$10.8 billion First Republic team bolts to Morgan Stanley

A First Republic team of New York City-based financial advisors led by Adam Zipper and Joseph Duarte jumped to Morgan Stanley Monday, according to their BrokerCheck reports. The team works with $10.8 billion in total client assets.

An industry source speaking confidentially to InvestmentNews confirmed the asset total, adding that $1.8 billion of that amount represents private client assets while the rest is assets under administration, including retirement plan assets. The Zipper Duarte team generates $12.5 million in annual revenue.

“First Republic Private Wealth Management remains fundamental to our overall strategy and long-term success,” a bank spokesperson said. “Our clients continue to appreciate the benefits of First Republic’s integrated banking and wealth management model, our culture of extraordinary service, and the expertise provided by our talented teams.”

A Morgan Stanley spokesperson said the hiring of the Zipper Duarte team was unsolicited by the wirehouse.

An unsolicited hire in brokerage industry parlance means the firm did not pursue or reach out to the team of financial advisors in order to solicit them to leave their broker-dealer.

Zipper and Duarte were both registered with First Republic Securities Co. starting in July 2020. Prior to that, they worked at J.P. Morgan Securities, which is one of the firms that First Republic has targeted for more than a decade as it recruits financial advisors.

First Republic Bank's wealth management franchise, which had $271 billion in assets at the end of last year, appears to be shaken by questions about the bank's future after last month's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. In March, for example, Rockefeller Family Global Office hired San Francisco-based Marchetti Porter Wealth Partners with $1 billion in client assets.

Over the last 13 years through the end of March, First Republic Securities Co., the bank’s broker-dealer, and First Republic Investment Management Inc., its registered investment advisor, had hired a total of 291 financial advisors, while seeing 58 leave the firm for various competitors over that time, according to a survey of data from the InvestmentNews Advisors on the Move database. That left First Republic with a net gain of 233 advisors, many of whom are elite financial advisors who generate $1 million or more in annual revenue.

But it now looks as if some of those financial advisors are evaluating their employment options.