up a 500-square-foot leased office at 250 E. Water St., located near the Chemung River in downtown Elmira. Bissonette will focus […]
ELMIRA — Utica–based Ascent Wealth Partners has expanded into the Southern Tier region with a new employee and new office in Elmira.
The firm has hired Douglas Bissonette as a managing director to head up a 500-square-foot leased office at 250 E. Water St., located near the Chemung River in downtown Elmira.
Bissonette will focus on growing and servicing Ascent’s business in Elmira, Ithaca, and across the Southern Tier, Ascent Wealth Partners said in a news release.
Elmira is a new market for Ascent. “We did not have a physical presence prior, although we do have some existing client relationships in the Southern Tier,” Scott McCartney, partner at Ascent, said in a follow-up email.
Bissonette is currently the firm’s only employee in Elmira. He is supported by Ascent’s Utica office for his operations and investment-management needs, according to McCartney.
Prior to joining Ascent, Bissonette worked for Chemung Canal Trust Company as a vice president and senior trust officer.
In his new role at Ascent, Bissonette will continue his focus on investment management, and estate and trust management, bringing more than 30 years of experience.
Bissonette said in the news release that he is “excited” to offer a new option in wealth management to the region, and plans to continue providing clients the kind of personalized service they have come to expect from him. “To me, the job is almost a 24-hour job,” he said. “If you need us, we’re there.”
Ascent says its services focus on growing clients’ wealth, and providing customized planning and oversight. As an independent advisory firm, it provides financial and estate planning, investment management for individuals and corporations, business-succession planning, and tax strategies, among other services.
Ascent Wealth Partners (www.ascentwealthpartners.com) is headquartered in a 2,500-square-foot office at 122 Business Park Drive in Utica and will celebrate its third anniversary in September.
McCartney, a CFA, and his fellow partners Bradley M. Kowalczyk, J.D., LL.M., and Mark Moshier, CPA, and staff bring more than a century of combined years of experience, the firm says. The three partners were all senior executives at Strategic Financial Services of Utica, before striking out on their own in 2011.
Ascent currently has 10 employees (all full time) and $350 million in client assets under management, according to McCartney.
Ascent also has an office in Saratoga Springs, north of Albany.
Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com