Wirehouses

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.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have agreed to a $13.5 billion valuation of Smith Barney that clears the way for Morgan Stanley to complete its acquisition of the brokerage business by June 2015.

The Kentucky-based firm has hired a former Merrill Lynch advisor with $29 million in AUM.

Following news that Merrill Lynch Wealth Management lost several advisor teams to rivals this week, the firm is pushing back with three advisor hires of its own from competing wirehouse firms.

Firms need to foster real loyalty between themselves and their investor-clients, especially if advisors continue to leave, says Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the SEC.

Robert Ceccarelli and John Hursh collectively manage more than $148 million in assets and produce nearly $1 million in revenue. They will join Ameriprise's employee advisor channel and be located in the New Haven, Conn.

The Robinson Reuter Group brings $250 million in assets under management to RBC's La Jolla, Calif., office.

Barclays Plc recruited a team for its wealth and investment management division from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney that includes former New York Jets wide receiver Wayne Chrebet.

A group of financial advisory teams in Oregon, led by Brett Davis, Steve Altman, Todd Gescher, and Jason Herber, have combine to form True Private Wealth Advisors.

MNA Group and Anderson & Delutri are the ninth and 10th teams to join HighTower this year, and the 34th and 35th teams to enter into the partnership since its inception. Both teams were previously part of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Three former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney advisors have taken their business to Stifel Nicolaus to start an office in Madison, Connecticut.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have pushed the deadline for determining the fair market value of their Morgan Stanley Smith Barney joint venture to Sept. 10 as they wait for an independent appraisal to help reconcile their opposing values of the business

A win for Morgan Stanley in a fight with Citigroup Inc. over the value of their brokerage joint venture could show the firm is playing a losing hand.

GoldenTree Asset Management LP, a money manager overseeing $15.9 billion in assets, hired Daniel Ornstein from Morgan Stanley to co-head its trading business.

Even as Merrill Lynch moved to a $40 million settlement in response to a class action lawsuit this week, some experts ask whether it will be enough to satisfy some several thousand advisors who left the firm following its acquisition by Bank of America.

Merrill Lynch formally agreed to a $40 million settlement to a class action lawsuit brought by two of its former advisors regarding their deferred compensation on Friday, a decision that will potentially impact more than a thousand advisors with production levels of $500,000 and less.

Merrill Lynch is expected to head into a New York court Friday and hammer out a settlement that could potentially affect the deferred compensation of thousands of financial advisors that have left the firm since its 2008 combination with Bank of America.

Eric Rosen, the co-head of UBS AG's fixed-income, currencies and commodities business for the Americas, is leaving the bank next month, about a year after he joined, to start a hedge fund.

Proving that it is still in the competition for top advisory talent, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has tapped competing firms to add nine new financial advisors with more than $1.22 billion in client assets under management to its forces.

Merrill Lynch has hired a two-member advisor team who previously managed more than $1 billion at Wells Fargo's Abbot Downing business.