Richmond, VA-headquartered RiverFront Investment has hired Brad Wear as its director for the western region.

Wear is latterly of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, where he was a vice president and financial advisor in the Pacific Northwest.

At RiverFront, he will partner with Rutherfoord Ferguson, a regional sales consultant, to provide sales and marketing support to financial advisors.

Wear has about 10 years of experience in the financial services industry, having started his career as a senior financial advisor at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. He has also served as president and chief executive of Umpqua Investments; his tenure there spanned from 2001 to 2008.

RiverFront Investment is an independent SEC-registered investment advisor with some $3.4 billion under management, as at end-December, 2012.