Midwestern broker-dealer hires private-client execs away from A.G. Edwards. St. Louis, Mo.-based brokerage Stifel Nicolaus has made former A.G Edwards regional director John Lee a managing director and put him at the head of its drive into new western U.S. markets. Based in Roseville, Calif., he'll be working with former A.G. Edwards colleagues James Lee, now manager of Stifel Nicolaus' Roseville office, and client-service associates Beth Brown and Susan Salton.

John and James Lee are brothers. Roseville is 10 or 15 miles northeast of Sacramento, Calif.

Expansion

"Our association with John marks the beginning of our private-client group's expansion into the western [U.S.], primarily California," says Ronald Kruszewski, chairman and CEO of Stifel Nicolaus and its corporate parent Stifel Financial.

John Lee was at A.G. Edwards for more than two decades, most recently as director of its 72-office Pacific coast region. He says he's especially impressed by Stifel Nicolaus' "entrepreneurial culture, lack of bureaucracy, outstanding technology, and award-winning research capabilities" as well as its cultural compatibility with his teams approachy to private-client service. "We share [Stifel Nicolaus'] belief that putting clients' interests first will continue to attract quality financial advisors to [the firm]."

St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards scheduled to merge with Wachovia Securities.

Earlier this year Stifel Financial bought Minneapolis-based Miller Johnson Steichen Kinnard and Florham Park, N.J.-based Ryan Beck and folded them into Stifel Nicolaus.

Stifel Nicolaus has offices in 27 states. The Roseville office is its only private-client location west of Colorado. -FWR

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