Morgan Stanley Names New Recruiting Head, Adds Five Advisors with $9.5 Mln

Ben Firestein, who was named head of recruiting at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management over the long holiday weekend netted five veteran advisors in Florida and Alabama who had generated $9.5 million in combined annual revenue at their prior firms, according to a person familiar with the moves.

Firestein, a Morgan Stanley lifer, began his career in 1994 with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and has run its “midtown” complex since 2004. In his new position, he reports to Barry Krouk, chief administrative officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

“As manager of one of our largest complexes, Ben has considerable experience recruiting senior advisor talent,” Lumia wrote, explaining that he will take a closer look at local managers’ procedures and techniques. “[H]e will leverage that expertise and success by working closely with all of field management to ensure we continue to attract top talent.”

A replacement for Firestein in the two-office complex will be named “in due course,” according to the memo.

Morgan Stanley is wading back into “selective” hiring of veteran brokers after a two-year hiatus coinciding with its withdrawal from the Protocol for Broker Recruiting.

Highlighting its new profile, the firm reached into Merrill Lynch on Friday to hire Mark Mantooth and Alex Pols in Huntsville, Alabama. The pair boasted a client book of more than $891 million and produced $4.78 million in 2019, said a person familiar with their book.

Mantooth worked at Merrill for all but one of his 31 years as an advisor, according to his unmarked BrokerCheck history. Pols, who also has a clean record, started his career at Merrill in 2005 but also put in time at Allianz Global Investors Distributors and Carey Financial before rejoining Merrill in 2014.

The Merrill Huntsville branch also ceded three other brokers to Morgan Stanley on Friday.

Patrick K. Shields, a 21-year Thundering Herder, was producing $2.72 million in revenue from $346 million in client assets, said the person familiar with the brokers’ books. His partner, Brian E. Peacock, who started his career at Merrill in 2012, moved with him, according to BrokerCheck.

Also shifting was Ben Bentley Rutland, who worked at Merrill for 34 years, and his son Parker. They generated $1.014 million last year and worked with $154 million in client assets, according to the person familiar with the move. Parker became a broker less than a year ago,  according to BrokerCheck. Neither has a disclosure on their records.

In Plantation, Florida, Morgan Stanley reached into UBS Wealth Management to hire Brett Goetz, a broker with 26 years’ experience. Goetz produced $960,000 in fees and commissions last year from $100 million in client assets, according to the source.

He spent his first decade as a broker with J.B. Hanauer and UBS, leaving in 2004 for Morgan Stanley’s Aventura, Fla., branch, according to his BrokerCheck history. Goetz returned to UBS in August 2011, according to the database, which has no record of disclosures. The Morgan Stanley hires occurred the same day that it lost five brokers to Rockefeller Capital, the firm headed by former Morgan Stanley Wealth Management head Greg Fleming. Collectively producing about $8.3 million, the brokers were based in Atlanta and in Boca Raton, Fla.