Joan Mason, CRPC®

Paul draws on more than 15 years of domestic and international experience in asset management, institutional lending and wealth planning to create and implement highly customized solutions for clients. He and his team deliver the full complement of services and experience needed to help address the complex, multifaceted challenges of managing significant wealth. Rooted in investment strategy, his relationships may touch every aspect of his clients’ financial lives, including investing, wealth transfer, financial education, lending, cash management, philanthropy and even issues of family governance and lifestyle management.

Paul holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Science with Merit in international political economy from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in international politics and Russian from Brigham Young University.

Jim Macfarlane is a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley in Salt Lake City, Utah. Serving an exclusive group of successful families, business owners and executives, he understands the complexities that come with substantial wealth and the importance of providing bespoke solutions through a vast network of global resources.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2022, Jim was CEO & Co-Portfolio Manager for Certeza Asset Management, a boutique asset management firm located in Utah. Before Certeza, Jim spent 12 years with Goldman Sachs in both the US and Europe working with institutions and ultra-high-net-worth families where he was most recently Vice President in Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Minor in Personal Financial Planning from Utah State University – Huntsman School of Business. He also holds a Masters in Finance from the London Business School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) holder. Jim has passed the Series 7, Series 66, and Series 3 exams as well as the Investment Management Certificate Exam in the UK.

Outside of the office, Jim enjoys spending time with his wife and their four boys and actively coaches basketball, football and lacrosse. Jim likes to stay active in sports with functional strength training, ice hockey and snow skiing. He is an enthusiastic consumer of audio books routinely averaging three to four books a month.

Steven is a Client Service Associate at Morgan Stanley and plays a critical role in supporting the team’s Financial Advisors and delivering exceptional service to individual and institutional clients. Steven brings several years of experience in analyzing procedural risk and operational efficiency. Before joining Morgan Stanley, Steven worked for Goldman Sachs in its Risk and Regulatory Control team. Originally from Dallas, Steven dual majored in History and Japanese at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Outside of work he enjoys clay shooting, cycling, and film photography.

Michael Beste is a Registered Associate at Morgan Stanley. Based in the Dallas office, Michael works closely with clients to deliver a very high level of service. His responsibilities include working to address client needs, analyzing portfolios and assisting with portfolio reviews. He is excited to grow the team client service model with the firm and understands the multifaceted challenges of managing significant wealth. Michael grew up in El Paso, TX and attended The University of Texas at El Paso where he received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance and a concentration in Financial Analysis. During his time there, he served as President of the University’s Delta Sigma Pi professional fraternity chapter and worked as a Peer Leader.

Michael began his career in the Financial Services industry in 2020 as a broker and client service professional in Scottsdale, AZ. He moved on to a Financial Advisor role with Morgan Stanley in Gilbert, AZ before moving to Dallas to join Paul Cox’s group.

Matt Millard is the Group Director for Paul Cox, Jim Macfarlane, & Joan Mason. Matt joins the team with over 17 years of experience in the finance industry. He was a Risk Officer for the Morgan Stanley Dallas Market where he oversaw 3 branches and over 20 advisors’ practices. As a Risk Officer Matt was responsible for the education and training of firm policies, supervision of advisor activities, and adherence to financial industry regulations for the firm’s core Dallas market offices. He has also served Morgan Stanley clients as a Business Service Officer with responsibility for 4 branches at a high-watermark and over 25 advisors. As BSO one of Matt’s responsibilities was mentoring new Client Service Associates across the market to obtain their FINRA securities licenses as well as furthering development of tenured service personnel. He also assisted in the training of new managers that are involved in protecting the firm, its employees, and clients. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Matt held various positions at Merrill Lynch from client service to management. While working at Merrill Lynch, Matt was named as one of the top 100 Client Associates for the firm. He was also successful in having the overall firm update/change a policy that helped improve supervision and redundancies in how Merrill Lynch oversaw High-Yield bond purchases – protecting both clients and the firm. He was also the regional administrative assistant coach, which involved mentoring/training administrative assistants across several states. Matt was born in Illinois but later moved to Texas with his parents (despite his dislike of the heat). He and his partner currently live in Southeast Dallas. In his free time, Matt enjoys reading fiction, staying up to date with technology (currently trying to teach himself the Linux operating system), and traveling to experience new cultures. His favorite place currently is Washington (state).