The three-year old New York-based wealth management firm, which bills itself as an “independent multi-family investment office,” sees 2010 as a break-out year that will begin a push to more than double assets under management from $4 billion to around $10 billion in three years.

Since January, Constellation has hired four new advisors and brought in Steve Bono as principal responsible for business development in the firm’s Menlo Park, California office.

Last week Christopher Smith, the former director of the corporate client group at RBS Capital Markets, joined the firm as partner.

And in June, Constellation is scheduled to move to a new showcase office on Fifth Avenue, doubling the size of its present office.

Bringing Smith on board is a critical piece of the growth plan, said co-chief executive Paul Tramontano.

“Chris was a client of the firm, and enjoyed the experience so much that when he decided to do something different with his career he wanted to work with us,” Tramontano said. “His prime responsibility will be to bring in new business. He has almost thirty years experience on Wall Street, extensive contacts and an impeccable reputation. We think it will be a wonderful opportunity to introduce new clients to the firm.”

Constellation is also in discussions with other advisors as potential hires this year, and may open a third office outside of New York and San Francisco if the right partner materializes, Tramontano said.

Although no date has been set, Constellation eventually wants to open offices outside the US in Europe and Asia, he added.

“It’s been a goal of ours for some time,” Tramontano said. “We think it will round out our intellectual capital.”

Asked if the need for scale was driving  the firm’s growth plans, Sam Katzman, Constellation’s chief investment officer said the firm already had sufficient scale, but did add that “a little more will be helpful.”

“We haven’t had limitations to investment products,” Katzman said.

He noted that the firm is establishing a real estate investment partnership that will focus on apartment complexes in the northeast and west coast.

Target clients are families with a minimum of $10 million in investible assets, Tramontano said.

Independent multi-family offices, he said were the firm’s prime competition.

“We don’t compete much with the big firms,” he said. “There’s been a client-driven trend toward the independents and I don’t see a return to the wirehouses.”

The emerging Goldman Sachs scandal may also help independents, according to Tramontano.

“I think the kind of headlines you saw in the last two years will continue with Goldman,” he said. “In a strange way it helps the independent space. Clients are going to seek investment firms that don’t have those  kinds of conflicts.”