Morgan Stanley Rehires $3.3-Mln UBS Team in North Carolina
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management this week welcomed a $3.3 million team in North Carolina that returned after almost a 10-year sojourn by its family-team leaders at UBS Wealth Management USA.
They had been managing $386 million in client assets, one of the sources said. When UBS hired them in June 2011, it said they were producing $3.9 million annually on $300 million of Morgan Stanley client assets, according to media reports at the time.
The Stoners, Lowe and their Morgan Stanley branch manager, Ebony Moore, did not return calls for comment.
A UBS spokesman declined to comment, and a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UBS and Morgan Stanley left the Protocol for Broker Recruiting three years ago in an effort to keep advisors from leaving at a time when they had cut their recruiting budgets. The Protocol allows advisors joining signatory firms to take client contact information with them to help them restart their practices.
Both wirehouses have brought court and arbitration claims against some departing brokers that allege violation of employment contract bars on client solicitation and use of confidential, proprietary information. Morgan Stanley on Wednesday asked a court to enjoin a $6 million team that joined RBC Wealth Management-U.S. in New Jersey from client solicitation, and UBS secured a temporary restraining order last month against a $14 million team that jumped to Morgan Stanley in Boca Raton, FL.
The Stoner advisors have spent their entire brokerage careers at the two wirehouses.
Charles C. Stoner joined Morgan Stanley in Huntersville, NC, in 1991, his wife began at the same branch in 1996, and their son joined in 2005, according to their BrokerCheck records. Lowe first registered as a broker at the Morgan Stanley branch in May 2011, one month before the team jumped to UBS.
“As a family team, we value our relationship with you and your family,” the Stoners’ UBS website says. Both Eileen Stoner and Lowe are listed as “certified divorce financial analysts.”
Charles Sr. and Eileen have a single disclosure mark on their BrokerCheck losses, a $1,500 arbitration award to a customer who sought $200,000 in damages over ‘B’ share mutual fund transactions. Their son and Lowe have clean records.
Who says “stoners” can’t be successful in the business world?
I am curious about what is happening with the Stoner Group. Just found out about this. I’m concerned about my investments
We should all receive a check for just staying.
E-Trade has been down 4 times this month – guess who owns that.
Liz- Do more business. People sitting around waiting for a handout should get a govt job. Etrade is down. Ya, that is MSs fault. Who cares? You won’t make anymore money, when it is up.
Retention bonuses are much cheaper than this. But it goes to show. If you’re a broker, and you really care about your family, you have to leave at least once in your career to take the big check. You’re firm will only pay the big check to the newcomers. The firms don’t care about the people who stay. Always the ones who stay will be taken for granted. Goes for a management to. So good for this family team for getting a check from UBS and coming back for a check at MS. And the clients don’t care because all these firms are the same. It’s the advisors who matter.
Albeit a rather stark oversimplification of the dynamics involved with the decision to make a move, John, your point nonetheless has some validity. Being a wealth management professional is one of the few careers outside of professional sports where the participants get the opportunity to test their free agent value and benefit from the financial rewards that can flow from that. How many MLB, NBA or NFL players do you see that stay with one team their entire career out of loyalty versus moving for the $$$ that are thrown at them to switch jerseys? I had a manager once tell me that “Loyalty is for dogs. Take the check and don’t look back.” Perhaps advisors who feel guilty about leaving their firms in order to maximize their opportunities should only feel guilty about their own bank accounts and to their family.
That is exactly why we have this horrible economy, people who only put money first. In a year full of uncertainty, the clients don’t want to do ACATs and switch firms, they know the advisor is making more money on the move then they are. Every time I see the guys on Sharktank say make it in China cheaper, our moral and monetary value weaken. A manager who says “loyalty is for dogs” has a horrible office for sure Ron Betty.
What about the banks.
This is like calling the kettle black.