Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has confirmed that it recently recruited nine advisors from UBS Wealth Management US, along with a further two from Merrill Lynch.

The first UBS team - known as the Arata Investment Group - has joined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Bangor, Maine. The team, which managed $371 million in client assets, is comprised of William Arata, Daniel Rozario, Aram Khavari and Robin Coombs. Mr Arata is a UBS veteran of 30 years, while Mr Coombs had spent 20 years at the Swiss bank.

In Texas, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney hired UBS advisor Ricardo Nazario, who had $226 million in assets under management, for its Houston office. Meanwhile Jane Rojas was recruited from UBS to join Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s office in Tuscon, Arizona. Ms Rojas’ prior assets stood at $227 million.

UBS also saw the departure of Brian Albach, Stephen Dauer and Gregory Wells, who joined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's office in Cincinnati, Ohio. While at UBS the team had had over $2.9 million in production.

Finally, William Claridge and Patrick Lewis joined Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Billings, Montana office from Merrill Lynch. While at Merrill, which is now part of Bank of America, the team managed $215 million in assets and had over $1.4 million in production.

Staff moves have not been all one way at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, however, as earlier this month RBC Wealth Management recruited a team of the brokerage’s advisors for its Lemoyne, Pennsylvania office. The team, known as the Turnbridge group, had over $250 million dollars in assets under management.