http://blogs.wsj.com/financial-adviser/2009/10/09/ubs-brokers-leave-but-dont-go-far/



By Kevin Noblet





William Farancz

A lot of brokers are going independent when they leave the wirehouses these days, but not when they leave UBS Wealth Management, according to Annie Gasparro and Brett Philbin of Dow Jones Newswires.



Citing broker movement figures compiled by research company Discovery Database, they say UBS lost about 90 brokers in September, more than half to other wirehouses. UBS didn’t make up much of the decline with recruiting: They added only some five new advisers.



According to the DJN story, some analysts think damage to its brand, as well an ambiguous strategy, are hurting UBS’ ability to keep and attract talent. The company has struggled with leadership uncertainty, the fallout from a tax evasion scandal involving its parent company and branch management shake-ups.



“Clearly UBS has lost a lot of ground to its prime competitors,” says said Alois Pirker, a research director at Aite Group.



By comparison, Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch lost roughly 70 brokers in September, but just 10 percent went to another big brokerage. It also hired some 95 new advisers for a net gain.



Morgan Stanley Smith Barney lost the most in September, about 140 advisers, and about a third went to other wirehouses. It’s the biggest shop, with 18,500 advisers (more than twice that of UBS). The joint venture brought in about 45 new advisers.



Wells Fargo Advisers lost 90 brokers, and hired about half of that number. Most of its departing advisers went the independent route, rather than to its competitors. A few even went to Wells Fargo’s own independent platform, Wells Fargo Financial Advisors Network.



In all, about 390 brokers left the wirehouses, down more than 10% from August.



DJN is available to subscribers.