One of the biggest stories in the financial advisor recruiting world has been the exodus of advisors from Merrill Lynch to greener pastures. The big winners of these transitions have been LPL and Morgan Stanley. 

Last month, the Harris Rao Group, who is based in Phoenix moved to Morgan Stanley from Merrill Lynch. The team has a total of $630 million in client assets and generated $3.5 million in revenue last year. 

The group’s lead advisors are Christopher J. Harris and Nihaal M. Rao. Harris and Rao joined forces in 2005 and had been looking for a new home over the last couple of months. Both started their careers with Ameriprise Financial before joining Merrill Lynch in 2008. They were ranked #30 by Forbes in terms of wealth management teams.

According to sources, they wanted a place where there was less pressure to sell banking products and a more complete set of insurance products for their clients. Many of their clients are business owners, and they believe that Morgan Stanley offers better solutions for their needs.

Morgan Stanley also continues to aggressively recruit advisors and has been offering high-end deals to continue gathering assets. Over the last couple of months, they have landed just over $1.2 billion in client assets from Merrill Lynch. 

Finsum: Morgan Stanley continues to poach advisors from Merrill Lynch. The latest is a group from Arizona which produced $3.5 million in annual revenue.