Allen B. Morgan Jr.

Last updated

Allen Benners Morgan Jr. is an American business man who was among the founders and served as chairman and CEO of regional brokerage firm Morgan Keegan & Company, based in Memphis, Tennessee. The firm is now owned by Raymond James Financial.

Contents

Early life

Morgan was born in Memphis, the son of Allen Benners Morgan and Elise Wetter Morgan. His father was the chairman and CEO of First Tennessee Bank, then known as First National Bank. (Elise Wetter Morgan died on October 23, 2011, and a private family burial was held at Elmwood Cemetery for her. Her husband pre-deceased her in 1998.) He had a sister, Elise Stratton Morgan, and brother, Henry Wetter Morgan. [1] He attended high school at Memphis University School, and graduated in 1960.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [2] Morgan could not work at First National, which had a nepotism rule, so in 1965 he began his career in the brokerage business, in the Memphis office of Courts & Co., an Atlanta-based brokerage.

Morgan Keegan

Two years later, at age 27, he left Courts. [3] With some advice from his father, he started a brokerage firm with friend James Keegan. Keegan was an over-the-counter trader at Equitable Securities in Nashville. The pair recruited Robert Gooch, who was with Kohlmeyer & Co., and accountant Joseph C. Weller. The firm, Morgan Keegan, was started in 1969 with five employees and $500,000 in capital.

The firm grew, and as it did, Morgan gained respect within the financial services industry.[ citation needed ] In 2002, Morgan was selected as the chairman of the board of the Securities Industry Association. [4]

The firm's day-to-day operations was run by Morgan, as chairman and CEO, from 1969 until 2003. In 2003, he named Doug Edwards as the CEO and retained the chairman's title until his retirement on December 31, 2007.

During the merger frenzy within regional brokerages of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the firm was sold to Birmingham-based Regions Financial. Due to his concentration in Morgan Keegan stock at that time of the merger, Morgan remains the largest non-institutional shareholder of Regions, according to Bloomberg. As such, Morgan became vice chairman of Regions, although he retired from the board at the end of 2007, and remained the brokerage unit's chairman emeritus until it was sold to Raymond James Financial in 2012.[ citation needed ]

Controversy

In December 2010, Morgan was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) along with eight other directors of mutual funds. The so-called Kelsoe funds, [5] which were bond funds that bought assets backed by subprime mortgages, collapsed in 2007 during the subprime mortgage crisis. The SEC accused that the "directors made little effort to learn how the values were being determined". The firm settled its charges in 2011, but the fund directors would hold out until 2013. [6]

Personal life

Morgan is married to Musette and has three adult children: Kendall Morgan Rhodes, Musette Morgan, and Worth Morgan. [7]

Morgan's civic and cultural involvements have included the State of Tennessee Building Finance Committee, Methodist Hospitals, the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Allen Morgan Health Center, Opera Memphis, and Dixon Gallery and Gardens. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morgan Stanley</span> American financial services company

Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the firm's clients include corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley ranked No. 61 in the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

EF Hutton was an American stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton and his brother, Franklyn Laws Hutton. Later, it was led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, EF Hutton became one of the most respected financial firms in the United States and for several decades was the second largest brokerage firm in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citigroup</span> American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation

Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group in 1998; Travelers was subsequently spun off from the company in 2002. Citigroup owns Citicorp, the holding company for Citibank, as well as several international subsidiaries. Citigroup is incorporated in Delaware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goldman Sachs</span> American investment bank

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dallas and Salt Lake City, and additional offices in other international financial centers. Goldman Sachs is the second largest investment bank in the world by revenue and is ranked 55th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. It is considered a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bear Stearns</span> American investment bank

The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was an American investment bank, securities trading, and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession. After its closure it was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The company's main business areas before its failure were capital markets, investment banking, wealth management, and global clearing services, and it was heavily involved in the subprime mortgage crisis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salomon Brothers</span> Former American investment bank

Salomon Brothers, Inc., was an American multinational bulge bracket investment bank headquartered in New York. It was one of the five largest investment banking enterprises in the United States and the most profitable firm on Wall Street during the 1980s and 1990s. Its CEO and chairman at that time, John Gutfreund, was nicknamed "the King of Wall Street".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-Trade</span> American financial services company

E-Trade Financial Corporation, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, offers an electronic trading platform to trade financial assets. The company receives revenue from interest income on margin balances, commissions for order execution, payment for order flow, and management services.

Raymond James Financial, Inc. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company providing financial services to individuals, corporations, and municipalities through its subsidiary companies that engage primarily in investment and financial planning, in addition to investment banking and asset management. Headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida, Raymond James is one of the largest banking institutions in the United States.

First Horizon Corporation, formerly First Tennessee Bank, is a financial services company, founded in 1864, and based in Memphis, Tennessee. Through its banking subsidiary First Horizon Bank, it provides financial services through locations in 12 states across the Southeast, a region in which it is the fourth largest regional bank.

Raymond James | Morgan Keegan is the interim name of the former Morgan Keegan & Co. business units acquired by Raymond James Financial on April 2, 2012. The combined firms’ subsidiaries engage primarily in investment and financial planning, investment banking, fixed income products and asset management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piper Sandler Companies</span> American financial services company

Piper Sandler Companies is an American independent investment bank and financial services company, focused on mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring, public offerings, public finance, institutional brokerage, investment management and securities research. Through its principal subsidiary, Piper Sandler & Co., the company targets corporations, institutional investors, and public entities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regions Financial Corporation</span> Financial services company based in Birmingham, Alabama

Regions Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company headquartered in the Regions Center in Birmingham, Alabama. The company provides retail banking and commercial banking, trust, stockbrokerage, and mortgage services. Its banking subsidiary, Regions Bank, operates 1,952 automated teller machines and 1,454 branches in 16 states in the Southern and Midwestern United States.

New Century Financial Corporation was a real estate investment trust that originated mortgage loans in the United States through its operating subsidiaries, New Century Mortgage Corporation and Home123 Corporation.

Earnest Stanley O'Neal is an American business executive who was formerly chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch having served in numerous senior management positions at the company prior to this appointment. O'Neal was criticized for his performance during his tenure as chief executive at Merrill Lynch, where he oversaw the deterioration of the firm's stability and capital position, which resulted in his ouster in September 2007, and the firm's eventual fire sale to Bank of America one year later. Prior to his tenure as Chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch had thrived as a stand-alone company since 1914.

The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. The crisis led to a severe economic recession, with millions of people losing their jobs and many businesses going bankrupt. The U.S. government intervened with a series of measures to stabilize the financial system, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

McDonald & Co. was a full-service investment firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, established in 1927. Internally, it was referred to as "McD" (mick-D). It was sold to hometown bank KeyCorp in 1998, but was eventually sold to the U.S. investment arm of Swiss banking giant UBS AG in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulson & Co.</span> American investment management firm

Paulson & Co. Inc. is an American investment management firm, established by its president and portfolio manager, John Paulson in 1994. Specializing in "global merger, event arbitrage and credit strategies", the firm had a relatively low profile on Wall Street until its hugely successful bet against the subprime mortgage market in 2007.

Thomas Belesis was the founder and CEO of John Thomas Financial, a New York City-based financial services company that was shut down when financial regulators accused him of fraud and the business of being a boiler room.

Merrill, previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banking arm, both firms engage in prime brokerage and broker-dealer activities. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and once occupied the entire 34 stories of 250 Vesey Street, part of the Brookfield Place complex in Manhattan. Merrill employs over 14,000 financial advisors and manages $2.8 trillion in client assets. The company also operates Merrill Edge, a division for investment and related services, including call center counsultancy.

References

  1. ↑ Allen B. Morgan, Banker in Tennessee, New York Times, February 28, 1998
  2. ↑ "Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative - Inspire Teach Connect Create". Archived from the original on 2010-06-12. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  3. 1 2 "SocietyOfEntrepreneurs.com". Archived from the original on 2008-12-22. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
  4. ↑ http://www.sifma.org/press/html/pr_nine_awards.html%5B%5D
  5. ↑ Branston, John Not Too Big To Fail MemphisFlyer.com, accessed June 1, 2013
  6. ↑ Dave Michaels and Zeke Faux Ex-Morgan Keegan Fund Directors to Settle SEC Claims Bloomberg.com, March 27, 2013, accessed June 1, 2013.
  7. ↑ "December 30, 2007. CommercialAppeal.com". Archived from the original on 2008-01-05. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.