Recent moves suggest that Morgan Stanley may be getting more aggressive in recruiting experienced teams.
The latest example comes from New York, where AdvisorHub reported that Morgan Stanley recruited TruCore Advisors, a J.P. Morgan Securities team managing approximately $1.5 billion in client assets. The team, led by veteran advisors Christopher Lee and Joseph Minaudo, joined Morgan Stanley's Midtown Wealth Management Center along with four support staff.
According to AdvisorHub's reporting, Lee joined J.P. Morgan in 2012 after stops at Raymond James, Smith Barney, and Merrill Lynch. Minaudo arrived in 2006 through J.P. Morgan's Chase predecessor after beginning his career at Sands Brothers.
Roger Gershman, a consultant for UHNW teams, knew the team well, in particular their dissatisfaction with the amount of oversight at JP Morgan. Gershman says, "JPMorgan Securities Division continues to lose advisors due to the heavy oversight and compliance at the firm."
The move is hardly an isolated event.
Over the past several months, Morgan Stanley has reportedly recruited a series of large teams from competitors, including an $830 million Merrill Lynch team in Los Angeles, a $1.5 billion UBS Wealth Management USA team in Florida and an $822 million team from J.P. Morgan Advisors.
While Morgan Stanley has long emphasized retention and organic growth over headline-grabbing recruiting packages, the increase in its activity and loan balance suggests it remains willing to spend aggressively when the right opportunities emerge.
Whether this marks a sustained shift in strategy remains to be seen. Advisor recruiting across the wirehouse channel has generally cooled from the peak years of the talent wars, and Morgan Stanley executives have repeatedly stressed disciplined economics.
Still, the recent string of wins raises an obvious question: Is Morgan Stanley quietly building momentum while much of the industry assumes the recruiting arms race has slowed?
If the firm continues landing billion-dollar teams from rivals such as J.P. Morgan, Merrill and UBS, that question may become harder to ignore.