By Ashley Lau
April 24 (Reuters) – Ameriprise Financial has
bolstered its adviser base in Florida and Indiana with two
veteran advisers from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Fifth
Third Securities.
The new hires, who both joined Ameriprise’s employee
division, managed $261 million in client assets at their
previous firms. They are among the latest big recruits for the
Minneapolis-based company, which has ramped up its recruiting
efforts since the start of the year.
Adviser Richard Trotta joined Ameriprise on Friday in
Florida from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. He said an environment
where advisers have easy access to top management was a big
selling point for him.
“My sense is that they try to collapse this large
organization by making it feel smaller by having it very
high-touch,” Trotta said on Tuesday, referring to greater
personalized access.
Trotta said that he had the opportunity to meet with
Ameriprise’s Personal Advisors Group President Donald Froude
several times before deciding to join.
An industry veteran with nearly three decades of experience,
Trotta had been with Citigroup since 2005. He joined
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney after the merger in 2009 of Morgan
Stanley’s wealth management unit and Citi’s Smith Barney.
He managed $154 million in client assets at the firm.
Trotta joined Ameriprise’s Palm Beach Gardens office. He
reports to branch manager Frank Teodosio.
Ameriprise also hired adviser Doug Myers in Indiana. He
joined the firm from Fifth Third Securities, a division of Fifth
Third Bank, where he managed $107 million in client
assets.
Myers, who has worked in the industry for more than a
decade, joined Ameriprise’s Indianapolis office.
Ameriprise has both a traditional employee division, which
both Trotta and Myers joined, as well as an independent
franchise channel. Ameriprise said on Monday it increased its
employee division to 2,230 advisers at the end of March, a 6
percent increase from the previous year.
The company has an additional 7,500 advisers in its
independent channel, and a total of $334.1 billion in client
assets as of the end of March – also a 6 percent increase from
the previous year.
Ameriprise’s chief executive, Jim Cracchiolo, said in a
statement on Monday that attracting more experienced advisers to
Ameriprise was one of the company’s “key priorities.”
Over the past three years, Ameriprise said it has hired more
than 1,100 experienced advisers from competing firms. Since the
start of the year, Ameriprise has added advisers who managed at
least $1.2 billion at their previous firms, based on moves
tracked by Reuters. Those new recruits came from top U.S.
brokerages, including Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch
and Wells Fargo.
