Big Morgan Stanley team on the Beltway hightails it to HighTower on second thought
The learning curve required for complete independence looked unpalatable when it came to decision time
3 min read- VWG Wealth Management, a $700M Morgan Stanley team, joined HighTower after initially planning full independence.
- HighTower's comprehensive support, including compliance and facilities, eliminated VWG's learning curve.
- Credentials of VWG's advisors include Barron's recognition and prior careers in the military.
As early as 2008, John Verfurth, Richard Weeks and Jeff Grinspoon knew that they wanted to break away from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and form an independent RIA.
Turns out, that was about all they wanted to change. Today their temporary office is in the next building over from their old Morgan Stanley branch in Vienna, Va. and their permanent space, with their new employer HighTower Advisors, is being set up right across the street. Clients can even use the same parking lot.
It may have been this kind of keep-it-simple thinking that led them – finally – to join Chicago-based HighTower last Friday at 2:30 p.m. after initially discarding the idea. The three partners of VWG Wealth Management, with assets near to $700 million under advisement, were determined to be as independent as possible – until they reluctantly agreed to a meeting with a HighTower executive in January.
“They were approaching the initial meeting saying: I don’t know why we’re getting together. Setting up their own RIA was top of mind,” says Mike Papedis, HighTower’s managing director of business development.
Flattened learning curve
HighTower wins big UBS team and clinches 'critical mass'
Richard Weeks had a long career
with Legg Mason before joining Morgan
Stanley.
But there was a decided shift in attitude when the team realized that HighTower would pave the way for them, providing everything from facilities management to compliance, legal and trading.
“They just wiped out the learning curve for us,” Grinspoon says.
VWG is HighTower’s twenty-third team. The aggregator now has about $19 billion in combined assets under advisement.
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The firm is also HighTower’s first in the Washington DC-Virginia area, although the company is in fairly advanced discussions with a second one, Papedis says.
VWG Wealth Management decided to keep its assets with Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services of Boston and use software from Black Diamond Performance Reporting of Jacksonville, Fla.
HighTower extends its winning streak of luring breakaways near the nation's capital
Colorful credentials
The three advisors have impressive and colorful credentials.
Verfurth and Grinspoon were included in the prestigious Barron’s Top 1000 Financial Advisors in 2010 and 2011.
John Verfurth hunted submarines from airplanes
before joining Dean Witter.
Grinspoon, 42, spent three years at Legg Mason before also joining Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in 2001.
Verfurth, 48, a former pilot with the British Royal Air Force until 1995, has 16 years experience in the financial services industry, all at Dean Witter and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
Weeks, 51, has 17 years of financial service experience under his belt, beginning his career with Legg Mason in 1994 before joining Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in 2001.
Family affair
The VWG team reports great success in bringing over clients from its former employer but Grinspoon faced one interesting challenge: His 100-year-old grandmother is a client, and in filling out the paperwork to bring her aboard with HighTower he had to set her investment horizon. Grinspoon indicated 10-to-15 years and hopes that FINRA won’t give him too hard a time about it.
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