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January 17, 2020

UBS Hires $16.7-Mln Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Team

by Vicky Ge Huang and Mason Braswell
|
Advisor Moves, News
|
Merrill Lynch, UBS
|
Comments (15)
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Prostock-Studio/IStock/Getty Images

(Corrects story to say that Charles Wickham remains at Merrill Lynch.)

UBS Wealth Management USA on Friday hired a private wealth team of career Merrill Lynch advisors in Charlotte, North Carolina, who were producing about $16.7 million in revenue.

R. Mitchell Wickham and Gregory M. Cash joined UBS with 15 other advisors and support staff, UBS said in a press release.

The team, which had included founder Charles L. Wickham, Mitchell’s father, had been overseeing $10.8 billion in client assets, according to a person at UBS familiar with their practice, who also provided their production number. The elder Wickham will remain until August at Merrill, where he is participating in its book-transition program.

More than 80% of their assets and $6 million of their revenue came from clients of Merrill’s “money manager services” business, which provides custody and clearing for retail clients of family offices and money management firms, according to two other sources. The Wickham group began their search in May 2019 after Merrill, whose parent Bank of America is based in Charlotte, said it would close MMS, which is used by a very small number of Merrill brokers, by the end of 2020.

Neither Mitchell Wickham nor Cash returned a call for comment left at their UBS office.

They worked with around 60 ultra-wealthy families, according to a 2011 profile. Cash and Mitchell Wickham were among a small group of veteran PBIG brokers who Merrill rewarded in a recognition program for rapidly growing assets and household accounts in 2018.

Charles Wickham joined Merrill in 1960 after four years as a U.S. Navy officer, according to a biography on his former firm’s website. Mitchell Wickham affiliated with him in 1999 after five years in commercial real estate, his biography said, while Cash joined them in 2001 after arriving at Merrill in 1997.

The team knew Brian P. Hull, a former Merrill manager who joined UBS in 2009 as part of an executive migration from the Thundering Herd led by Bob McCann. Hull, who rose to become head of UBS Wealth Management USA’s 6,000 advisors before shifting to executive vice chairman of the Americas last year, declined to comment.

“Wickham Cash Partners will be a strong addition to our private wealth management business, as we continue to expand our local presence in Charlotte and the Carolinas,” John Mathews, head of UBS’s private wealth management unit in the U.S., said in a prepared statement.

UBS in mid-2016 curtailed its expensive hiring of veteran brokerage teams in an effort to cut the overhang of $3 billion of forgivable loans that McCann extended before his retirement at the end of 2015. In recent months, however, it has urged managers to selectively hire big teams. The U.S. wealth business also recently reorganized its sales management organization.

As of September 30, 2019, UBS’s brokerage force in the U.S., Latin America and Canada had declined to 6,627 brokers, a net loss of 283 from a year earlier. About 6,100 are based In the U.S., according to several UBS advisers, ranking the firm at less than half the size of the brokerage force at Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors.

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Comments (15)
  • on Jan 17 2020, More to follow says:

    These are awesome guys who are part of a long line of quality people exiting a once great but now massively broken firm. UBS will treat them like valuable advisors dealing with high net worth clients. Not bank employees that need to crank out product and referrals.

    > Reply to More to follow
  • on Jan 17 2020, Escargot says:

    From the dumpster fire into the proverbial frying pan.

    > Reply to Escargot
  • on Jan 17 2020, Mudpuppy says:

    The Charlotte office began a steep decline a few years ago when they moved a guy over from BofA with no leadership experience or skills to serve as complex manager (who does that?). He didn’t speak the language, didn’t understand brokerage, etc. Was a complete company man and just a total bonehead move by senior leadership. Finally, finally moved him back to the bank but the damage was done. This departure of this flagship team was inevitable.

    > Reply to Mudpuppy
    • on Jan 18 2020, Bullwhisperer says:

      Mudpuppy, naive and clueless …..Charlotte market was #1 in firm 2 years in a row

      > Reply to Bullwhisperer
      • on Jan 20 2020, Dirtpuppy says:

        Bullwhisperer, you’re whispering bull. #1 in what key metrics besides diversity hiring?

        > Reply to Dirtpuppy
    • on Jan 20 2020, ATLML says:

      Nobody else wants to be in management. ATL manager was hired by Market Executive for bank Liason role and then fired due to lack of need for his position. Rehired by ME as the Client Service manager but basically his do boy. Then went into LiD training to be a ME and was cut. Got put back into LiD program and is now the ME for Greensboro NC complex.
      His experience before all of this…running a mortgage business that went bankrupt.
      I’m sure he knows all about the wealth management business.

      > Reply to ATLML
  • on Jan 17 2020, Vindex says:

    And Next week Advisorhub will run a headline that UBS Only Hired 3 FAs in January. Quality matters.

    > Reply to Vindex
  • on Jan 17 2020, Chuck says:

    Ubs pays more with an inferior platform. Period.

    > Reply to Chuck
  • on Jan 17 2020, UBS PWM guy says:

    Inferior platform? 50% of the billionaires in the world have accounts there. You have how many?

    Seriously though. I’m at a major firm and would love to go to an RIA and make more money and have less compliance but my clients are way too savvy to follow me. If you want to deal with the ultra high net worth you really have to be at a firm that was in business 50 years ago and it’s going to be in business 50 years from now

    > Reply to UBS PWM guy
    • on Jan 17 2020, RIA says:

      UBS Guy,
      That’s interesting because I spent decades there and brought my clients to an independent firm and have gotten more high net worth referrals from them and CPAs than I ever did at UBS. In house CPAs, CFPs, attorneys, more private investments, and much more ability to advise on all issues legally (tax, legal structures, and private investments). It’s not the name on the door, it’s the professional and his or her extended bench that attracts a high net worth client. Now, if you only had billionaire clients that needed or wanted an in-house investment bank and everything in one place, UBS is the place. But very few advisors have the one of every two and most are overseas. UBS is great for what they offer, but don’t kid yourself on clients up to hundreds of millions needed a big name for advice.

      > Reply to RIA
    • on Jan 17 2020, Gone and happy says:

      Is the PR department at UBS writing this stuff? Lol!

      > Reply to Gone and happy
    • on Jan 19 2020, Chang says:

      lol…look, UBS , MER and MS are in the same bracket…but to deny that UBS is number three, that their platform is weaker, is absurd.

      > Reply to Chang
  • on Jan 19 2020, Nevermerrill says:

    No big deal, Merrill hired 20 trainees on Friday, so by their tracking the firm was up in headcount for the day.

    > Reply to Nevermerrill
  • on Jan 21 2020, Mike A says:

    When I read comments touting BofA dumpster fire or UBS as hands down the best of anything, I think of Baghdad Bob.

    > Reply to Mike A
  • on Jan 21 2020, MWH says:

    If you want to value a company, look at the stock performance.
    Twelve years ago UBS=$19/share.
    Today 12.50/share.
    Great job UBS!

    > Reply to MWH

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