$3.2M Smith Barney team bolts Morgan Stanley for J.P. Morgan

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC has lost a $3 million producing team of veteran Smith Barney brokers to rival J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. The team, known as the Landmark Group, is based in the White Plains, N.Y., office of J.P. Morgan Securities. The four advisers, led by Michael J. Lent, left Morgan Stanley Smith Barney last Friday, according to their records on the BrokerCheck system run by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. The other advisers from the Landmark Group changing firms are William T. Lent, Tammi Brown Lauder, and William E. Christian. (Click here to view a list of 24 other teams that have left MSSB this year — and where they went.) Michael Lent did not respond to a message seeking comment. Both he and William Lent had been with Smith Barney since 1993. Last year after the firm merged with Morgan Stanley, it saw an exodus of brokers, as is common during and directly after mergers. Many of the brokers who left, however, were lower producers. For a time, Smith Barney was losing nearly 80 brokers a week, InvestmentNews reported. J.P. Morgan Securities, formerly Bear Stearns Private Client Services, has focused on its White Plains office recently, according to published reports. In December, the firm hired Michael Maron from UBS Financial Services Inc. to lead that office, a new location for the firm, Dow Jones reported. J.P. Morgan Securities changed its name from Bear Stearns Private Client Services in January. Christine Pollack, a spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, did not respond to a message seeking comment.