MS Morgan Stanley

By Michael Wursthorn 

Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch brokerage last month hired nine brokers who managed more than $1.5 billion in client assets.

Nearly all of the new hires announced by Merrill were from Morgan Stanley, accounting for $1.3 billion of the assets. A trio from Long Island in New York managed the largest amount of client assets. Advisers John Gatto, Kenneth Gatto and Matthew Hughes, who had worked together at Smith Barney before its acquisition by Morgan Stanley, oversaw $675 million in client assets and generated $5.3 million in annual fees and commissions.

The other hires from Morgan Stanley were Mark Karstaedt, a New York-based adviser who handled $147 million for clients to generate $812,400 in annual revenue; Pasadena, Calif.-based adviser Scott Uffelman, who managed $185 million in assets and produced $831,800 in annual revenue; and Kirsten Tuzzo and Blaine Minton, who worked in Boca Raton, Fla., managing $287 million and had $2.6 million in annual fees and commissions.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman confirmed the departures but declined to comment further.

Merrill also said it hired Mark French and Kevin Parrill, of Plano, Texas, from UBS Group AG, where they had nearly $2 million in combined annual revenue and managed $239 million in client assets. A UBS spokesman declined to comment on the moves.

Merrill, similar to other brokerages, doesn't release the names of all its hires, instead announcing the addition of brokers who manage a significant amount of assets.

Merrill has been coping with a declining head count in recent quarters, with most of the departures tied to brokers who were based in the U.S. but handled a large number of clients overseas. Merrill said last summer it would no longer serve clients in certain foreign jurisdictions, while also raising overseas client account minimums and limiting brokers' ability to travel to those regions.

Its number of brokers as of March fell by 86 to 14,413 from the fourth quarter.

Morgan Stanley has also made some of its own hires in recent weeks. It picked up two brokers from Credit Suisse Group AG, who managed $482 million in client assets, and another three from Merrill Lynch, where they handled $851 million for investors.

Write to Michael Wursthorn at Michael.Wursthorn@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 18, 2016 17:28 ET (21:28 GMT)

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024