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Advisors on the Move: Morgan Grabs $1B Team

The battle for top talent has remained fierce, as firms like J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley lured away billion-dollar teams from Barclays. Morgan also recruited advisors with over $300 million in combined assets from rival wirehouses. Waddle & Reed hired eight advisors managing $278 million in combined client assets in its latest spree.

Click through to see these and all the latest recruiting moves.
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Billion-Dollar Team Joins Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley picked up a Barclays team that managed $1 billion in client assets, a spokeswoman said, an indication that a lucrative retention package hasn't been a strong enough incentive to keep Barclays advisors from moving before the firm sells its U.S. wealth management operations to Stifel.

Advisors Kerri Connellan and Jim Pucciarelli were the latest to pass on the offer, deciding instead to join Morgan. They will be working from the wirehouse's New York office, reporting to branch manager Damon Gallagher.
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Advisors With $2B Join J.P. Morgan

J.P. Morgan Securities recruited 10 advisors who managed more than $2 billion in assets, a spokeswoman said.

Joining J.P. Morgan from Barclays are advisors Brian Turner and Avi Safaei. While they are a team, Turner will be based in Boston and report to Rick Penafiel, regional director, and Safaei will be based in New York and report to Mike Lee, regional director. Also reporting to Lee are former Barclays advisors Gordon Levy and Ian Ratner. Jonathan Bates joined the firm's Los Angeles office. Bates reports to Frank Epinger, regional director.

Among the other moves, Morgan Stanley lost three advisors to J.P. Morgan: Steven Foote, John Moran and David Wilson. Jason Wolter joined J.P. Morgan's office in White Plains, N.Y. He previously worked at Deutsche Bank. And former Bernstein advisor David Bailey Izard joined J.P. Morgan in Atlanta, where he reports to Pete Secret, regional director. J.P. Morgan also named Michael Maron to be its Chicago regional director.
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UBS Hires $3M Producer From Barclays

UBS lured away an advisor generating $3 million in annual revenue from Barclays, according to a spokesman for the firm.

Advisor William "Monty" Cerf managed approximately $490 million in assets while at Barclays, the spokesman said.

Cerf and team members Miriamne DeMarrais, Jordan Baron, and Ross Mellor joined UBS' private wealth management office in New York where they report to Christopher Amo, complex director. The team focuses on serving ultrahigh-net-worth and high-net-worth clients as well as family offices and foundations.
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$1.5M UBS Team Returns to Mother Merrill

Two advisors who generated more than $1.5 million in annual revenue at UBS have left the Swiss-owned wirehouse to rejoin Merrill Lynch, a spokeswoman said.

Advisors Anthony Chevalier and Vance Whitby joined Merrill in Denver, where they report to Jason Edelmann, market executive for the firm's Denver Mountain Market.

While at UBS the two advisors oversaw more than $193 million in client assets.
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$120M Merrill Team Goes Indy

Two Merrill Lynch advisors who managed $120 million have gone independent with Raymond James, a spokeswoman said.

Advisors Kayla Koeber and Lori Baum formed independent firm Voyager Wealth Advisors in St. George, Utah.

Koeber, who joined Merrill in 2000, explains she wasn't originally interested in going independent. "I used to always say I have no interest in changing the toner in the copy machine," she says, laughing.

But, she adds, "I was fierce about how I wanted to run my own practice."
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Wells Fargo Lures Advisors With Over $300M AUM

Wells Fargo recruited advisors managing $341 million in client assets from rival wirehouses, according to the firm.

Nick Borgfeldt joined Wells Fargo's offices in South Hills, Pa., while Larry Pulliam and Jeff Kerrigan joined in Greensboro, N.C. Borgfeldt managed more than $176 million in assets at Morgan Stanley, which he joined in 2009.

Pulliam and Kerrigan managed $165 million in assets while at UBS. Pulliam joined the wirehouse in 1994 from J.C. Bradford & Co., according to FINRA records. Kerrigan began his stint at UBS in 2008. The duo is joined by Pulliam’s son, Spencer, who will attend Wells Fargo’s next-gen training program in September.
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Raymond James Grabs $2.2M Producers From UBS

Raymond James lured a $2.2 million team from UBS over to the regional brokerage's employee channel.

The five-member team oversaw more than $300 million in client assets while working for the wirehouse, according to Raymond James.
Group members Alex Bryan, Ryan Bartley, Robert Torney, Patti Steffens and Tina Noel opened the first Raymond James employee office in Vermont. The group operates as Catamount Financial Advisors of Raymond James, out of South Burlington.
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UBS Advisor With $200M Joins HighTower

An advisor who managed $200 million in client assets left UBS to go independent with HighTower, a spokesman said.

Advisor Michelle Murray formed Murray Wealth Management in Seattle.

The move represented HighTower's eighth transition this year and its 14th office on the West Coast, according to the spokesman.
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Advisors With $317M Join Wells Fargo’s Indy Channel

Four wirehouse advisors, managing a total of about $317 million in client assets combined, have joined the independent channel at Wells Fargo.

James and Kelley Tate made the move to independence from Morgan Stanley, where the husband-and-wife team had been managing $131 million in client assets, Wells Fargo said.

Both have more than 22 years of industry experience according the firm. Their independent practice is operating as the Tate Group of Venice, Fla.
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Advisors With $290M AUM Join Washington Wealth

Three advisors with $290 million in combined AUM left Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo to join Washington Wealth Management, according to the firm.

Scott Sade, Jonathan Woods and David Hughes joined the hybrid RIA to start their own independent practices.

Sade, a Morgan Stanley advisor who worked with $200 million in client assets before making the move, now operates Sade Group Private Wealth Management, based in Stuart, Fla. Woods, who also came out of Morgan where he managed $40 million, now operates as Woods Asset Management of Darien, Conn. Hughes, previously at Wells where he managed $50 million, is based in Woodland Hills, Calif.
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Stifel Loses Veteran Advisor to RIA Noyes

An ex-Stifel advisor has joined RIA Noyes, the firm said.

Thirty-nine-year-veteran Jim Abraham had been with Sterne Agee, a broker-dealer purchased earlier this year for $150 million by Stifel, before making the move. He oversaw $30 million in client assets, a Noyes spokesman said.
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Waddell & Reed Recruits 8 Advisors

Waddell & Reed swept up eight advisors who managed $278 million in combined client assets in its latest recruiting spree, according to the firm.

A team of four advisors made the move from MetLife and joined Waddell & Reed in Las Vegas. The team consists of advisors William Albin, Sean Dobranich, Taina Gude and Pawel Szott. They managed $82 million in client assets while at their previous firm, according to a Waddell & Reed spokeswoman.

Advisor Timothy Fast, a 30-year veteran, joined the firm from Securities America with $27 million in assets, according to a Waddell & Reed spokeswoman. William Fay also joined the firm from Edward Jones in May. He managed $32 million in assets before joining Waddell & Reed in Detroit.
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New Hires at U.S. Trust

U.S. Trust made several hires over the last month.
Anuradha Vohra, previously a managing director and private banker with Citigroup, joins the firm as a private client advisor in New York, according to U.S. Trust.

Carolyn Westerberg left her advisor role with J.P. Morgan to join the firm as a private client advisor in Greenwich Conn., according to U.S. Trust.

In Virginia, James Dyke, a former lieutenant colonel and director of logistics training and strategic initiative group for the U.S. Army, joins U.S. Trust as a private client advisor in Richmond, Va., the firm says.

Marvin Blakeney, previously with the family office Clark, LLC, also joins the U.S. Trust’s Fort Worth, Texas office as a market investment director, the firm says.
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