ON THE MOVE-Ameriprise lands Morgan Stanley Smith Barney adviser

June 8 (Reuters) - Ameriprise Financial Inc expanded its adviser base in Arizona after landing a veteran broker in May from top U.S. brokerage Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Paul Siegel, who has been an adviser for more than 15 years, left Morgan Stanley Smith Barney last month to join Ameriprise's Scottsdale office, where Matthew Rea is branch manager.

"It's one of the biggest retirement places in the country," New York-based financial services recruiter Rich Schwarzkopf said of the region.

Siegel generated $900,000 in annual revenue last year and managed about $70 million in client assets. He had been with his old firm for the past seven years, having joined Citigroup in 2005.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney formed after the merger of Morgan Stanley's wealth division and Citigroup's Smith Barney in 2009. Brokers from both units joined the combined firm, which is now the largest U.S. brokerage by client assets.

Siegel had also previously worked at RBC Dain Rauscher and Piper Jaffray earlier in his career.

Ameriprise has both a traditional employee division as well as an independent franchise channel. Ameriprise said in April it had increased its employee division to 2,230 advisers at the end of March, up 6 percent from the previous year.

The company has an additional 7,500 advisers in its independent channel and a total of $334.1 billion in client assets as of the end of March.

Many of the firm's big broker recruits so far this year have come from top U.S. brokerages, including Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Bank of America's Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors.