Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is selling its UK-based wealth management business, Quilter, for an undisclosed sum to Bridgepoint, making the second time it has disposed of this business in the past decade.

Unconfirmed reports - which this publication understands were accurate - were confirmed today by MSSB in a statement. The firm declined to comment yesterday.

However, today, it said:  "Morgan Stanley Smith Barney today announced that it has reached an agreement to sell Quilter, its retail wealth management business in the UK, to Bridgepoint. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close during the first quarter 2012."

Morgan Stanley initially sold the wealth management unit to Citigroup in 2006. It is understood that Morgan Stanley, which then reacquired Quilter in 2009 as a result of its joint venture wealth management deal with Citigroup – the previous owner of Quilter – wanted to dispose of Quilter in order to focus on ultra high net worth clients. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is the name of the joint venture created between Morgan Stanley and the old Citigroup wealth management business.

It is understood that the Quilter business is not seen as a "core" type of wealth management for Morgan Stanley. 

Quilter - which is regarded as a mass-affluent investment manager for predominantly UK clients - has in recent months focused on its regional expansion, as seen by the appointments of Graham Jones and William Sparks as investment managers at its Liverpool and Dublin offices respectively in December last year. 

More recently, earlier this month Quilter opened a new office in North Wales. The firm also appointed Francis Clayton as an executive director within its Jersey office and bolstered its Dublin office with the hire of Graham O’Donoghue as an investment manager.

The sale of Quilter again highlights an issue of whether regular changes of ownership of wealth management firms cause any problems or uncertainties for their clients. For example, Fortis, the European bank and wealth manager, has been through several different owners over the past five years; Kleinwort Benson had been purchased by Germany's Commerzbank only to have been disposed by the Frankfurt-based bank just over a year ago. 

WealthBriefing understands that as far as Quilter clients have been concerned, the ownership changes have not had an unsettling impact.