Broker? Private Banker? Hard to Tell

Citigroup is spinning off its full-service brokerage, Smith Barney, into a joint venture with Morgan Stanley. Sounds fairly straightforward. Yet as this post on Seeking Alpha suggests, the line between private banker and full-service broker isn't exactly clear:

Citi’s private bank (focused on people with net worth of $10 million and up) and brokers who are housed within Citibank branches will not be part of the joint venture. Morgan Stanley’s (MS) franchise focusing on high net worth individuals, analogous to the Citi Private Bank, will indeed be part of the joint venture.

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Citi…complicates its own dismantling with respect to the Smith Barney transaction because, well, it’s not easy to answer the question, “Which advisers are part of Smith Barney?” For years Smith Barney has been hiring away brokers who focus on high net worth individuals but didn’t want to be part of the private bank–these teams had a structure and style all their own. These teams also use the private bank’s platform and infrastructure. Where do these brokers go? With the joint venture or to the private bank?