A $5.94 Billion Morgan Stanley Team Moved to Wells Fargo in New York. Growth Like That Has a Catch.

By Intersection Advisory · Advisor Moves

Published: May 1, 2026

Category: Advisor Moves

C. James Taylor and eight other advisors registered with Wells Fargo Clearing Services on May 1, 2026, leaving Morgan Stanley’s New York office for Wells Fargo Advisors in Midtown. A Wells Fargo spokesperson told AdvisorHub the team had managed $5.94 billion and produced $18.6 million in annual revenue. AdvisorHub’s headline rounded the assets to $6 billion. The spokesperson’s figures are the ones with a named firm behind them. The team’s own Wells Fargo page, at 767 Fifth Avenue on the 33rd floor, says the practice oversees over $5.7 billion as of April 2026 and that it serves engineers, C-suite executives, and senior managers at publicly traded companies in Silicon Valley. Those three asset marks — $5.94 billion from the spokesperson, about $6 billion in a headline, and over $5.7 billion on the team site dated April — should not be collapsed into one number.

AdvisorHub identified a 19-person group: Taylor plus advisors Shane Drumm, Michaella Irvine, Cameron Irvine, Marcus Briscoe, Jamison Embury, Roger McGlynn, Hunter Embury, and Kyle Drumm, and 10 support staff. They report to Michael Freiheit, branch manager of the GM Building office, and to Patrick Baumann, New York City market leader. Baumann’s statement, carried by AdvisorHub and American Banker, called the team highly driven and said they wanted Wells Fargo’s full balance sheet so they could serve clients “holistically.” Bank products on the team’s site are offered through Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. The quote is a balance-sheet pitch. It does not disclose a client list.

Who is on the registration record?

BrokerCheck dates for the nine advisors line up on the Wells start date and, for most of them, on a Morgan Stanley arrival in November 2020. The earlier stops differ.

| Advisor | BrokerCheck history before Wells | Wells registration |

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

| Cordia J. Taylor (CRD 5680521) | Hennion & Walsh, August 2009–January 2011; Merrill Lynch, May 2011–November 2020; Morgan Stanley from November 6, 2020 | May 1, 2026 |

| Shane M. Drumm (CRD 6838985) | Merrill, September 2017–November 2020; Morgan Stanley from November 6, 2020 | May 1, 2026 |

| Michaella G. Irvine (CRD 6665102) | Merrill, April 2018–November 2020; Morgan Stanley from November 6, 2020 | May 1, 2026 |

| Cameron E. Irvine (CRD 7271512) | Morgan Stanley from November 18, 2021 | May 1, 2026 |

| Marcus M. Briscoe (CRD 6506325) | J.P. Morgan Securities, December 2018–October 2019; Merrill, December 2019–November 2020; Morgan Stanley from November 6, 2020 | May 1, 2026 |

| Roger H. McGlynn (CRD 6260648) | Morgan Stanley, December 2013–August 2016; Merrill, March 2017–December 2020; Morgan Stanley from November 6, 2020 | May 1, 2026 |

| Kyle J. Drumm (CRD 7393437) | Morgan Stanley from January 15, 2022 | May 1, 2026 |

| Jamison G. Embury (CRD 7412119) | Morgan Stanley from August 23, 2023 | May 1, 2026 |

| Hunter W. Embury (CRD 7410360) | Morgan Stanley from August 23, 2023 | May 1, 2026 |

American Banker described the group as young: every advisor had been in the industry for less than 20 years, with Taylor the longest-tenured, and it identified sibling pairs among the Drumms, the Irvines, and the Emburys. Taylor’s file supports the “16-year broker” label AdvisorHub used. Kyle Drumm’s file shows Morgan Stanley from January 2022, not an earlier Merrill registration. Morgan Stanley did not comment to AdvisorHub. Taylor did not respond. A Wells spokesperson did not answer AdvisorHub’s question about the client base.

Where did the asset growth come from?

AdvisorHub, citing a 2023 Barron’s profile, said the practice managed $1.2 billion that year. Read against the spokesperson’s $5.94 billion, that is just under a fivefold increase in roughly three years. Arithmetic on two reported stock-taking dates is not a growth explanation. A source at a competing firm told AdvisorHub the team was “high quality” and that part of the increase came from a concentration of Nvidia employees and executives, against a stock AdvisorHub said had risen more than 1,200 percent over five years. That Nvidia account is a competitor’s explanation. Wells did not confirm it. The team’s public site describes a Silicon Valley executive and engineer clientele and lists concentrated-stock, stock-option, and executive-planning work. A workplace-equity practice can get larger because new households arrive, because a stock price moves, or both. The coverage does not separate those causes.

Dividing the spokesperson’s $18.6 million of revenue by $5.94 billion of assets produces roughly 31 basis points. That ratio is a calculation from Wells’s figures as given to AdvisorHub, not a fee schedule. It is the revenue number a recruiting desk can price. The asset number is the one that travels in headlines. If a large share of the assets is appreciated employer stock, the two can move apart without any change in the number of relationships. AdvisorHub also reported that Morgan Stanley has been using Fortune 500 stock-plan servicing as a feeder into its advisory business. The Taylor Group’s departure is one data point in that workplace channel. It is not evidence that the stock-plan relationships themselves changed firms.

What was said about the deal, and what was not?

A source told AdvisorHub that Wells offers for a group like this one could include 275 percent of trailing-12 revenue in upfront cash, before back-end bonuses, which the source put at or near the top of the market. The sentence is about how a recruiter described Wells’s pricing for a team of this type. It is not a term sheet for Taylor. Roger Gershman, a recruiter AdvisorHub said was not involved but knew the team, said they narrowed the search to three firms and wanted a long-term path to independence. Separately, AdvisorHub quoted Chief Financial Officer Mike Santomassimo in April on the wealth division led by Barry Sommers, tying recruiting momentum to net flows and to a multi-channel setup that includes the FiNet independent brokerage and an RIA custody unit the firm said was launching later in the year. Gershman’s independence comment sits next to that corporate language. Neither source published the Taylor agreement.

The team page lists Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Management Team recognition for 2024–2026, a 2025 Barron’s Top 250 Private Wealth Management Teams listing, and other Forbes and Barron’s advisor lists, with SHOOK Research named as the compiler of the Forbes data. Those are awards the team is advertising, with the methodology notes printed on the same page. They do not identify which clients will custody assets at Wells.

Anyone reading the move as a career comparison can put the spokesperson’s revenue next to the asset marks and then read the questions in the [Crossroads report](https://intersectionadvisory.com/crossroads-report) about what part of a book is relationships and what part is market level. The open items are still the client mix, how much of the climb from the 2023 Barron’s figure was price appreciation, whether any independence language is in this contract, and how much of the $5.94 billion Morgan Stanley retains. Wells confirmed assets and revenue to AdvisorHub. It did not, in that exchange, confirm who the clients are.

Sources

- https://www.advisorhub.com/6b-morgan-stanley-team-jumps-to-wells-fargo-advisors-in-nyc/ — May 1, 2026 story: spokesperson’s $5.94 billion and $18.6 million, roster, Freiheit and Baumann, Barron’s 2023 figure of $1.2 billion, competitor source on Nvidia, Gershman, the 275 percent market comment, Santomassimo.

- https://www.americanbanker.com/news/wells-fargo-lands-6b-team-from-morgan-stanley — May 4, 2026 account of the 19-person group, sibling pairs, GM Building office, and Baumann statement.

- https://fa.wellsfargoadvisors.com/the-taylor-group-of-wells-fargo-advisors/ — Team page: over $5.7 billion as of April 2026, Silicon Valley executive and engineer clientele, 767 Fifth Avenue address, listed Forbes and Barron’s rankings.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/5680521 — Taylor.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/6838985 — Shane Drumm.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/6665102 — Michaella Irvine.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/7271512 — Cameron Irvine.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/6506325 — Briscoe.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/6260648 — McGlynn.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/7393437 — Kyle Drumm.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/7412119 — Jamison Embury.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/7410360 — Hunter Embury.

- https://intersectionadvisory.com/crossroads-report — Career questions about separating relationships from market-driven assets.