Morgan Stanley lures advisers from Merrill, others

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley has managed to lure some top financial advisers from rival firms including Merrill Lynch & Co Inc -- essentially the only majorstand-alone brokerage firm, said Diamond.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc , which is the largest surviving independent Wall Street securities firm but which has far fewer brokers than Morgan Stanley, has a small private wealth business, but nothing on the scale of Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley or Swiss-owned UBS AG .

Merrill Lynch's 16,000 advisers are waiting to hear of retention offers from Bank of America.

"Merrill advisers are looking at the prospect of working for (Bank of America Chief Executive Officer) Ken Lewis and Bank of America and fear they will find themselves in a cost-cutting mentality," Diamond said. "The assistance found at a major firm which has been taken for granted may not be available."

Two three-person teams have moved from Merrill Lynch to Morgan Stanley's Lake Oswego, Oregon, office, including Mitchell Rask, his son Christopher Rask and Jane Bergin, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman said. The team generated fees and commissions over the last 12 months, or production, of $1.4 million and had $118 million of assets under management.

Also joining the Morgan Stanley Lake Oswego office from Merrill Lynch will be Brent Highberger, Ryan Hubka and Aric Buck, with combined production of $1.3 million and prior assets of $110 million.

Lake Oswego branch manager Paul T. Amsbury, a former Merrill Lynch adviser, said he doesn't think concern about the Bank of America acquisition was among the reasons for the moves.

"It really never came up," said Amsbury, who was at Merrill for seven years.

Diamond is skeptical, however, that the lack of retention packages, did not enter into those conversations.

"It has now been five weeks and still no word of retention packages coming from Bank of America," he said. "Those Merrill advisers are clearly worried, and that's why they are leaving."

Still, Morgan Stanley has seen a few top advisers head in the other direction. Carl Choy, Lynne Kinney and Ronald Wo have migrated to Merrill Lynch's Honolulu office from Morgan Stanley, bringing with them combined production of $4.7 million, and $953 million in prior assets.

Morgan Stanley has also succeeded in luring advisers from Citigroup Inc's Smith Barney unit.

In one instance, the father and son combination of Raymond Wernig and R. Mark Wernig left, along with Sean O'Connor, on October 10 to work under branch manager Teri Deal in Morgan Stanley's Akron, Ohio, office, the Morgan spokeswoman said.

The three-man team, which managed $225 million in prior assets, brings with them a combined $1.7 million in commissions and fees.

These hires follow the September 26 exodus of Myron Hendrix and Ronald Ouwenga, who also bid farewell to Smith Barney to work in Morgan Stanley's Kankakee, Illinois, office under branch manager Jeff Bidstrup. The two men bring with them combined production of $1.4 million with prior assets of $192 million.

"Many advisers do not want to work for a bank, but they also don't wish to be independent -- after all, the last thing an adviser wants to do is to not only handle clients in a tough environment, but change the toner in the copier," Diamond said.

(Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)