Rivals continue to pick off executives from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.
Today, UBS Wealth Management Americas announced it has recruited Todd Locicero from MSSB to run its private-wealth-management office in Los Angeles.
Citigroup Inc. also announced that it has hired Cecelia “Cece” Stewart, who was head of Morgan Stanley's private bank, as president of its North American retail bank.
Mr. Locicero, who was at Morgan Stanley for eight years, replaces Barclay Perry, who left the UBS office at the end of June, said UBS spokesman Kris Kagel. The private-wealth group at UBS focuses on clients with at least $10 million of invested assets.
UBS has only one private-wealth-management office in Los Angeles but plans to expand into the greater L.A. area, Scottsdale, Ariz., and Denver “over the coming months,” Jason Chandler, head of UBS' private wealth management, said in a statement.
UBS Wealth Management has about 10 general branches for less affluent investors in Los Angeles, according to Mr. Kagel.
(Click here for a recent list of new recruits to UBS.)
At Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Mr. Locicero most recently served as manager of private wealth management in the firm's Southern California, Arizona and Las Vegas region, overseeing advisers and coordinating services with Morgan Stanley's investment bank.
“Filling this role with someone of Todd's caliber and experience is key to the successful execution of our [ultrahigh-net-worth] strategy,” Mr. Chandler said.
Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Christine Pollak confirmed Mr. Locicero's departure and said he has not yet been replaced.
Meanwhile, Citigroup's latest hire, Ms. Stewart, will oversee retail banking, personal banking, wealth management, commercial banking and small-business banking, the lender said in a statement today. Citigroup also hired Morgan Stanley's Will Howle, who joined the firm with Stewart from Wachovia Corp. and will serve as chief operating officer of U.S. retail banking.
Ms. Stewart, 52, joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 from Wachovia. At the time, the firm considered buying a commercial bank. Those plans changed when Morgan Stanley instead bought a controlling stake in a venture with Citigroup's Smith Barney brokerage and focused on building a private bank to offer lending and deposit services to its wealth management customers.
Ms. Stewart had most recently run Morgan Stanley's private bank.
Morgan Stanley named Shelley Hanan, the brokerage's chief administrative officer, to be acting head of retail banking, replacing Ms. Stewart, according to the memo, dated today. The bank will seek internal and external candidates for a permanent head, Jim Rosenthal, chief operating officer for the brokerage, said in the memo.
[This story was supplemented with reporting from Bloomberg News.]
