Rick Taormina is the Co-Founder and CEO of Margate Asset Management, bringing nearly three decades of industry-leading experience in municipal and tax-aware fixed income investing. Prior to establishing Margate, Rick served as a Managing Director at JPMorgan from 2005 to 2024, where he led the firm’s Tax Aware Strategies team and was a central member of the Global Macro group within the Global Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities division.
Rick managed municipal ETFs, mutual funds, separate accounts, insurance mandates, and institutional portfolios—consistently delivering top-quartile performance across major categories. He launched JPMorgan’s first municipal ETFs (JMST and JMUB) and holds more #1 Lipper and Morningstar yearly performance rankings in municipal mutual funds and ETFs (1997–2024) than any other JPMorgan manager.
His leadership played a pivotal role in redesigning JPMorgan’s municipal platform—spanning benchmarks, strategy frameworks, and integrated platforms post-merger. Rick collaborated on industry-first initiatives with Bloomberg and major dealers to streamline municipal trade execution through electronic point-and-click platforms.
Rick holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Delaware, an MBA in Finance from Wilmington College, and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).
He has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and industry panels, and has been involved in federal-level discussions during major market events, including 2008 and 2020.
Kit Wood is the Co-Founder and President of Margate Asset Management, with more than 30 years of leadership experience across the municipal and fixed income markets. Before Margate, he served as Senior Managing Director at Hilltop Securities Holdings, where he oversaw the firm’s Asset Management business representing more than $20 billion in AUM and AUA, alongside Post-Issuance Compliance operations.
At Wells Fargo Securities (previously Wachovia), Kit was Managing Director and Head of Institutional Municipal Sales. Under his leadership, secondary trading revenue grew from $5 million to $100 million annually, and the firm’s primary market ranking rose from #14 to #5 nationally. Kit has built long-standing relationships across the top 250 municipal asset managers, RIAs, ETF sponsors, wealth platforms, and alternative managers.
Earlier in his career, Kit co-led JPMorgan Asset Management’s Municipal division with Mr. Taormina, overseeing more than $50 billion in assets across funds, ETFs, SMAs, and institutional programs—delivering consistent top-quartile results.
Kit holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and maintains FINRA Series 7, 63, 53, 24, 50, and 66 licenses.
Yuri Khalif is the Co-Founder and Head of Capital Markets at Margate Asset Management. He leads the firm’s national distribution strategy, advisor engagement, and RIA/Family Office relationships across the United States.
Before co-founding Margate, Yuri served as Partner and Managing Director at Flat Rock Global, helping grow the firm’s AUM from approximately $150 million to more than $1.4 billion. His career also includes senior roles at TCW, Hatteras Funds, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Deutsche Asset Management, Miller Anderson & Sherrerd (Morgan Stanley), and SEI.
Yuri brings more than 30 years of experience across traditional and alternative investments, with unique expertise in business development, client coverage, and product strategy. He holds an MBA in Marketing and a BBA in Financial & International Business from Temple University.
