Patten brothers to split Chattanooga's oldest investment firm

photo Cartter Patten, left, and Bryan Patten

Chattanooga's oldest investment advisory firm is splitting up.

Bryan and Cartter Patten, the 73-year-old twin brothers who formed Patten and Patten Inc. in 1976, signed an agreement Monday to go their separate ways in what both called a friendly separation within the family.

Cartter Patten is joining with his daughter Ashlee - both chartered financial analysts and portfolio managers at Patten and Patten - to start the Patten Group Inc. The new investment firm will be housed in the third floor of the Volunteer Building next to one of the offices of U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

The other four portfolio managers and CFAs at Patten and Patten Inc. - Bryan Patten, Frank "Mickey" Robbins, Raymond Ryan, J. Clay Crumbliss and Mark Fleck - will stay at Patten and Patten, which is on Lookout Street across from the corporate headquarters of the Unum Group.

At the end of 2013, Patten and Patten has $1.35 billion under management, Cartter Patten said.

"We've come a long way from two clients when I started 38 years ago to more than 600 clients today," he said.

Cartter Patten III, who started one of the first investment advisory firms in Chattanooga in 1971 after serving in the investment division of the former Volunteer State Life Insurance Co., founded by his grandfather, said the separation will allow for an orderly succession of leadership and accommodate some of the differences in investment styles and approaches.

"This creates opportunities for Cartter and Ashlee, and I know it also creates opportunities for us here at Patten and Patten for our younger managers and for me become CEO," said Bryan Patten, who headed the trust department of the former Hamilton National Bank before joining his brother to form Patten & Patten in 1976. "This will allow me to implement a few things I think our staff will like and will help us in our investment management process."

Ryan, who Bryan Patten called "the talented heir apparent" at Patten and Patten, is a year older than Ashlee, who also was interested in running her own firm.

"It's amicable so we're able to cooperate with one another while they pursue the accounts where they were the primary manager," Bryan Patten said. "That process will be concluded within 60 days when they will be fully operational in the Volunteer office building."

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.

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