Seven advisers with $550M in assets join Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network

Advisers managing a combined $550 million in assets left UBS Group AG and Morgan Stanley in three separate moves to join the independent brokerage arm of Wells Fargo & Co. last month. The biggest group — Bill Rouse, Jessica Harper, Jeff Burton and Steve Meyer in Charleston, S.C., with more than $426 million in client assets — left UBS to start an independent practice called Millennium Private Wealth, according to Helen Anderson, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. Dan Axelson, who is based in Hingham, Mass., and manages more than $54 million, also left UBS to join Wells Fargo, opening up Axelson Wealth Management. In a third move, John Ortolf and Kathleen Meyer, based in Yardley, Pa., left Morgan Stanley to join The Princeton Group, bringing more than $70 million in client assets to Wells Fargo. Gregg Rosenberg, a spokesman for UBS, declined to comment on the moves. Christine Jockle, a spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley, confirmed the departures and declined further comment.