Baird snags managers from MSSB, aims to hire 150 more advisers

Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. is opening up an office in Salt Lake City to offer financial advice with the help of Dean Cottle, a veteran wirehouse complex manager from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.

Mr. Cottle and Theresa Sommerdyke, a vice president and administrative office manager, cleared out their Morgan Stanley offices Monday and are starting work for Baird immediately.

A native of Ogden, Utah, Mr. Cottle has spent most of his career in the state. Prior to his employment at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Cottle held branch management roles at Shearson Lehman Brothers and E.F. Hutton & Co. in Salt Lake City and later in San Francisco. He started his career as an adviser with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in 1977.

The ex-MSSB manager said he was impressed with Milwaukee-based Baird’s “client- and adviser-oriented culture,” and believes it will be an attractive option for advisers and investors in Utah. “Baird is not a household name, but the interest level in the firm is high,” he said. “It’s not a huge, 18,000-adviser firm, yet it has a depth of products, services and technology that is second to none.”

He also said the fact that Baird is regularly cited by Fortune magazine as one of the best U.S. companies to work for will be a strong selling point in the adviser community.

Mr. Cottle undoubtedly will be making that pitch to many of the advisers with whom he worked at MSSB. “I expect Dean will reach out to former colleagues, but he’ll be talking to a lot of firms. With his reputation, I think he’ll do well,” said Matt Curley, national sales director and chief operating officer at Baird.

For Baird, the move is part of an ambitious growth plan for the advisory side of the business. With just under 700 advisers, Baird hopes to add up to 150 more over the next several years. Mr. Curley said 90% of the firm’s adviser hires are “veteran advisers with established books of business.”

Besides Utah, Baird is targeting other western markets, including the Phoenix-Scottsdale, Ariz., region, Northern California and the Portland, Ore., market. Baird is also expanding east from its Midwest base, said Mr. Curley, with new offices recently opened in Washington, D.C., Reston, Va., Baltimore and Philadelphia. Mr. Curley emphasized that the firm plans to expand its business in a deliberate manner. “We’re a private company so we don’t have to answer to shareholders on a quarterly basis,” he said. “We’ve passed on a lot of opportunities that didn’t fit with Baird.”

Morgan Stanley spokesperson Christine Pollack confirmed that Mr. Cottle has left the firm but had no further comment about the departure.

Mr. Cottle’s exit is not likely to be a major problem for the wirehouse, said Darin Maris, head of RJ & Makay, a recruiting and consulting firm. “They have the deepest bench of branch managers in the industry by a wide margin,” he said. He also thinks that Baird and Mr. Cottle will have a tough time recruiting Morgan Stanley advisers to the new office. “They’ve had more success taking managers from the big firms rather than advisers.”