By Tatiana Bautzer and Nivedita Balu
NEW YORK/ TORONTO, March 20 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS Group is facing obstacles in revamping its U.S. wealth management business after losing billions of dollars in client assets and nearly 200 financial advisers, according to analysts and three industry sources with knowledge of the matter.
UBS had an outflow of $14.1 billion in net new assets in the Americas in the fourth quarter, according to its financial statements, reflecting a net outflow for the year of $6
billion in the Americas.
The bank has sought to expand in the key U.S. market while fending off Swiss regulators' moves to raise its capital requirements after UBS rescued Credit Suisse in 2023. Those guidelines are expected to be clarified this spring.
The recent asset outflows from the U.S. wealth management business will make it more difficult for UBS to boost profits and grow in the world's largest economy, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Giulia Miotto.
"We think the market will want to see a change in trend in U.S. flows to gain confidence in the turnaround in this division," she wrote in a note, adding that was unlikely before the third quarter.
UBS did not specifically address a Reuters request for comment on the asset outflows and how it affects the business, but pointed to recent comments from CEO Sergio Ermotti in which he said the planned turnaround of the U.S. wealth management business was working.
Almost 200 U.S. advisers left UBS over the last year, taking client assets to rivals such as Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Charles Schwab and RBC, said the three industry sources, who declined to be identified while discussing personnel moves. A fourth source also reported the moves.
UBS had 5,772 financial advisers at the end of 2025, 196 fewer than a year earlier, according to its financial statements.
Three of the sources said advisers were leaving UBS for several reasons, including higher compensation, access to more resources and growth opportunities. The bank had announced changes to adviser compensation in September.
UBS promoted former wealth chief operating officer Lisa Golia in February to head hiring, retention and compensation of financial advisers.
TARGETING HIGHER U.S. MARGINS
The Swiss bank set a target of 15% pre-tax margin on the wealth division in the U.S. this year. It rose last year from 9.3% to 13%, but is still significantly lower than rivals. It is also less than half of the 30% margin UBS obtains with wealth management in Europe and the Middle East and 35% in Asia.
The recent improvement in U.S. pre-tax margins shows the planned turnaround of the U.S. wealth management business is working, Ermotti told analysts in February on the bank's earnings conference call.
Ermotti told a conference in Miami last month that he thought some advisers were not bringing profits to UBS, and changes were needed to increase profitability.
"We can't fix that issue of restoring pre-tax profit margins by being overly popular with people that are not growing their businesses," he said.
The bank had to let go of some good client relationships whose business did not justify the capital that was allocated to them, he added.
One part of UBS' strategy to turn around U.S. wealth is to use its national banking charter, approved in January, to offer more banking services. Ermotti cited growing loans and offering new products as a way to catch up with rivals.
RIVALS HIRING UBS TEAMS
Canadian bank RBC attracted 90 experienced financial advisers to its U.S. wealth management division in 2025 and approximately 80% of the hires generated more than $2 million of revenue. Some of the largest and most sophisticated teams came from UBS, said Amanda Dolan, RBC's head of advisor recruiting.
Wells Fargo's largest addition to wealth management advisers last year was Hingham Street Partners, a large Boston-based team recruited from UBS in December, that managed $6.3 billion at the time. Wells Fargo confirmed the hiring but declined to comment further. Hingham Street founders Peter Landry, Lawrence DePaulis and Timothy Fortune did not comment.
Bank of America hired a UBS team in Providence, Rhode Island, that managed around $800 million, led by Robert Procaccianti, Jared Tack and Douglas Bennet in January, after recruiting former UBS teams in Texas and California late last year. Bank of America and the executives declined to comment. Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on hiring advisers from UBS.
One former UBS financial adviser, who declined to be named, said he left to open his own independent advisory after more than 10 years at the Swiss bank because years of cost cuts had eroded his pay. Going independent raised the adviser's share of the revenue earned from fees to 70 cents of each dollar, before taxes, from 50 cents previously, he said.
Another adviser, who also asked not to be named, cited lack of support and resources as reasons they left to join a rival after two decades at UBS.
UBS shares have fallen nearly 21% this year as the bank awaits clarity on capital requirements from Swiss authorities.
Its U.S. wealth performance "remains a key concern to investors," said KBW analyst Thomas Hallett, adding the global target of $125 billion inflows this year represented a modest increase from $101 billion last year.
"There is no quick fix for the ongoing issues in the U.S. wealth management business," he said.
(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer and Nivedita Balu, editing by Lananh Nguyen and Nia Williams)
