Big producer moves just before Citigroup, Morgan Stanley agree to retail JV. UBS Wealth Management U.S. has hired Todd Ellis, formerly a broker with Citigroup's Smith Barney. He reports to Dan Shepler, manager of UBS' retail-brokerage branch on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Ellis produced $2.4 million in fees and commissions in his last 12 months at Smith Barney where he managed about $350 million in clients assets.

Flurry

Since Ellis joined UBS earlier this month, Citigroup has agreed to merge Smith Barney with Morgan Stanley's Global Wealth Management in a retail-brokerage joint venture to be called Morgan Stanley Smith Barney with between 19,000 and 20,000 brokers and around $1.7 trillion in client assets.

Ellis was with Citigroup for about six years, according to FINRA records. Before that, he worked at Dean Witter Reynolds, a brokerage that merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997.

The U.S. brokerage business of Zurich-based UBS says it's been on a bit of hiring tear in recent months. It recently pulled in Morgan Stanley's most productive brokerage team in Houston. Notable hires made in late 2008 include liftouts of high producers in Menlo Park, Calif., and in New York. -FWR

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