Merrill Took a $13 Billion Morgan Stanley Institutional Team in Boston. The Open Question Is What Moves With It.

By Intersection Advisory · Advisor Moves

Published: July 30, 2026

Category: Advisor Moves

Alfred J. Hammond, Matthew P. McLaughlin, Anthony F. Mancini, Peter J. Ciovacco, Scott K. Tobey, and Michael W. Egan registered with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith on July 30, 2026, in Boston, after a Graystone Consulting practice based in Middleton, Massachusetts. AdvisorHub reported that day that the group was overseeing $13 billion. A Merrill spokesperson confirmed the six names to AdvisorHub and said the practice, including eight support staff, joined Merrill’s private wealth unit for upper-echelon and institutional clients. Bloomberg reported the same asset figure and, citing an emailed statement from Bank of America, said the 14-person team came from Morgan Stanley’s Graystone Consulting business and would sit in the Northeast private-wealth region led by Nathan Marsden.

That $13 billion is a reported oversight number for this group. It is not a figure Morgan Stanley has confirmed in the coverage, and it is not Graystone’s firmwide book. AdvisorHub, citing Graystone’s website, put Graystone’s institutional assets at $747.1 billion as of December 2024. Wealth Management, also citing the Graystone site, described an institutional practice of about $747.7 billion and more than 50 U.S. offices at the end of 2024. Either firmwide total is a different fact from the slice attributed to the departing advisors. AdvisorHub said Morgan Stanley did not immediately comment, and that the advisors did not respond to messages sent through social media.

Who registered, and where had they been?

BrokerCheck shows a Middleton address on the Morgan Stanley registrations and a Boston registration at Merrill beginning July 30, 2026. The prior broker-dealer dates are not identical, which matters because this is not a team that formed in one hiring class.

| Advisor | BrokerCheck: prior securities registration | BrokerCheck: Merrill start |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Alfred J. Hammond (CRD 1463904) | Merrill, 1991–1996; UBS Financial Services, 1996–2009; a short Citigroup registration in May 2009; Morgan Stanley from June 1, 2009 | July 30, 2026 |

| Matthew P. McLaughlin (CRD 2463563) | Smith Barney, 1994–1997; UBS, 1997–2009; short Citigroup registration in May 2009; Morgan Stanley from June 1, 2009 | July 30, 2026 |

| Peter J. Ciovacco (CRD 4500680) | A Fidelity institutional-services registration in 2002; UBS, 2002–2009; short Citigroup registration in May 2009; Morgan Stanley from June 1, 2009 | July 30, 2026 |

| Anthony F. Mancini (CRD 5459938) | Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. from December 2007; Morgan Stanley from September 24, 2012 | July 30, 2026 |

| Scott K. Tobey (CRD 5652417) | Signator firms beginning in 2010; Goldman Sachs & Co., 2019–2021; Morgan Stanley from June 16, 2021 | July 30, 2026 |

| Michael W. Egan (CRD 6572247) | Morgan Stanley from September 19, 2016, with no earlier broker-dealer on the record reviewed | July 30, 2026 |

AdvisorHub, citing BrokerCheck and LinkedIn, reported that Mancini had worked in sales, consulting, and law before AllianceBernstein. The registration record itself starts at Bernstein in late 2007, not at a law firm. Hammond’s file shows an earlier Merrill registration from June 7, 1991, to May 9, 1996, so the July 30 filing is a return, not a first arrival. The 2009 Citigroup lines for Hammond, McLaughlin, and Ciovacco line up with the Smith Barney combination that produced Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and, later, the Graystone banner. AdvisorHub described Graystone as the institutional consulting business Morgan Stanley inherited in that transaction, advising pensions, nonprofits, unions, health plans, and family offices.

InvestmentNews named eight colleagues it said moved with the advisors: Jack Brown, Wilson Bullard, Christina Cecchino, Jade Dagher, Martin Gauba, Doug Kublin, Sonya Pratt, and Clare Sheehan, with titles ranging from investment management specialist to senior relationship manager. That list matches AdvisorHub’s count of eight support staff. InvestmentNews also reported credentials — CRPS, CIMA, CFP, CEPA, CPWA — and said the team serves ultra-high-net-worth families, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and retirement plan sponsors nationally. Those client categories are InvestmentNews’s account of the practice, not a published asset mix.

What do the rankings actually establish?

InvestmentNews reported that Forbes and SHOOK Research ranked the team No. 8 on the 2026 Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list for Massachusetts, that the team appeared on Barron’s Top 100 Institutional Consulting Teams list each year from 2022 through 2026, and that it appeared on the National Association of Plan Advisors’ Top Defined Contribution Advisor Teams list each year from 2018 through 2026. Those are third-party lists as described by InvestmentNews. They are evidence that the practice was visible in institutional consulting. They are not a custody statement, and they do not split the $13 billion among retirement plans, endowments, unions, and families.

InvestmentNews also quoted Greg McGauley, head of Merrill Private Wealth Management, International, and Institutional, saying top teams want a firm that can handle complex client needs and long-term growth, and citing Merrill’s wealth platform, Workplace Benefit solutions, and Bank of America. AdvisorHub reported that McGauley has led those units since 2023 and carried a similar welcome. Wealth Management placed the group in McGauley’s office and in Marsden’s Northeast region, the same regional assignment Bloomberg attributed to Bank of America’s statement.

Why is an institutional headline hard to underwrite?

AdvisorHub noted that institutional relationships are often treated as belonging to the firm, which is why consulting teams have drawn less recruiting interest than private-wealth producers of similar revenue. The same story used a Merrill departure as a scale comparison, not as this team’s result. A Merrill institutional group overseeing $129 billion left in October to start an RIA, OpenArc. The move drew a raiding lawsuit. Six months later, AdvisorHub reported, the team said it had transferred around $10 billion, most of it tied to individual accounts rather than the institutional mandate in the headline. Wealth Management dated the OpenArc spinout to September, said the RIA affiliated with Dynasty, and reported that a federal judge refused to restart Merrill’s suit after it had been dismissed in favor of FINRA arbitration.

Those OpenArc details are about a different group. They are useful only as a published example of how slowly committee business can move, and of how individual accounts inside an institutional practice can move on another timetable. Nothing in the Boston coverage says how much of the $13 billion is a plan or endowment contract, how much is a family-office sleeve, or whether any client has agreed to follow. Production was not reported. AdvisorHub did mention a separate July hire, a Morgan Stanley advisor in Colorado managing $1.5 billion. That is a different book and should not be added to the Boston figure.

InvestmentNews, citing a March 2026 Diamond Consultants report, said more than 11,000 experienced advisors changed firms in 2025 and that 54 teams with $1 billion or more moved, 29 of them from wirehouses. Set next to that tape, a six-advisor institutional group reported at $13 billion is large. The [Advisor Pulse](https://intersectionadvisory.com/pulse) log is built to keep those moves comparable only after a registration check and a second source, which is the right standard here: the people and the July 30 Boston registrations are on BrokerCheck; the asset figure is still a reported oversight number. Until a firm publishes what, if anything, transfers, the Boston hire is a confirmed change of employer for a long-tenured consulting bench, not a confirmed transfer of $13 billion.

Sources

- https://www.advisorhub.com/merrill-nabs-13-billion-institutional-team-from-morgan-stanley-in-boston/ — July 30, 2026 account: names confirmed by a Merrill spokesperson, $13 billion oversight figure, eight support staff, Middleton office, Graystone’s $747.1 billion as of December 2024, McGauley statement, career sketches, OpenArc comparison, Colorado hire.

- https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/bofas-wealth-business-adds-13-billion-team-from-morgan-stanley — Bloomberg report of the $13 billion figure, the 14-person Graystone hire, and Nathan Marsden’s Northeast region, citing a Bank of America statement.

- https://www.investmentnews.com/wirehouses/advisor-moves-merrill-lands-13b-team-from-morgan-stanleys-graystone-consulting/267626 — “More than $13 billion,” client types, credentials, eight named staff, Forbes/SHOOK, Barron’s, and NAPA rankings as described, McGauley quote, Diamond Consultants context.

- https://www.wealthmanagement.com/wirehouse-news/merrill-lands-13b-team-from-morgan-stanley-s-graystone-consulting — Spokesperson confirmation, Graystone site figure of about $747.7 billion and 50-plus offices, OpenArc lawsuit posture, Marsden region.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/1463904 — Hammond registration history.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/2463563 — McLaughlin registration history.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4500680 — Ciovacco registration history.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/5459938 — Mancini registration history.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/5652417 — Tobey registration history.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/6572247 — Egan registration history.

- https://intersectionadvisory.com/pulse — Move log used as a comparison standard, not as a source for this team’s assets.