A Louisiana-based wealth management firm has established a new office in Wilmington that includes four former Live Oak Bank employees.

Argent Financial Group Inc. recently announced the arrival in Wilmington of Argent Trust Co., saying that it has expanded its funeral and cemetery operation with the new office and the addition of three new members of its staff.

Joining Argent Trust in the Wilmington office are Justin Wilson, Tiffany Farwell and Jason Velie. Wilson will serve as senior vice president and legal counsel; Farwell and Velie will serve as trust officers. The three will report to Steve Jackson, senior vice president of Argent’s funeral and cemetery division. All four individuals previously worked at Live Oak Bank’s pre-need funeral trust business, which Argent purchased last October.

The purchase of the Live Oak Bank unit “added to an existing service that we offer,” Brooks Campany, spokeswoman for Argent Financial Group, said Tuesday.

The terms of that deal were not released.

Wilson, who has more than 15 years of trust and banking experience, will oversee all legal matters for the funeral and cemetery division, the release stated. Formerly he was senior vice president and senior legal counsel at Live Oak Bank.

Farwell will oversee daily trust activity. She has 12 years of banking and trust experience and was formerly trust operations supervisor at Live Oak.

Velie, who has three years of trust and wealth management experience, will be responsible for managing relationships with various funeral and cemetery trust clients, according to the release. He was a trust operations associate at Live Oak.

The new office is at 2602 Iron Gate Drive, Suite 202. It is Argent’s second office in North Carolina, the first being in Charlotte. Argent Financial Group has offices in 30 markets in the southern U.S.

“Our expansion to Wilmington is another step forward in building our funeral and cemetery business and serving our clients,” Mark Milton, Argent Trust's senior vice president of institutional services, said in the release. Milton, who oversees the company’s funeral and cemetery division, said, “Our team, led by Steve Jackson, has tremendous market expertise and experience, so this is the perfect opportunity for Argent to bring our brand of customer-centric service to a new and growing market.”

Argent Financial Group is an independent fiduciary wealth management firm with more than $19 billion in client assets. It serves individuals, families, institutions and businesses with a range of wealth management services including trust administration and related services, investment management, family office services, retirement plan and charitable organization administration and estate planning.