Sanctuary Wealth hires ex-Morgan Stanley MD to recruit East Coast advisors

If you’re a top-performing financial advisor on the East Coast, there’s a good chance Chris Shaw wants to talk to you.

The industry veteran with three decades of experience has been hired by Sanctuary Wealth to spearhead recruitment of advisors across the region as its East Coast regional managing director, with an ultimate goal to attract top quintile advisors.

With 29 years at Morgan Stanley where he started his career as a financial advisor, Shaw was most recently a managing director leading the Southern New Jersey region where he gained a reputation as a top recruiter.

"As I was considering my next role, I knew I wanted to mesh my experience with what I loved most about our industry, empowering advisors to service their clients, and put it all to work at a firm that shared my values. All arrows kept pointing toward Sanctuary,” said Shaw. “The firm is enjoying explosive growth for all the right reasons: its great culture, focus on client care and commitment to ensuring its Partner Firms succeed. Without question, Sanctuary is a pioneering platform in offering wirehouse breakaways the freedom, flexibility and control they crave as entrepreneurs without having to give up the infrastructure and support they rely open.”

For the $25 billion AUA Sanctuary Wealth, Shaw adds to its existing crop of former wirehouse executives. He will report directly to the firm’s president, Vince Fertitta, who said Shaw came highly recommended by partner firms who already knew him. 

"His balance of hard and soft skills, in-the-trenches experience as a former Morgan Stanley financial advisor and industry insights makes Chris the perfect addition to our team,” said Fertitta. “Bringing aboard Chris nicely rounds out Sanctuary's exceptional understanding of multiple top wirehouse institutions. With our management team's extensive roots from Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, UBS, and now, Morgan Stanley, Sanctuary has fortified its position as the leading destination for wirehouse breakaway advisors who support demanding and sophisticated high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients."

The firm has picked up multiple teams this year including $1 billion and $1.5 billion AUM teams from Merrill Lynch,

LIBERATING WIREHOUSE BREAKAWAYS

Sanctuary Wealth CEO Adam Malamed said its Partnered Independence model is attracting advisors who want to breakaway from wirehouses because it understands where they’ve been with knowledge of wirehouses and the independent channel.

“We attract top wirehouse breakaway advisors who are especially well-positioned to grow as independent wealth managers,” he said. “Not only do we liberate them from wirehouse channel obstacles that have held back their professional growth, we also actively work with our partner firms to develop and execute comprehensive launch and growth plans that enable the delivery of a truly superior service experience to their clients as independent wealth managers. Chris demonstrably shares our passion for helping wirehouse breakaway advisors grow and succeed, and we're delighted he's decided to join the Sanctuary community."