Washington Wealth Management, a Middleburg, Virginia-headquartered RIA, has appointed John Simmons as its new president. Based in California, Simmons will also establish a West Coast presence for the firm.

Simmons was latterly a managing director at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, as well as a regional director overseeing Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

In his new role he will oversee all of Washington’s existing branches and lead the firm’s efforts to rapidly expand its independent network of financial advisors. It is unclear whether he replaces anyone in this position, and the firm was not available for comment at the time of publishing.

Washington was established last December to create a branch network of independent financial advisors, and has since opened offices both in Middleburg and Richmond, Virginia. It runs an Advisor Transition Program for advisors wanting to go independent and is working on opening several more branches, according to Ross Wilkinson, director of development.