The Reilly Arnella Group at Morgan Stanley

Hugh Reilly is a Managing Director and Financial Advisor at Morgan Stanley who brings a thoughtful, disciplined and relationship-focused approach to serving clients and their families. With a career in financial services that began in 1987, Hugh has built his perspective through a range of roles across financial advising, research, market commentary and investment-related leadership.

Hugh’s approach is grounded in patience, perspective and careful planning. He believes that meaningful financial progress begins with understanding each client’s goals, building a clear plan, designing an appropriate portfolio and reviewing that plan over time as circumstances change. His philosophy is shaped by the idea that “slow and steady wins the race,” with an emphasis on helping clients avoid unnecessary risk while staying focused on the priorities that matter most to them.

Earlier in his career, Hugh began as a Financial Advisor with E.F. Hutton before moving to UBS PaineWebber, where he spent approximately 15 years in research-related roles. During that time, he served as a liaison between equity research and financial advisors in the Northeast division and later helped lead the PaineWebber Network, a financial radio platform where he served as producer, writer and on-air personality. He also led the U.S. Product Management Desk for the Investment Bank, including work related to research calls and investment review processes. These experiences helped shape his understanding of markets, economics and portfolio analysis.

Today, Hugh works closely with Matthew Arnella and Colin Reilly to provide attentive service to clients and their families. The team maintains a relationship-driven practice designed to allow for meaningful communication, regular check-ins and a clear understanding of each family’s evolving needs.

Hugh earned his undergraduate degree from CUNY Queens College in Flushing, New York, where he studied Economics and History, with additional coursework in Political Science and English Literature. He is conversational in French. Outside of work, Hugh and his wife, Joëlle, live in Brooklyn, where they raised their two sons. He enjoys travel, film, literature, food and wine, history and time with family in France.

Matthew Arnella is a Vice President and Financial Advisor who brings a thoughtful, steady perspective shaped by more than 15 years in the financial services industry. He began his career in 2008 as a Client Service Associate at Smith Barney, entering the business during one of the most challenging periods in modern market history. That early experience working with clients during a time of significant uncertainty helped shape the way he approaches client relationships today: with attentiveness, clarity, and a focus on helping clients stay informed as they navigate important financial decisions.

Over the next decade, Matthew continued to build his experience at Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley, later advancing into the role of Portfolio Associate. In 2018, he joined J.P. Morgan, where he continued to deepen his knowledge of client service, portfolio support, and the financial planning process. In 2025, Matthew was promoted to Financial Advisor, a role that allows him to bring together his background in service, portfolio administration, and client relationship management.

Matthew’s approach is grounded in listening carefully, understanding each client’s priorities, and helping them develop strategies aligned with their goals. Having entered the industry during a period of heightened market stress, he appreciates the importance of being available, responsive, and thoughtful—particularly when clients are facing uncertainty or important life transitions.

Matthew earned a degree in Finance from the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He holds the CFP^® and is insurance licensed.

Outside of work, Matthew is deeply connected to his community in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, the town where he grew up and now lives with his wife, Kellianne, their three children, and their energetic German Shorthaired Pointer, Pickle. He is actively involved in his children’s school and has spent the past several years coaching recreational baseball and soccer. Matthew and his family enjoy spending time outdoors, traveling, and sharing experiences with family and friends.

The most recent addition to the team, with only a year under my belt so far, I don’t have as much industry experience as Hugh and Matthew; in fact my professional history before joining was somewhat circuitous: I worked for a time in fine arts journalism, for a couple years as a translator and editor in Paris and New York, for a time as an English teacher in Taiwan, and as a tour guide in Norway’s fjord country, though only for a few nightless summer months. The bulk of this time I spent in outward-facing roles for various medium-sized companies with international reach, writing and working across cultures and languages, spending hours with journalists or comms professionals nitpicking sentences to make sure each word choice was just right.

My undergrad and graduate degrees are both in comparative literature, which I studied in the US, Netherlands, and Germany, and which I chose as my field because it touched on so many different other subjects I was torn between, namely history, film, literature, culture, memory, language. I grew up bilingual, attending French school from a young age, and I’ve always been an avid student of languages and the aspects of culture they contain. I can hold a conversation in eight languages and I can say a few rude words or order food in a couple more, which is crucial to me as my other great passion is making sure I get three to five square meals a day.

When I moved back to the US after spending much of COVID in a ruined chateau in eastern France, which was not nearly as nice as it sounds, I chose to live in Sunset Park because of its diversity and density, and barely a week goes by I don’t get to practice my Chinese and Spanish. The human element of our profession is what I find most stimulating; it’s exciting getting to know each of our clients on an individual basis, learning their histories and their families, finding out about their goals and how we can help them to achieve them.

Since I joined the team I have been learning nonstop, both about our clients and the bigger picture — what’s in the news, what moves markets — as Hugh told me when I first started, what’s exciting about our job is that it’s everything: what makes the world work. Which I have long been trying to learn as much as possible about in my personal time, making it all the more exciting that I get to do so for a living as now, too.

After hours or on weekends, I am often, weather permitting, riding my motorcycle into nature to be as near to water as I can, photographing nature and found objects from as close as possible, or in my home darkroom and printmaking studio, seeing what came out, and looking at or drawing the weird-shaped rocks I picked up and pocketed along the way.