$1.4 billion Morgan Stanley team moves to Insigneo

Insigneo announced Tuesday that a team managing $1.4 billion in client assets has left Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management to join its independent broker-dealer and RIA platform. 

The four-adviser team is led by Antoine Souma, a 20-year veteran who did stints at J.P. Morgan Securities, Deutsche Bank and UBS Financial Services before founding The Souma Group at Morgan Stanley, where he spent the last four years working out of the wirehouse’s Century City branch in Los Angeles. 

Souma and his team made the switch to Insigneo July 1, according to BrokerCheck records. Under Insigneo, Souma has rebranded and formed Galliott Capital Advisors, which manages more than $1.4 billion of international client assets with a focus on globally oriented investment practices. 

Galliot Capital Advisors primarily concentrates on investment management, wealth transfer and philanthropy, cash management and lending, family governance, and wealth education and lifestyle advisory in a “culturally sensitive” manner, according to Insigneo’s announcement. 

In fact, Insigneo’s open platform and international expertise are what attracted Galliot Capital Advisors to the firm, Souma said in a statement. “Their focus on my business needs and the flexibility of their platform are quite unique,” he said. “Insigneo’s platform will allow us to continue expanding our global reach while enriching the lives of our clients worldwide to pursue the opportunities and goals they desire.”

For Insigneo, bringing on Galliot Capital Advisors helps diversify the firm's country coverage to European and Middle Eastern clientele, Insigneo Chief Operating Officer Javier Rivero said in an interview. On a national scale, Galliot Capital Advisors gives Insigneo its footing on the west coast. "With a west coast firm, we can potentially attract other advisers that do international business who are looking to move toward a more independent platform," he said.

With the team’s global orientation in mind, Sanctuary Wealth referred Souma to Insigneo and collaborated on the transition, which served as a strategic win for Insigneo as it aims to grow its U.S.-based adviser network and establish itself as an “alternative for top U.S. financial advisers with global practices,” according to the announcement. 

Just last Thursday, Sanctuary Wealth snagged an all-female team managing $500 million from Morgan Stanley. 

Insigneo, which was founded in 2017 when Global Investor Services, a platform provider for international wealth advisers, and Miami’s Hencorp Securities merged with Northeast Securities, manages more than $8 billion among about 150 advisers, according to the company’s website.