Another huge win as Dynasty lands $4B breakaway from MSSB

Former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC brokers Michael and Patrick Hull have launched a new advisory firm, bluepoint Investment Counsel LLC, based in Madison, Wis. The new firm has affiliated with Dynasty Financial Partners, a service platform for breakaway advisers, Dynasty said in a statement today. The Hull brothers had been part of MSSB's institutional consulting unit, Graystone Consulting, which was created in 2009. The pair joined Morgan Stanley in 1995. At bluepoint, the Hulls will continue to serve ultrahigh-net-worth families, foundations and endowments. Co-founder Michael Hull declined to comment on the firm's assets under management, but noted a Barron's listing this year that put the brothers' AUM at nearly $4 billion. "We've had some struggles in how Graystone fit within the broader Morgan Stanley organization," he said. "The large wirehouses have a focus on the mass affluent, which is just not our focus," Mr. Hull said. "The struggles to serve clients is not unique to our group," he said. Bluepoint is the fourteenth firm to sign on with Dynasty, which bills itself as offering a wirehouse-like platform with the flexibility to serve independents. In February, Dynasty landed Larry King, an adviser at MSSB with $1.2B in assets. A few months earlier, the firm snagged Michael C. Brown, an adviser at U.S. Trust Wealth Management. At the time of his leaving U.S. Trust, Mr. Brown had nearly $6 billion in AUM. (To see more about those two wins for Dynasty, click here.) All told, Dynasty-affiliated advisers manage more than $14 billion. Mr. Hull said that bluepoint will be recruiting advisers.