Ameriprise Hires $367 Million-Asset Morgan Stanley Team in Minnesota

A three-broker Morgan Stanley team with offices in Bloomington and St. Paul, Minnesota left for Ameriprise Financial last week.

Falldin, who is ranked #55 on Forbes’ Best-In-Minnesota Wealth Advisors list, worked for all but four months of his 36-year brokerage career at Morgan Stanley’s Bloomington, MN, office, according to his unmarked BrokerCheck record.

Mattson Sr. began his brokerage career with Edward Jones in 1986, and also did stints at Dain Bosworth and Merrill Lynch before joining Morgan Stanley in 2010. His son, who ranked #33 on Forbes’ Next Gen Best-In-State Wealth Advisors list in 2019, had been with Morgan Stanley since registering as a rep in September 2013, according to their unvarnished BrokerCheck records.

The brokers were “looking for more support and expertise to grow organically,” said Adam Lukens, manager of the Edina branch, in an e-mailed statement. He also said that they expect  to receive more help with growing their books “through practice acquisitions.”

The brokers did not respond to calls for comment.

About 78% of Minneapolis-based Ameriprise’s 9,900 brokers are independent contractors, but the firm has been among the most aggressive in recent years in offering transition deals to employee brokers who keep a smaller portion of revenue than their independent cousins. “Forgivable” loans on the firm’s balance sheet, which amortize over five to nine years, rose almost 16% to $645 million as of the end of 2019, according to the Minneapolis-based company’s annual report. That’s up from growth of 9.8% in 2018.

Hiring at Ameriprise and all firms has been sidelined by the coronavirus crisis, but the firm last week touted its “all-virtual” recruiting program as a way for both independent and employee channel prospects to kick the tires on a potential move.

The May 28 announcement was made three days after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an event that subsequently sparked sometimes violent protests over the weekend in Minneapolis, St. Paul and dozens of other U.S. cities. The vast majority of Ameriprise employees and advisors have been working remotely for the past several weeks.

“We are deeply saddened by the devastating events in the Twin Cities and the unrest across the country,” Ameriprise spokesman John S. Brine said in an e-mailed statement that didn’t explicitly address recruiting. “We are taking appropriate precautions to protect our employees and advisors during this difficult time.”

On May 8, Ameriprise hired Jeffery M. Davis, a Morgan Stanley broker in Plano, Tex., who was generating $1.58 million in trailing-12 production on $155 million of client assets, he said.

Davis moved with a client associate, but his partner Sonia Ginnell remains at Morgan Stanley. He would not discuss the reasons for his move, but said he had begun due diligence about a year ago and believes Ameriprise is “well-positioned for where the industry is going.”

Davis, who worked at Merrill Lynch and UBS for 16 years before joining Morgan Stanley in 2009, declined to comment on his reasons for leaving the wirehouse.

Ameriprise on May 20 reached into Wells Fargo Advisors to hire Glen Wilk, a 31-year industry veteran managing $104 million in client assets for its employee channel, according to an Ameriprise spokeswoman. Wilk, who joined Ameriprise with Renea Eldridge, a financial consultant, did not respond to a request for comment on his move.