Wells Fargo Hires Four Morgan Stanley Brokers -- Street Moves

  By Michael Wursthorn 
 

Wells Fargo Advisors recently hired four Morgan Stanley brokers who could take as much as $500 million in client assets with them.

The St. Louis-based brokerage's hires are Juan Ley and Tiffany Callahan, who joined in Tucson, Ariz.; Jeffrey Katz in San Rafael, Calif.; and Mitchell Gravelle, based in Charlotte, N.C.

Mr. Ley and Ms. Callahan had worked together at Morgan Stanley as the Ley Callahan Group, where they managed $210 million in client assets and generated about $1.2 million in fees and commissions. Both had been with the firm their entire careers, with Mr. Ley joining in 1997 and Ms. Callahan in 2006, according to their respective BrokerCheck records.

Mr. Katz, meanwhile, had worked at Morgan Stanley since 1983, and built up a book of $174 million in client assets to generate $1.5 million in fees and commissions. And Mr. Gravelle, a 17-year Morgan Stanley veteran, managed more than $100 million in assets.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman was unable to provide Mr. Gravelle's production numbers.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman confirmed all four departures, but declined to comment further.

News of the four advisers' exits follows another Morgan Stanley team departure earlier this week. On Monday, advisers Scott Highmark and Larry Shikles launched their own independent advisory firm with the support of Dynasty Financial Partners. The new firm is based in St. Louis and operates as Mosaic Family Wealth.

Morgan Stanley has lost several other brokers this year, with some also leaving for HighTower Advisors and Merrill Lynch. Still, it sealed one of the year's biggest moves among the big brokerages with the January hiring of Merrill's Stephans Van Liew and Oiler Group, a three-partner team based in Chicago. Together, they managed $6.5 billion.

(Street Moves chronicles the migration of executives on Wall Street, with a particular emphasis on financial advisers with more than $1 million in annual production and those who manage more than $100 million in client assets. Michael Wursthorn can be reached at 212-416-2218 or at [e-mail].)

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