Philip Moffatt ’20 Brings Personal Touch to Investment Banking and Consulting at Morgan Stanley

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Philip Moffatt ’20 Brings Personal Touch to Investment Banking and Consulting at Morgan Stanley

Amid the high-stress, high-stakes world of investment banking and consulting, where data and analytics rule the decision-making process, Philip Moffatt ’20 strives to infuse a personal touch into every interaction he makes in his role at Morgan Stanley.

Nearing his seventh overall year with the leading global financial services firm, and his third as an Institutional Consulting Analyst, Moffatt is part of Graystone Consulting, one of Morgan Stanley’s premier institutional consulting firms.

Moffatt’s team, the Palo Alto Group, is one of the largest offices at Morgan Stanley, overseeing nearly $489 billion in assets. Founded three decades ago by Mark Curtis, who was named the top financial advisor in the nation by Barron’s in 2024, the Palo Alto Group provides corporate equity reward management, institutional consulting, and private wealth management services to some of the largest organizations in the world.

“We’re privileged to get to work with some of the best companies in the world, including Google, Microsoft, and Apple,” Moffatt said. “It has continued to the work that we do today with exciting startups like OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, and a number of similar companies.”

Moffatt’s main role is to help manage client relationships, with specific focuses on corporate retirement plans and private wealth management. In the retirement sector, he oversees relationship management and business development for corporate clients that use Morgan Stanley as their retirement plan consultant. Totaling about $4 billion, Moffatt focuses on roughly 20 large, corporate retirement plans.

“The retirement space is more about curating a menu of investment options that perform in line with the plan’s Investment Policy Statement, and offer diversification to plan participants,” he said. “It’s up to us to work with corporate committees, usually made up of C-suite members and senior HR staff, to construct and build 401k plans that comply with Department of Labor guidelines and help mitigate the company from risk.”

“I am fortunate because with the team that I’m on, there are so many different business functions for us that I can really learn so much about the wealth management industry. That ability to get exposed to so many different parts of wealth management and corporate consulting is so unique.” — Philip Moffatt ’20

Moffatt and his team also work to provide educational opportunities to the employees of companies that work with Morgan Stanley. He is responsible for providing access to on-site meetings with financial advisors, newsletters and other coordinated communications, and avenues to answer employee questions.

In addition to assisting existing clients, Moffatt also works on business development, cultivating opportunities for new partnerships and determining how Morgan Stanley can best help new clients manage their retirement plans.

“My favorite part of the role is the ability to work on so many different business avenues,” he said. “I am fortunate because with the team that I’m on, there are so many different business functions for us that I can really learn so much about the wealth management industry. That ability to get exposed to so many different parts of wealth management and corporate consulting is so unique.”

On the private wealth management side of his role, Moffatt assists some of the team’s largest private individual clients with building portfolios that align with their unique risk objectives. As a self-described “relationship manager,” Moffatt meets with his clients regularly, ensuring that their portfolios are out-performing benchmarks and that the behind-the-scenes work done by Morgan Stanley analysts conforms with the client’s vision.

“I enjoy not just the collaboration with my teammates, but also getting to work with clients, genuinely getting to know them and building ideas and solutions around their specific needs, whether that be a corporation focused on risk mitigation or a private wealth client exploring tax management solutions,” Moffatt said.

After several years in the industry, Moffatt credits the liberal arts education that he received at Southwestern University with his ability to excel at a high level across various aspects of Morgan Stanley’s business, as well as his ability to connect with clients personally.

“I’m a big believer that the Southwestern Experience makes people perfect for these types of opportunities because they fit with the well-rounded culture that we had at Southwestern,” he said. “The liberal arts degree makes you think, it makes you write, it makes you present, and it makes you take classes that are outside of the scope of your major. It is that very thing that I enjoy the most about the work that I get to do. I get to collaborate with other people across different focuses and really have an impact.”

Moffatt attended Live Oak Classical School in Waco, a small, private high school that focuses on a classic, liberal-arts-based curriculum. When he began his college search, he knew that he wanted a university with a similar environment, and Southwestern emerged as a natural fit.

“I’m a big believer that the Southwestern Experience makes people perfect for these types of opportunities because they fit with the well-rounded culture that we had at Southwestern.” — Philip Moffatt ’20

What ultimately brought Moffatt to Georgetown was an interaction with Lucy King Brown Chair and Professor of Business Debika Sihi during his senior year of high school.

“I went on a visit to Southwestern and listened in on a class with Dr. Sihi,” Moffatt said. “I remember on the way home, Dr. Sihi sent me an email and I just thought that was the craziest thing. I remember thinking, ‘why did this college professor just email me after meeting me one time?’ I knew that was special and that this was going to be the right fit.”

When Moffatt returned to Southwestern to begin his first year, he reconnected with Dr. Sihi, continuing a bond that would only strengthen during his undergraduate journey as he pursued an economics and business major with a data science minor.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but that brief conversation, and the emails that followed, would grow into a truly meaningful mentoring relationship,” Sihi recalls. “Like the best mentoring relationships, ours has always been mutual. I have learned just as much from Philip as he might have learned from me. I had the privilege of working with him in three courses, and it was a joy to see his exceptional analytical ability, strategic thinking, and strong writing skills shine through case analyses and projects.”

Outside the classroom, Moffatt joined the Pi Kappa Alpha, or Pike, fraternity, a decision that would help shape not only the remainder of his collegiate experience, but his professional career as well. When the position of treasurer for the fraternity became available, Moffatt jumped at the opportunity. It was during this role that his desire to pursue a career in financial management intensified.

“I gained exposure working with different peers to make sure they were staying on top of their dues,” he said. “A lot of people would come to me with situations where they couldn’t pay their dues. Helping people build a plan for how to pay and how to budget was enjoyable because it’s a space that I think everybody needs to learn, but it can feel like a daunting thing to do. So many people feel like they can’t do it.”

During his junior year, Moffatt was introduced to Miguel Zorrilla ’92, an SU Pike alumni, member of the Southwestern Board of Trustees, and managing director/international wealth advisor at Morgan Stanley. Moffatt’s relationship with Zorrilla led to an internship opportunity at Morgan Stanley during the summer before his senior year.

“My fraternity experience was really instrumental,” Moffatt said. “The leadership skills that I built by holding different officer roles and taking on responsibility was huge, plus the connections that I built with my peers and our alumni. I would not be here if it weren’t for an alumni brother seeing potential in me, allowing me to intern, and start off in a great direction.”

“So many of the opportunities that I’ve had and the areas where I’ve been successful in my career are because of my Southwestern Experience and my fraternity experience.” — Philip Moffatt ’20

It was during a second internship at Morgan Stanley in the fall of his senior year where Moffatt was connected with a full-time position at Graystone Consulting. As he began his professional journey, Moffatt leaned on impactful lessons learned as a member of SU’s Financial Analyst Program (FAP).

Launched in 1999, the FAP helps students gain valuable experience in creating and maintaining a stock portfolio while developing financial analysis skills rooted in real-world situations. Managed by Floyd and Annetta Jones Chair and Associate Professor of Economics and Business Hazel Nguyen, the FAP consists of student portfolio analysts who invest dollars from a designated Student Investment Fund, which is part of the University’s endowment fund, into the stock market.

“It was a really great program that first introduced me to the world of investing,” Moffatt said. “It’s one thing to look at it on paper, but it’s another thing to actually do it. As a college student, you don’t really have the means to just start investing. It was such great exposure to actually start seeing what it’s like to purchase stocks, to own it, to track it, to monitor it, to write summaries on it.”

As the faculty advisor, Nguyen employs a hands-off approach, allowing the students to conduct their own research, make their own investments, track their own returns, and set the overall strategy. No surprise to Nguyen, Moffatt assumed one of the FAP’s most important roles during his senior year.

“Philip’s role was the annual report editor,” Nguyen said. “Essentially, he created the whole annual report. That is one of the biggest roles in the program, in the sense that by December, he had to be able to pull all the information together from his teammates to create the report. It requires a lot of collaboration with your teammates to make sure information is correct and holistic.”

“There’s something great going on at Southwestern. It’s not just a coincidence that there’s a bunch of Southwestern people joining Morgan Stanley. Southwestern students and the Southwestern culture is actually a really great fit for a Morgan Stanley wealth management career.” — Philip Moffatt ’20

Even after graduation, Moffatt remains connected to SU through his recent appointment to the University’s Board of Visitors, a group that supports the mission of Southwestern by becoming informed of programs and providing feedback to the President and other administrative officials.

“So many of the opportunities that I’ve had and the areas where I’ve been successful in my career are because of my Southwestern Experience and my fraternity experience. Any way that I can give back, even at an early age and at an early start to my career, I’d like to,” Moffatt said. “It’s given me ways to really connect with students. I’ve been able to give them very much the same advice that I was given myself, but tailored to what I’ve seen and been exposed to.”

During Moffatt’s time at Morgan Stanley, two more Southwestern students have held internships with the company, including Sam Lacy ’24, who Moffatt recently hired to join his team at Greystone Consulting. In total, there are four SU alumni working in Morgan Stanley’s Austin office.

“We’re all doing really high-caliber wealth management consulting work. Even within the world of wealth management, we’re all operating on a really top-tier level. It’s really unique,” Moffatt said. “There’s something great going on at Southwestern. It’s not just a coincidence that there’s a bunch of Southwestern people joining Morgan Stanley. Southwestern students and the Southwestern culture is actually a really great fit for a Morgan Stanley wealth management career.”

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