UBS' advisor losses mount as $690M team jumps to Wells Fargo

Advisor departures from UBS continued this week with Wells Fargo recruiting another large team from its wirehouse rival.

A team led by Brad Saler, Steven Kalodner and Michael Coles is joining Wells Fargo in Marlton, New Jersey. They had managed $687 million in client assets at UBS as part of the Frost Saler Coles Wealth Management Group and will join Wells Fargo's private client group, its brokerage channel for employee advisors. Saler started at Smith Barney in 1998 and moved to UBS in 2009. Kalodner started his career in the mid-1980s and moved to Smith Barney in 1989 and UBS in 2012. Coles started at UBS in 2016. 

Their departure comes as UBS seeks to stem its advisor losses largely by reversing changes made to its compensation policies this year. On Tuesday, UBS announced it was increasing its payouts to advisors producing between $1 million and $3 million a year in revenue by half a percent. That will undo a change that lowered advisors' pay at various production levels by the same amount this year.

Wells Fargo is one of many firms that have picked up departing UBS teams this year. Last month, for instance, it announced it had recruited to its independent advisor channel a duo who had managed just over $400 million at UBS.

Like most of its wirehouse rivals, Wells Fargo no longer reports advisor headcounts. UBS, in an earnings call in July, reported it ended its second quarter with 5,773 advisors in its Americas unit, which includes the U.S., Canada and Latin America. That was down by 111 advisors from the first quarter of 2025 and by 229 advisors from the second quarter of last year.

Osaic is racking up wins with advisors from Commonwealth Financial Network amid that firm's absorption into LPL Financial.

Virtus Wealth Solutions, a team formerly managing $460 million at Commonwealth, is joining Osaic in Morgantown, West Virginia. The move follows two other teams, Bridenback Wealth Management and Spear Wealth Management, that also recently left to join Osaic.

Departures from Commonwealth have accelerated amid the firm's acquisition by LPL Financial in a deal valued at $2.7 billion. That purchase officially closed last month. 

So far, the biggest beneficiary from Commonwealth departures has been Raymond James. But firms like Osaic have also been aggressively courting Commonwealth advisors who may not feel at home at LPL Financial, which has nearly 30,000 advisors. (Commonwealth's headcount stood at 2,900 when the purchase plans were announced.)

Virtus Wealth Solutions is an all-women team led by the financial advisors Rachel Wood and her in-law Tressa Wood. Rachel Wood started her career in the late 1990s, joining Metropolitan Life Insurance in 1998, MML Investor Services in 2017 and Commonwealth in 2020. Tressa Wood started in the mid-2010s and moved to Commonwealth in 2020 after stints at Ameriprise and other firms.

They're joining Osaic's channel for "supported independence," or advisors who are direct employees. That affiliation option gives the team more options for handing the business down eventually to successors.