Ameriprise nabs Wells Fargo advisers with $300M

Three Wells Fargo brokers managing nearly $300 million in assets bolted for Ameriprise, the company said.

Ameriprise's latest grabs come this week, just as Morgan Stanley joined UBS and Merrill Lynch in announcing plans to scale down recruiting efforts. Wells Fargo has not announced similar plans.

But Ameriprise and other regional firms have been upping efforts to lure away wirehouse advisers. Wells Fargo's brokerage force alone has lost almost a net 400 advisers year-over-year.

Advisers James Novaria, Nick Yetter and Scott Matheson followed two other Wells Fargo brokers to the Ameriprise employee channel in the second such move unveiled by the regional firm this month.

Matheson works out of the Virginia Beach, Virginia-based branch, while Novaria and Yetter came aboard in Kalamazoo, Michigan. All three made the move in the last week of April after 13 years each at Wells Fargo, according to BrokerCheck records.

• Going independent
• J.P. Morgan Securities
• UBS Wealth Management
• Raymond James Financial
• Career moves
• Merrill Lynch
• Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
• Recruiting
• Wirehouse advisors
• Wells Fargo Advisors

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“We felt Ameriprise was the right move because our primary focus has always been portfolio construction and financial planning,” Yetter said in a statement. “Ameriprise has great technology to help us accomplish this.”

A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Advisors declined to discuss the three brokers’ exits from the firm.

Novaria, the most experienced of the three advisers, began his career at Merrill Lynch before working at Prudential Securities for 19 years. Yetter started at Prudential in 2000. The pair, who have $222 million in AUM, report to branch managers Benjamin Kragt and Robert Schauer.

Matheson, who has $70 million in AUM, reports to branch manager Richard White.

Ameriprise's brokerage headcount has ticked down 1% to 9,668 advisers over the past 12 months. The firm's client assets, however, grew 11% to $498.9 billion over the same span, and its pretax profits climbed 21% to $248 million.