Wire Wars: Morgan Stanley Gains $650-Mln UBS Team, Loses $210-Mln Group to Wells
The wirehouse recruiting carousel continued to spin this week as Morgan Stanley picked up a veteran four-broker team in Louisiana from UBS Wealth Management USA but lost a family team primarily based in Florida to Wells Fargo Advisors, according to sources familiar with the moves.
In the larger of the moves, Morgan Stanley on Tuesday gained from UBS a Lafayette, Louisiana team led by brokers Matthew G. Doucet, Kevin A. Cook, Lacy Foreman Labbe and Jeffrey C. White, according to registration records. Known at UBS as The A&L Wealth Group, the team had managed north of $650 million in client assets, according to a source familiar with their practice.
Spokespeople for Morgan Stanley and UBS declined to comment on the move. The brokers could not immediately be reached for comment.
Doucet, an 11-year broker who spent his entire career with UBS, ranked second on Forbes’ 2022 list of best-in-state next-gen wealth advisors. The publication said he managed $662 million in AUM with a $1 million account minimum.
Cook, a 23-year industry veteran, started in 1999 at Edward Jones in nearby Broussard, Louisiana, and joined UBS in 2011, according to his BrokerCheck.
Labbe and White also started at Jones, in 2006 and 2008, and joined UBS in 2012 and 2014, according to their respective BrokerChecks. While at Jones, Labbe had worked out of Abbeville, Louisiana, about 20 miles south of Lafayette, and White had worked out of Broussard, according to the database.
Their recruitment follows Morgan Stanley’s hire in late July of Robert R. Shelton, a 35-year industry veteran who had been with Wells since 2012 and joined the same Lafayette office, according to registration records and a source familiar with his practice. Shelton, who manages roughly $180 million, according to the source, started in 1986 with Lehman Brothers—a predecessor to Smith Barney and ultimately Morgan Stanley.
Wells Reels in Florida Team
Separately, on Thursday, Wells recruited a $210 million-asset Morgan Stanley team led by a 40-year industry veteran and his two sons primarily based in Fort Lauderdale, according to a spokeswoman for the hiring firm.
Known as the Savarick Group at their former firm, the team is led by Roy Savarick, who had joined Morgan Stanley’s Smith Barney predecessor in 1994, and his sons Evan Savarick and Matthew Savarick, who had spent their respective 8- and 12-year careers with Morgan Stanley, according to registration records. They were joined in the move by another broker, Molly Pacheco, and client associate Jennifer Harley.
The team generates annual production of about $2 million and also has offices in New York City and Breckenridge, Colorado, according to the Wells spokeswoman. The brokers could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Savarick team had chosen Wells for its “comprehensive approach to serving the high-net-worth client segment with multiple types of lending capabilities, the planning process, and fiduciary platform,” the Wells spokeswoman wrote in an emailed statement.
A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the move.
The team had managed “just north of $100 million” in client assets at the time of an August 2016 profile of Evan Savarick in Financial Planning.
Roy Savarick, while registered with Morgan Stanley, had worked out of a Florida office and a residence in Breckenridge, west of Denver, according to his BrokerCheck, which as of Friday only shows a Fort Lauderdale office location for Wells. He had started his career in 1982 with Prudential Securities and has served clients’ families for four generations, according to his BrokerCheck report and LinkedIn profile.
Both the younger Savaricks are registered out of the Florida office, according to their BrokerCheck records.
Evan Savarick’s record shows a client dispute disclosure from October 2020 alleging that he had failed to follow instructions “with respect to managed accounts” going back to August 2019. The claim was settled by Morgan Stanley for $72,500 of $140,000 requested, in order to “avoid the costs and uncertainties of litigation,” and Evan was not asked to contribute, according to his broker comment.
Pacheco, who is registered in New York City, began her career in 2018 with Morgan Stanley, according to her BrokerCheck.
Both Morgan Stanley and Wells have offered recruiting deals over 300% of a broker’s trailing-12 production to top teams. Recruiters say the wirehouses are adding fuel to an overheated broker recruiting market and pushing offers by some competitors even higher.
Wells Fargo, which also last month hired a J.P. Morgan Advisors duo producing $7 million, has around 12,300 brokers in its wealth division. Morgan Stanley no longer reports headcount as part of its quarterly earnings.
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