Morgan Stanley Draws Two Merrill Private Wealth Teams with $11.8-Mln Combined in Boston and NY

Morgan Stanley on Friday reeled in a 31-year Merrill Lynch lifer in Boston and a four-broker Merrill team in New York producing $11.8 million in annual revenue combined as it continues to keep up the pressure on its wirehouse rival.

The hires followed at least two other million-dollar-plus recruits in recent weeks from Merrill, one in Cleveland and the other in the outskirts of Atlanta that represented another $5.3 million in revenue.

In the largest of the moves, Marcella “Marcie” Behman, who ranked 33rd on Forbes’ 2021 list of America’s top women advisors, left Merrill’s private wealth management office on Friday in Boston to join Morgan Stanley in Middleton, Mass., a Morgan Stanley spokesperson confirmed. She moved with four client associates: Jaclyn Snell, Mary Chase, Owen Murray, and Teddy Smith.

Behman had generated $7 million trailing 12-month revenue from $1.3 billion in client assets, according to a source familiar with her practice. She has a $4 million account minimum for new business, according to Forbes.

Behman had led the Behman Group within the firm’s private wealth unit, formerly known as the private banking and investment group (PBIG), serving ultra-wealthy clients, according to her registration records and former firm biography. She was not immediately available for comment, according to a person answering the phone at her new office.

Her former partner at Merrill, Steven T. Smith, had left in 2018 for UBS Wealth Management USA.

In the other Friday move, the four-broker New York team known as MKM Group decamped from Merrill’s private wealth management unit for Morgan Stanley.

The team, which includes Robert M. Matluck, Lee B. Konopka, Rachel B. McCormack, and Jonathan D. Moskowitz generated $4.8 million in annual revenue from $575 million in client assets, according to a source familiar with their practice. Matluck and Konopka had worked out of White Plains, New York, while McCormack and Moskowitz worked out of New York City in the Bank of America Tower, according to their BrokerCheck reports.

The most senior member of the group, Matluck, a 35-year industry veteran, started at Advest, Inc. in 1983, and worked at now-defunct technology investment bank L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin, where he served as a senior executive, according to his LinkedIn and BrokerCheck records. He worked at Unterberg and successor firms before moving to UBS in 2009 and then Merrill in 2013, according to his BrokerCheck report.

Konopka, with 29 years in the business, started at Smith Barney in 1992 and moved to UBS in 2008, and Merrill in 2013, according to his BrokerCheck report.

McCormack had spent all of her 15 years in the industry with Merrill, according to her BrokerCheck report. Moskowitz, with 12 years of experience, started out with Collins Stewart from 2006 until October 2008, next registered with now-defunct brokerage Merriman Curhan Ford & Co. in 2010, and did stints at three other firms before joining Merrill in 2014, according to the database.

A Merrill spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on either of the Friday departures.

The departures come as Merrill has been looking to moderate rising attrition with a series of policy tweaks, defensive measures, and spurring enthusiasm about returning to offices. A senior Merrill executive last month said the rate of competitive departures ticked back down to 3.9% in the third quarter, in-line with historical averages and down from what a spokesperson previously said was 5% in the second quarter.

Merrill has stood by a veteran broker recruiting freeze implemented in 2017 while Morgan Stanley has been aggressively hiring in recent years and CEO James Gorman last month touted the firm’s achievement of the unusual industry feat of net positive recruiting when comparing the of new hires to those who have left.

The Friday exits followed at least two other previously unreported Merrill-to-Morgan Stanley moves in recent weeks. On November 5, a producing manager for Merrill in Cleveland, Ohio who had spent his entire two-decade career with the firm parted ways with his team to join Morgan Stanley in the nearby suburb of Westlake, according to registration records.

Steven M. Rini, who started with Merrill in 2000 and had been serving as resident director since 2012, individually managed $320 million in client assets generating $1.5 million in annual revenue at his former firm, according to a source familiar with his practice.

Three advisors listed on Rini’s former team’s website, Dan A. Bragg, Steven Wickstrom, and Matthew Meyer, remain registered with Merrill, according to their BrokerCheck reports. The team was formerly known as the DBSR Wealth Management Group but now is called CLE Wealth Management, according to the Merrill website.

Rini and Bragg, who have spent all of his 43 years in the business with Merrill, did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

In Gainesville, Georgia last month, a duo of Merrill brokers who had produced a combined $3.8 million in annual revenue from $480 million in client assets also left for Morgan Stanley, according to a source familiar with their practice and registration records.

Thomas R. Johnston, a 28-year industry veteran who had spent his entire career with Merrill, and J. Thomas “Tommy” Turner, a 23-year broker who had joined Merrill in 2002 from PPA Investments, Inc. on Oct. 1 moved to Morgan Stanley to form the Johnston Turner Group, according to their BrokerCheck reports and team website.

Johnston, who ranked 14th on Forbes’ 2021 list of best-in-state wealth advisors, produced $2.5 million from $360 million of the team’s client assets while Turner produced $1.3 million from the remaining $120 million in assets, according to the source.

The Merrill spokesperson did not comment on the departures in Cleveland or Gainesville, which were confirmed by the Morgan Stanley spokesperson.

Original article: AdvisorHub

DOMINATION! UBS Is Hammering The Recruiting Competition This Year, And It Isn’t Even Close

UBS hasn’t found the secret sauce, they’ve perfected the use of Thor’s magical hammer and are pounding away at rivals who’ve yet to figure out a way to match their efforts.

J. P. Morgan in particular is being completely bludgeoned with zero signs of the mass exodus of top talent slowing down. While a few private bankers from JPM have matriculated to Morgan Stanley, more than 90% have taken their talents directly to UBS.

Add those to the Merrill, Wells, and Morgan Stanley wins and UBS is so far out in front of its competition the race seems rigged. But it isn’t… rather it’s a well-executed recruiting strategy that may have seemed risky a year ago but has turned into absolute gold.

A two-fold ‘macro’ decision was made and has resonated in a way that has UBS up by 5X their closest competitor (Rockefeller) instated client asset transfer. As it stands today, UBS is a few bucks away from the first half of 2021 total of $60B in client assets recruited. Amazing.

Can they keep it up through the second half of the year? Not likely. But even if the pace slows, UBS could still end up with a $100B year. Unprecedented.

If you want to define recruiting domination – this is exactly what it looks like.

UBS Makes Noise In The Bay Area; Hires $10M BofA All-Female Team Away From Private Bank

UBS continues to be on a serious recruiting roll across the country. Much of the big headlines are coming from private bank competitors like Bank of America, J. P. Morgan, and Goldman Sachs. Billions of client assets are up for grabs and UBS has significantly opened up its checkbook and is crushing the competition; winning big team after big team after big team.

Their latest win came in San Francisco as they finalized a deal with an all-female private banking team out of Bank of America. The team, nor UBS, has released annualized revenue and client asset data but a source close to the recruitment confirmed that the team brings better than $10M in revenue and more than $2B in assets with them.

The team includes Amanda Woo, Nancy Barrett, and Michelle Harvey, all joining UBS Private Wealth Management in San Francisco. The team is well known in the Bay Area as the most influential banking team at BofA and was seen as a major blow to the firm. Operationally, they will report to both PWM and Erin Borger. **A note real quickly, Borger has climbed the ranks of management at UBS over the past decade closely connected to his recruiting prowess, so his name associated with this win isn’t a surprise.

In the same way that UBS has significantly jostled the comfortable confines of the J. P. Morgan Private Bank across the country, it seems they are doing the same with Bank of America. This is now the third significant announcement of a BofA to UBS migration in 2021, and we hear that more are to come.

At what point will rivals like Morgan Stanley, Rockefeller, and others start paying up for private banking teams the way UBS has?? We don’t know as of yet, but you can bet it’s coming.

Before The Bell: (02/14/20)

1. Coronavirus numbers are all over the board and nearly indecipherable out of China.
2. European shares hit fresh new records.
3. Tesla prices $2 billion share sale at $767 (also known as ‘big dick energy’).
4. Barclays CEO, Jes Staley, is fucked, errr, is being investigated over links with Jeffrey Epstein.
5. Stifel dismissed John Pierce, it’s National Director of Recruiting, on Monday.
6. Merrill Lynch hired a huge private banking team from HSBC.

“My boss has been an MD for three years now and he still steals Clorox wipes and copy paper from the office.” – Wall Street Confessions.

Before The Bell: (02/07/20)

 

  1. Coronavirus fears continue to abate, despite more cases reported in China.
  2. Credit Suisse CEO, Tidjane Thiam, was fired following another quarter of disastrous earnings, eroding confidence in the bank, but most of all a severely depressed stock price.
  3. Ford shakes up executive ranks for the exact same reasons as above.
  4. Jobs report suprises to the upside, again.
  5. Former PIMCO CEO, Douglas Hodge, sentenced to 9 months in prison for college admissions scandal.

“If you take the day off for your birthday, I reserve the right to ask whether or not you’re a sixteen year old girl.” – Advisor Confessions.

Before The Bell: (02/06/20)

 

  1. President Trump was acquitted of impeachment articles late yesterday.
  2. Stocks set to power to new highs after impeachment acquittal.
  3. Fieldpoint Private’s latest recruit acquisition off to a slow start.
  4. The business of being an advisor remains a risk/reward game as regulators comb records to ‘mine’ for easy prosecutions.
  5. Dawn Bennett sentencing is a stinging reminder of the above.
  6. Tom Buck’s sentencing is an even stranger reminder of it.

“Sometimes I want to quit my job in investment banking and become a full-time food influencer on Instagram.” – Wall Street Confessions.

Before The Bell… (02/05/20)

 

  1. Impeachment proceedings come to a close today… most expect a party line acquittal.
  2. Coronavirus concerns seem to be fading, freeing up markets to move higher so far this week.
  3. Stifel’s recruiting momentum continues into 2020, based on the work of the firms National Director of Recruiting – John Pierce.
  4. The Rockefeller recruiting deal can go as high as 550% – check our recruiting page.
  5. Treasury yields continue to push higher…
  6. Tesla run halted for the moment as $TSLA drops 200 points in 24 hours.

“Your core values are the deeply held beliefs that authentically describe your soul.” – John C. Maxwell.