Ameriprise snatches $500M Wells Fargo team

A Wells Fargo team with $500 million in assets under management left the firm for Ameriprise's employee channel, according to the company.

Donald Alderman, Robert Holt, Jamie O'Brien and Scott Laney joined the regional broker-dealer in Charleston, South Carolina, Ameriprise announced this week. O'Brien assumed the role of branch manager.

Ameriprise also said it added Anthony Trotta from Wells Fargo in Cincinnati and John Maita from UBS in Bedminster, New Jersey. The firm has attracted at least a dozen ex-wirehouse advisers so far in 2017, including the latest sweep.

"After extensively interviewing multiple firms we were most impressed with the Ameriprise culture, their management team and their superior technology — specifically their mobile capabilities for both the adviser and the client, which far exceeded anything else we had encountered," O'Brien said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Advisors declined to comment on the move by O'Brien's team and the other ex-Wells Fargo broker. A spokeswoman for UBS didn't respond to a request for comment on Maita's departure.

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Maita has $107 million in AUM and reports to branch manager Eric Carlson in Bedminster. He joined Ameriprise Jan. 20, following eight years at UBS and more than twenty years at Morgan Stanley, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records.

Trotta oversees $65 million in assets and reports to branch manager Derek Hassenpflug in Cincinnati. He boasts 31 years of experience in the industry, having moved over to Ameriprise Feb. 16 after a ten-year stint at A.G. Edwards and its eventual parent, Wells Fargo.

Alderman, Laney, O'Brien & Holt started at Ameriprise on Jan. 20. All four advisers worked at Wachovia before Wells Fargo acquired the firm in 2008, with Holt's Wachovia tenure reaching back to 1987. The four advisers have worked a combined 93 years in the industry.

Ameriprise also hired one adviser each from Wells Fargo and UBS late last month. Another UBS broker and a Merrill Lynch broker moved over to Ameriprise in February as well. The firm lost one adviser to Benjamin F. Edwards earlier this month.