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UBS recruiting has turned positive very, very quickly over the past 3-6 months. Nowhere is that more evident than on the west coast, and specifically, in California.

Just this past weekend UBS added another $2M and nearly $500M to the books via Morgan Stanley and Matt Simi and his team. This adds to two other sizable recruiting wins in the same Northern California market: James Schlesinger from Baird ($2.4M and $274M) and Greg Smith from Morgan Stanley ($1.6M and $177M). All told that’s nearly $900M in assets and $6M in revenue for UBS in Northern California.

A quick word about what may be at play here given the above results. How’s the saying go? “All politics is local.” And when it comes to culture at ‘big brand’ wealth management organizations – all culture is local. Specifically, Erin Borger, inside UBS and in recruiting at large is known as a difference maker. Relationships and culture are his weapons of choice and he’s been wildly successful at executing on both in Florida, and now as the Market Leader for the second largest market in the US, Northern California. When you add that kind of execution to a renewed commitment to recruiting advisors ‘of scale’ at UBS, these are the results that follow.

We also had the pleasure of speaking to Erin earlier today and he repeated some of what is obvious in the above commentary.

“I’m extraordinarily grateful to work with the advisors here in the Northern California market. UBS offers a unique value proposition to advisors and clients of scale. We provide every possible financial solution, while also being ‘right-sized’ in a way that allows us to get things done much quicker than our competitors.”

We did a little extra digging in the NorCal market and uncovered a few additional nuggets surrounding the resurgence of recruiting for UBS. One source that asked to remain anonymous gave us this:

”The numbers in recruiting right now are 5/10 bps one way or another across the wires… so culture matters. Erin is a personality that adds the right amount of comfort knowing you’ve got a real ally in the management space. That matters longer term, and probably why you’re seeing an uptick in UBS’s recruiting so far in 2020.”

Everything is always fluid when it comes to wealth management recruiting. Always. Yes, the dollar plays a significant role, but when it comes to signing an LOU and ultimately hitting the bid and moving your entire career to a new shop – relationships matter.

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