More than a half dozen advisors from UBS and Morgan Stanley, who collectively managed more than $550 million in client assets, have gone independent with Wells Fargo, a spokeswoman said.
Former UBS advisors Bill Rouse, Jessica Harper, Jeff Burton and Steve Meyer were managing more than $426 million in client assets before they made the move, the spokeswoman said. The team, based in Charleston, S.C., now operates as Millennium Private Wealth.
Rouse and Meyer are industry veterans who began with UBS in 2000 and 2008 respectively, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. Rouse entered the industry in 1983 with J.C Bradford, while Meyer began with Johnson, Lane Space, Smith in 1982.
Harper started with UBS in 2001 after a brief stint at Wachovia Securities. Burton began his career at Merrill Lynch in 1993. He later went on to UBS in 2000.
Also on the move were former Morgan Stanley advisors John Ortolf and Kathleen Meyer, who were managing more than $70 million in client assets before leaving the wirehouse, according to a FINET spokeswoman. The duo joined an already existing independent advisory group at Wells, The Princeton Group.
Ortolf and Meyer both started their careers at Citigroup in 2001 and 1998 respectively, and stayed on with the firm after it was sold to Morgan Stanley in 2008.
"Owning my practice is now giving me the ability to help my clients in ways that I always wanted," Ortolf says. "As an independent business owner, I can craft the tone, the environment and the service model that make sense for me and my clients."
Ex-UBS advisor Dan Axelson managed more than $54 million in client assets at the wirehouse before going independent, according to FINET. He operates under the name Axelson Wealth Management.
Axelson began in the industry in 1988 with Dean Witter and made stops at Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch before he landed at UBS in 2006.
A spokesman for UBS and spokeswoman at Morgan Stanley declined to comment on these moves.
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