UBS Lifts $800M Merrill Team, $375M Morgan Stanley Group

By Janet Levaux

December 22, 2011 at 08:17 AM

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UBS (UBS) said late Wednesday that an $800-million advisor group from Merrill Lynch and a $375-million team from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney have joined its wealth-management operations in the United States.

UBS wealth-management unit in the Americas includes about 6,900 financial advisors and is led by Bob McCann (left), who previously led Merrill Lynch's thundering herd of reps. McCann joined UBS in early 2009 and became head of all UBS operations in the Americas on Dec. 1.

The Findley/Wise Group, formerly with Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC) joins UBS in Toledo, Ohio. The group produces about $6.3 million in early fees and commissions and will report to UBS branch manager Jeffrey Catlin.

The advisors in the Findley/Wise Group are Craig Findley, Ken Wise and Brian Funkhouser.

In addition, a team of four financial advisors are now part of the UBS wealth-management operations in Rochester, N.Y., from Morgan Stanley (MS).

The former-MSSB team reports to Sam Messina, the UBS complex director for New York. Its members are Michael Amico, Michael Cooper, Rocco Pietropaolo and Philip J. DiPasquale.

Earlier this month, UBS recruited Barry Mitchell–an advisor with yearly fees and commissions of $1.9 million and assets under management of roughly $290 million–from Merrill to join its New York City operations.

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