HighTower Advisors LLC made a splash yesterday with the announcement of its first adviser signing of the new year.
James Pupillo, an adviser with Greystone Consulting Group, a division of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, joined HighTower as a partner and managing director Jan. 20.
Mr. Pupillo manages $2.5 billion in institutional and high-net-worth retail accounts, according to HighTower, and his signing gives the firm its first office in the Southwest. He and fellow financial advisers Brian Hein and David Brasfield, along with two other colleagues, Aaron Brasfield and Darren Evans, work in Scottsdale, Ariz. Hightower did not provide a breakdown of the team's institutional and retail business.
"I looked at several vendor platforms to support us if we went completely independent, but none provided anything close to the comprehensive platform at HighTower,” Mr. Pupillo said in a statement. “We joined HighTower because it represents the very [best of breed] solutions, supporting sophisticated independent advisers and harnessing the competitive power of Wall Street for the benefit of our clients."
Mr. Pupillo was not available for an interview.
The departure of Mr. Pupillo is a sizeable blow to Greystone and parent Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. A Barron's Top 100 Adviser since 2006, Mr. Pupillo was named the top financial adviser in Arizona in 2009. He is a past president of the Association of Professional Investment Management Consultants and the Institute for Investment Management Consultants.
Not all of Mr. Pupillo's team is leaving Greystone, according to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney spokeswoman Christine Pollak. “Part of the team has stayed with the firm," she said. "And we expect to retain a substantial amount of the assets."
Mr. Pupillo got his start in the business with E.F. Hutton & Co. Inc. in 1987 before moving to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. the following year. He joined Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in 1993 and has been registered with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney since June 2009.
The Scottsdale team is the third major institutional adviser team recently recruited by HighTower.
Paul Pagnato and David Karp, a Washington, D.C.-based team managing $1.3 billion, joined the firm in early August. And
Margaret Towle, a former Greycourt & Co. Inc. adviser in Minneapolis and Seattle who managed $1 billion in assets, joined HighTower later that month.
HighTower now has more than $20 billion in assets under management, said Mike Papedis, the company's executive vice president of business development. The firm does not break out institutional from retail business.
