Five advisers with more than $250 million in combined client assets left Morgan Stanley for the independent advisory channel at Wells Fargo, the firm said.
James Ritchie and Neil Thobani left Morgan where they oversaw almost $100 million in client assets to join an existing Wells Fargo Financial Network practice in Irvine, Calif., the firm said.
Ritchie started in the financial services industry in 1997 with H.R. Block Financial Advisors, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. His career includes stops at Citigroup and Wachovia Securities before he joined Morgan in 2008. Thobani started his career when he joined the wirehouse in 2013, according to BrokerCheck.
Also going independent with Wells are husband and wife team, John and Claudia Barkmeier, and adviser Paul Rohr.
The trio, which had oveseen more than $155,000,000 in AUM while at Morgan, now operate as Barkmeier Financial Consulting Group of Boulder, Colo., Wells Fargo said.
John Barkmeier began his career in 1998 with Piper Jaffray, and went on to work for Baird in 1998 before joining Morgan a decade later, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records.
Claudia Barkmeier entered the industry in 1980 when she joined Merrill Lynch. She went to Paine Webber three years later before she also joined Piper Jaffray in 1991 and followed a similar career track as her husband, BrokerCheck records show.
Rohr began his career with Morgan in 2013.
More than a half dozen other advisers from Morgan and UBS, who collectively managed more than $550 million in client assets,
