Old home week as Dynasty lands another MSSB exec

Dynasty Financial Partners LLC has recruited John Sullivan, a former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney executive, to work with financial advisers joining the New York-based firm. Mr. Sullivan, who will serve as senior vice president, RIA & Transition Services, was the director of wealth planning centers at MSSB, and previously a mid-west divisional director of wealth management for the firm. As a division director, he focused on clients with more than $50 million in investable assets. “Having worked with John for over decade in the past at Citi/Smith Barney, I am delighted to welcome him to Dynasty,” said Dynasty chief executive officer Shirl Penney. “We're growing rapidly and we'll continue to expand our service team. John will be the central contact for many of our adviser teams.” Mr. Sullivan joins a core of former MSSB/Citigroup executives at Dynasty including Austin Philbin, another senior VP of RIA & Transition Services, Jerrold Eberhardt, senior adviser, and Mr. Penney, who launched Dynasty in Dec. 2010. Mr. Penney was a former director of private wealth management at Smith Barney. Mr. Sullivan said he sees Dynasty as the future of wealth management. “With the ongoing trend of wirehouse advisers exploring independence, they have a lot of options now,” he said. “I think Dynasty is uniquely positioned to serve ultra high net worth adviser teams that want to establish their own firm and brand in the marketplace.” While Mr. Sullivan's primary role at Dynasty will be to customize the services and platform for adviser teams joining the firm, he'll also likely be an asset in luring more MSSB advisers to make the break to independence. He will be based in Chicago. Dynasty currently services 14 financial advisers, managing $14 billion in assets. The firm scored a big coup two weeks ago, when it landed brothers Michael and Patrick Hull, two advisers managing nearly $4 billion at MSSB's institutional consulting unit Graystone Consulting. Mr. Penney said the firm expects to announce several more adviser teams joining the firm within the next couple of months. “You can feel the buzz here. There's a lot of excitement,” said Mr. Sullivan.