Hyperactivity in the wirehouse recruiting game continues seemingly unabated. Morgan Stanley, which is on its way into a retail-brokerage joint venture with Citigroup's Smith Barney, recently hired a clutch of advisors out of Bank of America's Merrill Lynch.

The team of Dean Crandall, Caleb Englehardt, Chris Rapier and Gregory Foster, which managed around $235 million at Merrill, joined Morgan Stanley in Champaign, Ill., as a report to central Illinois area manager Paul DiGiallonardo.

UBS too

In San Antonio, Texas, practice partners Carroll Jackson and Andrew Stanco, who managed $166 million as Merrill reps, joined Morgan Stanley as reports to area manager Daniel Hughes.

Meanwhile UBS has struck again, this time peeling a team away from its home-country rival Credit Suisse.

The San Francisco-based team of Joseph Asiano and Donald Trabert, which managed $895 million client assets with Credit Suisse upped stakes last week for UBS.

Asiano and Trabent had each worked for Credit Suisse and its U.S.-brokerage predecessor Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette for more than a decade, according to FINRA records. -FWR