A brief and incomplete survey of recent big-brokerage moves, plus UBS' cuts. The U.S. arm Royal Bank of Canada's RBC Wealth Management -- known as RBC Dain Rauscher until about a year ago -- has extended its hiring streak with the addition of a team from Citigroup's retail brokerage Smith Barney.

The team of Peter Heilbron, Don Schwarz and Steven Tomingas along with sales assistants Marianne Talavera and Stephanie Hunter left Smith Barney for RBC Wealth Management's Beverly Hills, Calif., office last month. They report to market manager Ken Sullivan. The team managed more than $400 million in client assets when it was with Smith Barney.

Bank of America's Merrill Lynch added former Smith Barney broker Michael Bock, in Coral Gables, Fla. He managed $136 million in client assets at Smith Barney.

More moves

Smith Barney plucked a team out Merrill in turn. Husband and wife team of Kenneth Friedman and Kia Friedman report to Cira Nickerson, manager of Smith Barney's office in Palo Alto, Calif. They managed more than $188 million at Merrill.

Smith Barney has also added ex-UBS advisors William Ard and Roxanne Ricca as reports to Westfield, N.J., branch manager Todd Sacks. They had more than $223 million in assets under management at UBS.

Smith Barney is on its way into a joint venture with the private-client division of Morgan Stanley.

Merrill has hired former UBS advisors Michael Kelleher and Jeffrey Silverman in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. Their team managed $224 million in assets at UBS.

RBC Wealth Management has also recruited a brokerage team out of UBS in Phoenix, Ariz. The group of financial consultant Joseph DiVito, client associate Michelle Cunningham and Joseph's brother David DiVito report to RBC Welath Management market manager Tim Rannow. This team managed about $105 million at UBS.

Horrors

Meanwhile Wachovia Securities, part of Wells Fargo, recently hired broker Reginald Boyle and two of his team members -- Robert Grant and Sharon Krumme -- from UBS and installed them in its Minneapolis office. They managed about $170 million in client assets at UBS.

It seems that UBS is getting to set to jettison poor producers and some support staff in its U.S. retail brokerage business, according to a small flurry of wire reports.

Marten Hoekstra, head of the Swiss bank's U.S. wealth-management business, said as much in a conference call with UBS staffers on Wednesday., according to reports out Reuters and Dow Jones.

UBS itself is staying mum on the topic.

But then other wirehouses and several regionals have hived off puny producers and cut support staff recently -- even as they have ramp up efforts to recruit big-book brokers and promising up-and-comers. With the possible exception of RBC Wealth Management, UBS has been as aggressive a recruiter of brokers as any firm out there in recent months. -FWR

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