Katz-Bloom consulting group joins Morgan Stanley's Beverly Hills "complex". Wealth-team poaching continues with Morgan Stanley lifting the Katz-Bloom group out of Smith Barney in the Los Angeles area. Brian Katz and Craig Bloom and their six-person support staff now work out of Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management Group (GWMG) office in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Delighted and thrilled

"We are delighted to welcome two highly respected wealth management professionals like Brian and Craig to our firm," says Morgan Stanley's Beverly Hills "complex" manager Cynthia Laden Newman. "Given the increasingly sophisticated challenges facing affluent families today, we are committed to meeting the unique financial needs of our clients."

Katz and Bloom are former members of Smith Barney's Directors Council, a group of the brokerage's top producers.

"We are thrilled to be associated with a firm that sets industry standards with its high caliber institutional, private client and advisory services combined with exceptional client services," says Bloom.

Morgan Stanley GWMG, a retail brokerage, has over $700 billion in client assets.

Smith Barney is Citigroup's retail-brokerage unit and part of its Global Wealth Management (GWM) division along with Citi Private Bank and Citi Investment Research. -FWR

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