Morgan Stanley has hired Devon Baranski to lead its wealth management operations in the US Southwest.

Baranski steps in from Leerink Swann, where he served as wealth management head. He also previously worked at the private banking and investment group of Merrill Lynch. He will be based in Los Angeles.

"The [Southwest] region continues to see growth of $10 million-plus households, with California having the largest portion of high-income households in the Western US," Doug Ketterer, head of private wealth management, was quoted as saying. 

California and other Western US states were the hardest hit by the decline in wealth during the 2008 global financial crisis, with the average net worth of US households falling 20 per cent to $481,000 in mid-2009, compared to mid-2007, a survey released in March by the Federal Reserve reveals. However the study also noted that while overall wealth had declined, those in the top quarter of net worth saw theirs actually rise by around 27 per cent. 

Related research released by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services in May 2011 also forecast that the number of millioniare households in the US and California is likely to double over the next 10 years, driven mostly by rising asset values. There are reportedly 10.5 million households in the country with at least $1 million in investible assets.