Morgan Stanley has hired three teams of financial advisors from Citigroup's Smith Barney to bolster its US global wealth management units. The Wall Street bank hired Mark Allison, William Despard and Mark Eberle from Smith Barney to work in the Bellevue office in Washington state. The team, which will report to office manager Curtis Hammond, earned commissions and fees over the past year of $1.84 million and had prior assets under management of $303 million. Messrs Allison and Despard joined Smith Barney in 1988, while Mr Eberle joined in 1990. Morgan Stanley also hired John and Kenneth Gatto, Matthew Hughes, Alan Friedman and Irwin Kabat from Smith Barney, to work out of its North Shore office in Long Island, New York. They earned prior commissions and fees of $6.6 million and managed prior assets of more than $1 billion. They will report to Jeffrey Reiss, the complex manager. Mr Hughes had worked at Smith Barney since 2000, while the remaining four joined in 1993. Finally, Morgan Stanley hired Scott Franklin and Steve Dimino from Smith Barney to work in its Third Avenue office in New York City, where they will report to manager Ben Firestein. They earned combined commissions and fees of $2 million and had prior assets of about $200 million.