SCS Financial

The firm operates on a fee-only basis, charging a negotiated percentage of assets under advisement. SCS Financial does not accept commissions, placement fees, or soft-dollar arrangements from third-party fund managers, which aligns its compensation with client portfolio outcomes rather than product distribution incentives.

No. The firm does not manufacture or manage in-house investment products. Instead, it selects external fund managers across private equity, hedge funds, real estate, and other asset classes, then constructs customized portfolios for each client family. This eliminates the conflict present when an advisor recommends strategies that also generate management fees for the same firm.

SCS Financial does not publish a stated minimum, but its client base of roughly 300 families with over $25 billion in aggregate assets implies a typical starting relationship in the tens of millions of dollars. The firm targets ultra-high-net-worth families seeking an institutional-quality investment office without building one internally.

The firm's investment committee evaluates and selects external fund managers, while portfolio construction is customized by the advisory team for each family. John Morrissey serves as Chairman, and the firm has a dedicated investment research team that conducts due diligence on private equity, hedge fund, and real asset strategies.

SCS Financial was founded in 2002 by John Morrissey and colleagues who previously worked at Brown Brothers Harriman, the private bank where they developed their approach to family wealth management. The firm has operated independently since its founding and has no ongoing affiliation with BBH.