Wells Fargo Hires $4-Mln Morgan Stanley Broker in Boca
Wells Fargo Advisors shook another broker loose from Morgan Stanley’s south Florida offices on Thursday, recruiting $4-million producer Jeffrey R. Zapoleon in Boca Raton, according to a source familiar with the move.
Zapoleon, whose team includes his daughter, Samantha, accepted a recruiting deal from Morgan Stanley in January 2009, just a few days before it announced its plan to absorb Smith Barney. He was producing more than $2 million on more than $300 million of client assets, he said at the time.
He first registered as a rep in 1982 at Kidder, Peabody & Co., and also worked at Herzfeld & Stern and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., before joining Smith Barney in 1989, according to his BrokerCheck history, which has no disclosure marks.
Zapoleon, who is believed to be in his mid-70s, has been heavily recruited as his forgivable loans were maturing, the source said.
The move is at least the second in a week by a multimillion-dollar Morgan Stanley team in Florida to Wells Fargo. Last Friday, Gary R. Burwick, a 21-year industry veteran who with partner Marc Engleman was producing $2.5 million, joined a Wells office in Fort Lauderdale.
A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo declined to comment on Zapoleon.
Raymond James & Associates has been the other primary beneficiary of the exits from Morgan Stanley and earlier this month added Rosalie Schlaen, a broker generating $1.2 million in revenue with a focus on Latin American clients, in Aventura, Florida.
A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley, which has been shifting local management in South Florida amid the string of departures, did not return a call for comment.
Separately, Morgan Stanley named David Fritz to replace Richard D. Donovan as head of its three-office Florham Park, N.J. complex, according to its website. Fritz, who joined Smith Barney in 2005 from UBS Financial Services, moved to New Jersey from his previous post as complex manager in Sacramento, Calif., according to his LinkedIn profile.
He did not return a call for comment on the move.
Fritz replaced Richard D. Donovan, who Morgan Stanley shifted to run its five-office Palm Beach Gardens/Boca complex in a daisy chain of Florida moves. That complex’s former manager, Tim Byrnes, was deployed to manage the wirehouse’s central and eastern Pennsylvania market.
If this keeps up, and it will Morgan Stanley will have nothing but rookies staffing its Florida offices in both management and Advisor roles. It is the uninformed clients who will suffer the most.
And she left wells already.
Wells is scoring some impressive recruiting wins as of late.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the upfront money Wells is offering Ron.
I think it might have quite a bit to do with the upfront money, R2.
If it weren’t for the 300% note wells wouldn’t recruit anyone. Terrible brand and a toxic culture awaits the newhires
I realize that you are not a fan of Wells, but dozens of advisors have joined the firm in the last 12 months and although I have no doubt that money was and still is a factor, I’ve not spoken to a single one of them yet who has found your assessment to be the case there. Wells went through hell for a while, but so did Morgan Stanley, Merrill and UBS at points not all that long ago. They survived, and so will Wells Fargo.