Wells Fargo Advisors has again dipped into Morgan Stanley's ranks for a high-producing financial advisor, grabbing one who had been with the firm 29 years.
Advisor Willard Varnum has joined Wells' Private Client Group in Raleigh, North Carolina, a spokesperson for the wirehouse confirmed. Varnum produced more than $1.4 million in trailing 12-month revenue from more than $185 million in client assets, according to Wells.
Varnum specialized in equity compensation at Morgan Stanley and was also a director of the wirehouse's sports and entertainment division, according to his Morgan Stanley web profile.
Varnum had been with Morgan Stanley since 1995, his BrokerCheck record shows. He entered the industry less than a year earlier, with Merrill Lynch, per BrokerCheck. Varnum's son is a private client associate in Wells' location in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the Wells spokesperson, and was previously an intern at Morgan Stanley in Raleigh, per his LinkedIn profile.
Morgan Stanley in the past week has been targeted by wirehouse rivals for several high-asset advisor teams, including a Chicago-based team with about $1.8 billion in assets that joined Wells' FiNet channel for independent advisors last week.
Morgan Stanley last week also lost a Maryland-based team with a combined 56 years of experience at the firm and about $650 million in assets to UBS. Earlier last week, Merrill snagged a four-person Chicago-based Morgan Stanley team overseeing $2.2 billion in assets.