Recruiting wars rage on as Baird snags veteran Smith Barney manager

The battle for talent in the wealth management industry appears far from over as evidenced by several hiring announcements today.

The battle for talent in the wealth management industry appears far from over as evidenced by several hiring announcements today.
Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. said it has hired Dennis Rowland, a veteran Smith Barney branch manager, to recruit for and manage a new private-wealth-management office in St. Paul, Minn. The office will complement Baird’s two existing offices in the area, in Minnetonka and Edina. The private-wealth-management division of Baird oversaw $53 billion in assets as of Sept. 30. Baird last month hired two other former Smith Barney managers.
Mr. Rowland used to manage the St. Paul and Duluth, Minn., branches of Smith Barney, where he oversaw 29 advisers who brought in a total of $14 million in revenue. He started his job at Baird last week.
The new Baird office is part of the Milwaukee-based firm’s expansion strategy. In 2009, the firm hired 105 advisers and opened several new offices around the country, including ones in Denver, Sacramento, Calif., and Winston-Salem, N.C.
This year, Baird has similar goals, according to Erik Dahlberg, regional director.
“If we could match last year’s number, we would be tickled with that,” Mr. Dahlberg said in an interview. “We’ve got a lot of irons in the fire.” Mr. Dahlberg also said the firm will “very likely” expand further in Minnesota and around the rest of the country. “I would expect some more new locations,” he said.
Barclays Wealth, the wealth management division of Barclays Bank PLC, which oversaw about $221 billion as of June 30, also announced recent hires today, noting in a release that the firm intends to hire 100 more advisers in the U.S. this year, building on its record of hiring 50 advisers in 2009.
“Barclays Wealth is committed to serving high-net-worth clients in the Americas and expanding its presence in the region,” Jack Petersen, managing director and head of wealth management, Americas, said in a release.
William Scott and Steve Pritsios, both of whom come from Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., will be based in Barclays’ Washington office, while Donald Mahoney, who was formerly with Radnor Trust Co., will be based in Philadelphia.
Also beefing up its presence in Washington is Rockefeller & Co. Inc., a multifamily office with $25 billion in assets.
Rockefeller today announced that Michael Marsh, who comes from Lynx Investment Advisory LLC, is now a senior vice president focused on business development in Washington.