More Morgan Keegan advisers hit the road

The trickle of advisers leaving Morgan Keegan & Co. since it was put on the block by parent Regions Financial Corp. in June is picking up volume. Latest to leave are Richmond, Va.-based Philip Janney and Robert Kay, who joined Janney Montgomery Scott LLC yesterday. According to recruiter Ron Edde of Armstrong Financial the team had production of $1.5 million at Morgan Keegan. They are still registered with both firms on the Finra Brokercheck website. Neither Mr. Janney nor Mr. Kay returned calls seeking comment. Earlier this week, another $1 million-plus team resigned from Morgan Keegan, said Mr. Edde, who declined to name them because they are awaiting the transfer of their licenses to their new firm. By Mr. Edde's count, eight advisers have left the firm in the last two and half weeks, including Chris Wallace and Sarah Ehrlich, who joined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC's office in Gaithersburg, Md.; Howard Sparkman, a former Kidder Peabody & Co. broker and a 17-year veteran at Morgan Keegan, also recently left for Wunderlich Securities Inc. in Dallas. Now nearly six months after Regions put Morgan Keegan up for sale, some of the more experienced and productive advisers appear to doubt that a deal will be done for the firm. “The longer the negotiations go on, the greater the number of advisers who'll head for the exit,” said Mr. Edde, who is actively recruiting dozens of Morgan Keegan advisers. “I don't think there's going to be a sale.”