Credit Suisse Brokers Decamp for UBS
Most recent move sees UBS hire Los Angeles team of four advisers who oversaw $1.8 billion
UBS Group AG is proving to be an attractive destination for Credit Suisse Group AG’s U.S. brokers.
In recent weeks, 16 Credit Suisse brokers managing a total of $5.76 billion in client assets joined UBS’s U.S. wealth-management arm—passing on a chance to join Wells Fargo & Co.’s brokerage unit via an exclusive recruiting arrangement that was struck between Wells Fargo and Credit Suisse last month.
In the most recent move—and the largest by client assets—UBS said Thursday that it hired a Los Angeles team of four advisers who oversaw $1.8 billion and generated $8.4 million in annual fees and commissions. The advisers—Eric Miller, Barclay Perry, Stewart Bosley and Jason Holland—work with ultrawealthy families.
The defections from Credit Suisse aren’t a surprise. Since the recruiting arrangement was announced, a number of top-producing Credit Suisse brokers grumbled over the pay packages put forward by Wells Fargo Advisors. Besides that, executives at other brokerage firms, including UBS, said they were actively engaging Credit Suisse’s brokers, hoping to hire them away from Wells Fargo by offering bigger signing bonuses and leveraging their own firms’ capabilities in the wealthy client segment.
In the Credit Suisse/Wells Fargo arrangement, unlike a typical recruitment process, Wells Fargo has inside access to data and information on Credit Suisse’s brokers. AndWells Fargo has flown more than 200 of Credit Suisse’s roughly 270 brokers to Wells Fargo Advisors’ St. Louis headquarters to offer them more insight into the company. Wells Fargo is looking to expand its presence in the high-net-worth client arena, while Credit Suisse is winding down its U.S. private bank.
Despite that edge, top Wells Fargo executives describe a highly competitive fight with the company’s rivals over key Credit Suisse brokers.
“There’s a little bit of a feeding frenzy for some of the higher-end producers,” said David Carroll, head of Wells Fargo’s wealth- and investment-management division, at a conference in New York on Wednesday.
Wells Fargo Advisors head Mary Mack said last week at a conference in Washington, D.C., that some Credit Suisse brokers won’t find Wells Fargo to be “a good fit based on the style of their practice.”
Both Mr. Carroll and Ms. Mack also said they were pleased overall with the reactions from Credit Suisse’s adviser force.
Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have also hired brokers from Credit Suisse before and after Wells Fargo struck its recruitment arrangement.
Source: WSJ – Credit Suisse Brokers Decamp for UBS
