Wells Fargo Hires Two Morgan Stanley Vets in Arkansas

Wells Fargo Advisors has extended its summer hiring spree with the addition of two Morgan Stanley Smith Barney advisors with $127 million in client assets under management.

Curtis Coburn, Jr. and Wade Meeks III have been registered with Wells Fargo since Sept. 7, according to their public registration records with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. They will continue to be based in Little Rock, Ark.

Both came to Morgan Stanley through Citigroup. Coburn joined Citigroup in January 2005 from Investment Professionals Inc., FINRA records show, while Meeks joined the firm in January 1997.

The hires come as the competition for talent among wirehouse and other wealth management firms has stayed strong. Wells Fargo said it hired a slew of new advisors with $1.4 billion in assets in August, following another hiring spree of advisors with $2.75 billion in assets in June. 

But Wells Fargo has also lost advisory talent to competing firms, including four advisors who recently joined Benjamin F. Edwards in N.J., one Wisconsin-based advisor and two Abbot Downing advisors who moved to Merrill Lynch,  and one Miami-based advisor to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.