Arthur Sherman was recently appointed executive director and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Canada.Supplied
On the Move is Globe Advisor’s roundup of recent hires and departures across Canada’s financial services industry.
For Arthur Sherman, stepping into his new role at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Canada Inc. in Toronto seems like a long time coming.
Although Mr. Sherman is an American from New York (he grew up on Long Island, went to university in upstate New York and has been in Manhattan for the past 19 years), his wife was born and raised in Toronto. After getting married almost a decade ago, the couple chose to raise their kids in Toronto while Mr. Sherman commuted most weeks to and from his job in New York.
Now, Mr. Sherman has moved to Canada full-time to take on the role of executive director and financial advisor at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Canada after recently obtaining his Canadian work visa and updating his industry registrations.
“I’m really excited to be here,” says Mr. Sherman, whose new position was made official on Thursday. “I’ve had a very extended period of feeling very connected to Canada.”
Mr. Sherman is the newest member of the 40-person team at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Canada following the addition of the group at Duke Wealth Management, led by John Duke, which joined the firm in March from RBC Dominion Securities Inc.
While in the U.S., Mr. Sherman led the Canada-focused business effort of The Polk Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, which Barron’s has ranked second in its past four annual rankings of private wealth management teams in the U.S. and first in 2022.
“There will be room for me to partner strategically with the Polk team and other advisors in the U.S., so that our clients can have that broad, holistic cross-border coverage, which we believe is a big distinction for us,” says Mr. Sherman, whose focus is on cross-border financial strategies for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
“In an ideal world, we want to bring the best of the U.S. to Canada, but do it through a Canadian lens and with a Canadian focus,” he says. “There’s a lot that Canadians can benefit from based on what we’ve already done successfully in the U.S.”
Mr. Sherman rejoined Morgan Stanley in October, 2020, after working for almost 11 years at Merrill Lynch, including about five years alongside his stepfather. He landed his first Wall Street job in 2007 at Smith Barney before Morgan Stanley first bought a stake in the firm a couple of years later.
From sports to finance
Despite getting a business degree at Binghamton University School of Management in New York, Mr. Sherman’s first job was as a sports journalist for a couple of different newspapers, including covering the University of Connecticut men’s basketball program.
“I loved sports growing up and translated it into journalism,” he says. “I was the kid memorizing the back of every baseball, hockey [and] football card I could get my hands on.”
That love of numbers then led him into finance, following in his stepfather’s footsteps.
Mr. Sherman says he landed his first Wall Street job after cold-calling a slew of sales managers at Smith Barney.
“It was with the idea that I’m probably going to have to cold-call for business, so I may as well start by cold-calling [them],” he says.
The plan worked. Not only did he get a job, but Mr. Sherman says the person who hired him, Nelson Gaertner, is now an executive at Morgan Stanley who’s involved in the Canadian project.
“It’s pretty cool to have gone from this cold-calling kid to now being a part of something much bigger through the same person,” he says.
Mr. Sherman comes to Canada amid heightened trade tensions with the U.S. While reluctant to weigh in on the dispute, he believes his experience working with cross-border clients from the U.S., and his own dual-citizen family, positions him well to provide cross-border wealth management expertise to Canadians.
“Like many other events I’ve experienced in my career, now is a great reminder of the importance of having a process and sticking to that discipline regardless of the noise,” he says.
“Everything is a moment in time, but what isn’t a moment in time is the ability to have knowledge and expertise on both sides of the border, all of which is highly relatable for the end clients that we want to work with.”
Other recent industry moves:
Aravind Sithamparapillai recently left Ironwood Wealth Management Group to start his own financial planning firm, AMA Wealth Inc. “AMA is named for my three children – a reminder that everything here begins with family,” he says on his new company website. “It also carries a standing invitation: Ask Me Anything.”
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Yannick Archambault will join Citi Private Bank as market executive for Canada on Sept. 1. At Citi, he will oversee a division serving entrepreneurs, business owners, family offices and ultra-high-net-worth families. Mr. Archambault joins Citi from Nicola Wealth Management Ltd., at which he was president of the private wealth division for 10 months. Before that, he was a partner and head of family office and private clients at KPMG LLP for five years.
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Isabelle Bernier recently joined fee-for-service advisory Objective Wealth Partners Inc. as a financial planner in the Montreal area. She previously worked as a financial planner at Desjardins and Investors Group. Throughout her career, she has worked at investment firms, in banking and in financial coaching.
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Recently switched firms? Got a big promotion? Left to start your own firm? Or retired to start that side hustle? Send the details to:bbouw@globeandmail.com and put “On the Move” in the subject line. We look forward to hearing about your next chapter.