Baird nabs advisers from wirehouses in recruiting binge

Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. has continued its recruiting momentum from last year with pickups from UBS Wealth Management Americas and Wells Fargo Advisors. Looking to keep pace with last years' growth, Baird kicked off the year with the addition of two branch managers and a group of advisers with $275 million in combined assets in Kansas City, Dallas and Reston, Va. “On a relative basis, given the number of financial advisers that we've added, we've done pretty well,” said John Mabee, vice chairman of Baird's private wealth management group. “We'd like to stay on pace and we may have a shot of increasing a little bit [from last year].” In Kansas City, Baird added the Gollier Henning & Waters Group, which oversaw $215 million and generated $1.7 million in fee and commission revenue while at Wells Fargo. The group includes Frederick Gollier, who is a director and financial adviser; Michael Henning, vice president and branch manager; and Christopher Waters, vice president and financial adviser. The firm also nabbed adviser Lawrence Magid, who produced around $565,000 from $60 million in assets from Wells Fargo. Mr. Magid joins Baird's Dallas office. Carl Chaput joins from UBS and will be a non-producing branch manager in the Reston office. Baird was one of the big winners for recruiting last year, according to moves tracked by InvestmentNews. The firm brought in 16 teams with and roughly $2.9 billion in assets in 2013, data from the Advisers on the Move database shows. The firm, which has a total of 735 advisers, has had success with recruiting advisers who began their career at regional firms such as A.G. Edwards Inc. that were acquired by wirehouses in recent years, Mr. Mabee said.