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BofA Merrill continues to make hires

Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced the hiring of six financial advisers last week who managed a combined $813.2 million and had trailing-12-month production of about $5.5 million

Bank of America Merrill Lynch announced the hiring of six financial advisers last week who managed a combined $813.2 million and had trailing-12-month production of about $5.5 million.

Four of the six advisers come from rival Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. The legacy Smith Barney team of Matthew Groff, Bernard Orbach and Erik Vatter, which manages just under $226 million and had trailing revenue of $2.1 million, will join BofA’s Harrisburg, Pa., office.

Another Smith Barney broker, James Wolslager, will join the firm’s Austin, Texas, office. He manages about $71 million in assets and produced revenue of $1.15 million in the past 12 months.

MSSB spokeswoman Christine Pollak confirmed the departures of the four advisers.

Meanwhile, the team of Tony Murphy and Lewis Matthews will join Merrill’s Walnut Creek, Calif., office. Mr. Murphy spent the past eight years with Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, and with Mr. Matthews manages $342.3 million and produced $1.2 million in revenue.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Rachelle Rowe confirmed the departures.

Rounding out the six advisers hired in the past several weeks, Michael Borza, a 23-year veteran of UBS Financial Services Inc., joins the bank’s Virginia Beach, Va., office. He manages $174 million in assets and had trailing revenue of just over $1 million.

UBS spokeswoman Karina Byrne didn’t comment by press time.

The hires represent a continuing trend at Bank of America Merrill Lynch to expand its wealth management business. The bank hired 603 people during the second quarter, BofA spokeswoman Selena Morris said.

The number of advisers at Merrill Lynch was 16,241 at the end of the second quarter.

MSSB still has the largest brokerage force in the country, with 17,638 advisers.

Email Andrew Osterland at [email protected]