Morgan Stanley Lands $576 Million-asset Canadian Team

StennerZohny Group, a Vancouver, Canada-based advisory firm that says it manages $576 million (U.S.) for high net worth investors and family offices, has moved cross-border to work at a Silicon Valley office of Graystone Consulting, Morgan Stanley’s investment consulting business.
V. Thane Stenner and Youssef Zohny are founders of the six-person group that had operated under the umbrella of Richardson GMP, Canada’s largest independent advisory firm, the firm said in a press release.
Stenner and Youssef will be joined at Graystone’s Palo Alto, Calif. branch by financial advisor and portfolio analytics associate, Simon Jochlin, and three client associates. Their former Richardson GMP website listed 11 team members.
Stenner, who worked at Merrill Lynch International and CIBC World Markets prior to joining Richardson, wrote in an email that Graystone and Morgan Stanley’s “global resources, exclusive access, and power of the brands” were major motivators behind their “career move.” He said he and his partner did 18 months of due diligence before deciding to join Graystone.
“We highly respect Richardson GMP and definitely view it as the best ‘in Canada’ platform,” he wrote. “We simply wanted to expand our reach for clients.”
Stenner, whose website says he is a graduate of Arizona State University and a former chairman of the high-net-worth investor peer group TIGER 21 Canada, noted that 96% of global investment opportunities are outside of Canada.
Zohny, a discretionary investment manager with a contrarian value bent, previously managed an alternative Canadian equity and a world fund at an independent asset management firm, according to the website.