We left a large institution to build the firm we wished existed.
In 2022, after six years working together at a global wealth manager, Jerry Davidse and Brook Hart walked away from a comfortable seat to start something honest. Independent. Fiduciary. Small enough that the founders still answer the phone. This is the firm they built.
“There came a point where the conversations we wanted to have with clients no longer fit inside the firm we worked at. So we left, and built the one that did.”
Jerry Davidse, CFP®Co-Founder & CEOA name we had to make up — because nothing already in the language said it.
Presilium is three ideas fused into one word. Each was non-negotiable. Together they describe the work we do, in the order we do it, every year, for every client. The word is invented. The standards behind it are not.
The forecast — the planning that comes before life forces a decision.
From the Latin praescientia: foreknowledge. The discipline of seeing around the corner — modeling withdrawal sequences, tax cliffs, equity vests, and life events long before they arrive. Every Presilium relationship begins with a written plan because foresight, once committed to paper, becomes accountable.
The endurance — the plan that bends without breaking when the world hits it.
From the Latin resilire: to spring back. Markets correct. Diagnoses arrive. Companies restructure. Children change course. A plan that cannot absorb these without rewriting itself is not a plan — it’s a wish. Resilience is what we stress-test every October so confidence is not a feeling but a math problem we already solved.
The calm — the steady center the plan creates once it is built and tested.
From the Latin aequilibrium: balance. The result we are actually hired for. Not performance. Not products. The quiet that comes from knowing the numbers have been run, the contingencies have been mapped, and the person on the other end of the phone has been there for a decade. Equilibrium is the deliverable. Everything else is the process.
Three commitments. One name. The promise behind every page of this website, every quarterly review, and every conversation we have with the people we serve.
Six years inside. Then a decision.
Jerry Davidse and Brook Hart had been advising HNW families together for six years inside a global financial institution when they decided to leave. They knew exactly what they were giving up. They were more interested in what they could finally build.
The institution was prestigious. The pay was good. The technology was excellent. What it could not provide — what it structurally could not provide — was a relationship between an advisor and a family that was unmediated by a parent company’s product shelf, quarterly sales targets, or the gravity of a brand built on selling rather than advising. Inside a large bank, the math of running an advisory practice always pulled toward scale. The math of running a great one always pulled the other way.
So in 2022, Jerry and Brook left. They co-founded Presilium in Philadelphia, took the firm independent, custodied client assets at Fidelity, joined the Dynasty Financial Partners network for institutional reach, and committed to a single fee model paid by the people they serve. No commissions. No proprietary products. No bank parent. No quotas. The CFP® standard, applied without an asterisk.
What drives the work, almost three years in, is the same thing that drove the decision to leave. There is a particular kind of client — usually in their 50s or 60s, often a corporate executive or business owner, sometimes the steward of a multi-generational family — who has built something meaningful and does not need to be sold to. They need to be listened to, planned for, and told the truth when it matters. That is the practice Jerry and Brook wanted to spend the rest of their careers running. That is the firm Presilium became.
The team has grown to six. The promise has not changed. The advisor who picks up the phone on a Tuesday morning is the advisor who built the plan. The founders are still on the line. And the work, finally, is the work.
Jerry Davidse, CFP®
Co-Founder · CEO
Brook Hart, CFP®, CEPA®
Co-Founder · President & CCO
What we hold ourselves to. Every relationship. Every year.
Four words that sound abstract until you watch a team practice them. They are the standards we hire by, train against, and review ourselves on. They are also the standards we ask our clients to hold us to.
Attentiveness
Every relationship begins with a conversation we lead by listening — leaning in, asking the second and third question, and locking onto the goals and values that actually define a client’s life rather than the financial vocabulary that surrounds them. This is the work that makes everything downstream possible: a plan that fits a person rather than a portfolio that fits a category.
Service
The trust we earn is sustained by the way we show up between meetings — by responsiveness, availability, and the frequency of our communication. Every client gets a standing monthly check-in with their advisor whether they need it or not. Quarterly reviews go deeper. Periodic seminars and educational sessions keep clients ahead of, not chasing, the conversations they need to have with us.
Discipline
We run our firm with the same discipline we apply to our clients’ plans. Process is documented. Time is protected. Operations are tight because efficiency in the back office is invested directly into the front: more hours spent on a client’s situation, fewer lost to internal friction. The discipline a client experiences in their plan is not an exception — it is the operating model.
Independence
We mitigate conflicts in every activity we undertake. We are an independent registered investment adviser, not affiliated with a broker-dealer, insurer, or bank parent. We take no commissions, no referral fees, and no third-party platform compensation. As part of the Dynasty Financial Partners network with custody at Fidelity, we operate in an open architecture under the fiduciary standard — which is to say, we are obligated to put your interests ahead of ours, in writing, on every recommendation we make.
A short history, told honestly.
We are a young firm. The history is short on purpose. What matters is what has been built and how it has held up.
Presilium is founded in Philadelphia
Jerry Davidse and Brook Hart leave a global wealth manager to launch an independent RIA. Custody established at Fidelity. Membership confirmed with the Dynasty Financial Partners network.
The first commitment cycle is set
The three commitments are codified into a calendar that every client receives: a written Presilium Plan in the first 30 days, an annual Stress Test every October, and a standing Monthly Check-In with their advisor.
The team builds out
Cullen Martin, CFP® joins as a financial planner. Operations leadership is established with Jackie Ellison, Kelley Casper, and Chrystal Thomas — three career operators who run the firm as carefully as we run our clients’ plans.
Industry recognition arrives
AdvisorHub names Presilium to its 2024 Advisors to Watch list. Forbes names the team to its 2025 Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams. Neither was paid for. Methodology is published in our disclosures.
A six-person team. A short list of families.
A growing client base of HNW households, corporate executives, and multi-generational families. A YouTube library of nearly 450 educational videos. And a founder-served model that has not changed since the day the firm opened.
A firm built for three particular moments.
Our story exists because the people we serve are at a stage where the next decade will matter more than the last. The work compounds for clients whose situation matches one of three moments.
Approaching Retirement
Five to ten years out. The plan needs to be stress-tested, sequenced, and walked through one more time before the paycheck stops and the portfolio starts paying for life.
Plan the transition →Corporate Executives
RSUs vesting, ISOs ticking, a 10b5-1 to write, and a single ticker carrying too much of a balance sheet. We help leaders diversify without leaving tax on the table.
Equity strategy →Multi-Generational Families
Estate structuring, generational transfer, and the conversations across the dining room table that turn a balance sheet into a family operating system that survives the next handoff.
Plan the legacy →Meet the people you’ll work with.
You have read the story. The next page introduces the team behind it — the six people who answer the calls, build the plans, and keep the commitments.
Meet the team →Or schedule a complimentary 15-minute call with a founder — no pitch, no slides.