RBC lands another big team from UBS

RBC goes to UBS again, snags $1.6B team: Advisor Moves

May 30, 2025 8:00 AM

Dalton Bahney and Treinen Wealth Management Group (1).jpg — The Dalton Bahney and Treinen Wealth Management Group has joined RBC from UBS.

UBS executives recently said that changes to their firm's compensation policies would most likely cause some advisors to make an exit this year.

That prediction continued to bear out this week with a large UBS team pulling up stakes to jump to RBC. Meanwhile, both Arax Investment Partners' Ashton Thomas Private Wealth and LPL Financial scored recruiting wins. And Citi filled out its executive ranks with a hire from Merrill. Read about it below.

RBC adds $1.6B team from UBS

RBC's U.S. wealth division has pulled in a large team from UBS in Idaho.

RBC Wealth Management-U.S. announced Wednesday that it had brought over an eight-person team formerly overseeing $1.6 billion at UBS. The group, officially named the Dalton Bahney and Treinen Wealth Management Group, will work out of RBC's offices in Boise, Idaho.

It's led by longtime advisors Sandra Dalton, William Bahney and Michael Treinen. The team also includes Sandra's son, Benjamin Dalton, and the support staff members Jeffrey Potter, Breanna Brandon, Ryan Whitney and Caroline Ren.

Sandra Dalton, Baheny and Treinen all started their careers at Merrill Lynch before moving to UBS in 2009. Benjamin Dalton first registered with UBS in 2012.

Their departure comes several months after UBS executives predicted that changes in the firm's compensation policies for its Americas unit would most likely lead to higher advisor attrition this year. UBS' Americas headcount fell by 3% to 5,884 in the second quarter.

Earlier this month, RBC pulled the Austin and Smith Wealth Management Group from UBS. The team, based in Syracuse, New York, had formerly managed roughly $500 million.

Ashton Thomas pulls $900M duo from SVB Private

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth, a part of Arax Investment Partners, is strengthening its presence on the West Coast with the addition of an advisory duo in San Francisco.

Lance Millar and Stewart Preziose come to Ashton Thomas from SVB Private, a division of First Citizens Bank. They had previously managed roughly $900 million in client assets.

At Ashton Thomas, the pair will operate as the Speritas Private Wealth Team and will help clients with retirement and estate planning, as well as asset allocation and charitable giving. Millar will have the titles of partner, managing director and private wealth advisor, and Preziose will be a wealth advisor.

Ashton Thomas was founded in 2012 and was bought by Arax Investment Partners in September 2023 in a deal whose terms were not disclosed. Arax is among many RIA aggregators now financing their purchases of other firms with private equity support. Arax's backing comes from the private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, which has more than $10 billion under management.

LPL picks up $445M advisor from RBC subsidiary

LPL Financial is adding to its employee channel with an advisor recruited from the RBC subsidiary City National Securities.

Colin Beamish had previously managed $445 million in client assets at City National in San Diego, California. He's joining Linsco by LPL Financial, a channel the firm started in 2019 for advisors who want to be direct employees of the firm rather than independent contractors.

Beamish's practice at LPL will be called Beamish Wealth Management of LPL. He began his financial services career in 2006 and joined City National in 2013. Before that, he worked in professional sports for teams such as the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League and the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League.

Citi pulls from Merrill to fill out wealth executive ranks

Citi has turned to Merrill again to fill out the leadership ranks in its wealth management division.

Ronald Meraz, who has overseen Merrill's Palo Alto, California market since 2020, will be joining Citi in August as regional director for California and Nevada.

The hiring was announced this week in an internal memo by David Poole, the head of the firm's Citigold and Citigold Private Client divisions in North America. Both units work primarily with wealthy clients; Citigold serves investors with $200,000 or more.

According to Poole's memo, Meraz's new responsibilities will have him overseeing more than 275 wealth branches. He is expected to play a role in accelerating the firm's growth by "optimizing productivity, driving investments and maximizing referral opportunities."

Meraz brings 33 years of experience to Citi. He started his career at Merrill, moved to UBS in 2008 — where he served as managing director for the firm's Los Angeles market — and then returned to Merrill in 2020.

Meraz's hiring is part of a broader restructuring within Citi's wealth management arm overseen by wealth head Andy Sieg. Sieg joined Citi in 2023 from Merrill, where he had held the title of president.

His overhaul at Citi has included thinning management ranks through layoffs and building a new executive team, often by hiring from Merrill and other wirehouses. Among other recruits, Citi has brought on Kate Moore from BlackRock to be its chief investment officer, Dawn Nordberg from Morgan Stanley to build stronger ties between its banking and wealth divisions, Keith Glenfield from Merrill to be its head of investment solutions and Marc Turansky from JPMorgan to be its head of investment advisory.

Cetera brings on exec to head up RIA efforts

The independent broker-dealer Cetera is bringing in a managing director to oversee its business line serving affiliated registered investment advisors.

Cetera announced Thursday that it had hired Andina Anderson to be the head of what it calls RIA Blueprint. RIA Blueprint provides affiliated advisory firms with services related to technology, compliance assistance and various other matters with the help of dedicated support teams. It's part of Cetera's plan to give advisors a wide range of ways they can become affiliated with the firm, which has roughly 12,000 advisors.

Anderson has more than 20 years of experience in financial services. She was most recently chief customer officer at Juniper Software, which makes investment management software. Before that, she was at the fintech firm Envestnet, as well as Tamarac, which was bought by Envestnet in 2012. Tamarac made portfolio management software for RIAs.

JPMorgan opens 14 financial centers based on First Republic model

In a bid to better serve affluent clients, JPMorgan is setting up more than a dozen "financial centers" drawing inspiration from First Republic Bank's branch system.

The 14 new centers will open this week in locations in four states, including in Palm Beach, Florida; Napa, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Madison Avenue in New York. JPMorgan set up two offices of the same type in late 2024.

The centers offer private meeting spaces and are designed to allow advisors to provide "high touch" service to wealthy clients. Many of the locations formerly belonged to the defunct bank First Republic and were acquired by JPMorgan when it bought First Republic out of receivership in May 2023.

The new offices will be primarily for investors served by the firm's J.P. Morgan Private Client unit. J.P. Morgan Private Client works with investors who have more than $750,000 in qualifying balances at the firm. These clients can work with senior private client bankers, as well as experts in various financial matters. They also can make use of a large variety of banking and wealth management services. Clients can also access these offerings remotely.

The new centers are meant in part to encourage existing customers to conduct more of their business at JPMorgan Chase. Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Chase Consumer Banking, said in a statement that, "When we meet with clients, they consistently say they want a relationship that spans across banking, lending and investments, and provides a seamless experience as they navigate the complexities of managing and growing wealth."