ON THE MOVE-Raymond James lands Morgan Stanley broker team

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Raymond James Financial Inc said on Friday it added a veteran team of advisers from top U.S. brokerage Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, expanding the company's adviser footprint in Pennsylvania.

Philip Maurer, his wife, Barbara Maurer, and David Kushner moved to Raymond James on Wednesday from Morgan Stanley's wealth management division, the largest U.S. brokerage partially owned by Citigroup Inc.

The advisers managed $146 million in client assets at Morgan Stanley and generated annual revenue of $935,000. The adviser team, also known as M2K Financial of Raymond James, was joined by senior registered client service associate Bernadette D'Onofrio. They are based in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the departures.

The advisers joined Raymond James & Associates, Raymond James' traditional employee broker-dealer.

The St. Petersburg, Florida-based company also has an independent broker-dealer division in the United States and smaller brokerage units in Canada and Britain.

With its broker-dealer subsidiaries, Raymond James had 6,289 advisers and representatives at the end of December. They manage roughly $392 billion client assets.

Raymond James Chief Executive Paul Reilly said in an interview on Thursday that he expects more advisers to join the firm once it finishes integrating its Morgan Keegan brokerage unit next month.

The company benefited from the movement of veteran advisers who departed their firms, primarily larger bank-owned brokerages, in 2012. Advisers told Reuters that firms like Raymond James offer more focus on client investment needs rather than also worrying about the company's bottom line.

Raymond James added at least 52 veteran advisers who managed more than $5.7 billion in client assets at their old firms in 2012, based on moves tracked by Reuters.

Reuters tracks the moves of individual advisers or teams that manage around $100 million or more in client assets, which typically translate into $1 million or more in annual revenue production.

The majority of the recruits came from one of the top four U.S. brokerages, or so-called "wirehouse" firms -- Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch , Wells Fargo Advisors and UBS Wealth Management Americas.