Wells Fargo pulls mammoth $6.3B team from UBS: Advisor Moves

December 4, 2025 5:51 PM

Wells Fargo tops this week's roundup of big industry moves with a prominent 16-advisory practice drawn from UBS, which continues to lose big teams.

But that was far from the only significant recent recruiting deal. Cresset, Janney and Merrill also pulled notable teams, while Mercer announced its latest RIA acquisition.

Hingham Street Partners team picture_120225.jpg

Hingham Street Partners, a 16-advisor team with $6.3 billion under management, has left UBS to join Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo draws $6.3B AUM team from UBS

In another big loss for UBS, Wells Fargo has pulled a team made up of advisors one industry recruiter deemed as some of the most respected in the field.

Hingham Street Partners left UBS this week to join Wells Fargo's private client group, the firm's channel for direct employees. With $6.3 billion under management and nearly $39 million in annual revenue, the 16-advisor team is easily among the largest UBS has lost in a year marked by a stream of big departures.

Hingham Street Partners was founded in 2012 in Boston by the advisors Peter Landry, Lawrence DePaulis and Timothy Fortune. Phil Waxelbaum, the founder of the recruiting firm Masada Consulting, said the three and others at the firm "are amongst some of the most highly respected financial advisors in greater New England."

Waxelbaum said the team was no doubt courted by many firms.

"This was a highly competitive recruitment," he said. "And Wells Fargo prevailed in both providing the diverse resources that were needed for each team member, as well as the economic incentive to join."

Waxelbaum said Hingham Street Partners has a distinct organizational structure that allows advisors to manage their own books of business while being able to draw support from a team of non-client-facing specialists. The firm's website advertises expertise in topics ranging from tailored portfolios, estate and tax planning and retirement to business valuations and insurance and risk mitigation.

The firm lists its clients as including "executives, business owners and families," adding that it provides "institutional consulting for corporations, nonprofits and family offices."

"What they get is they get a bespoke firm and highly professional support," Waxelbaum said. "It gives them a capacity to attract ultrahigh net worth clients and maintain those service relationships at the highest possible level."

The three founders of Hingham Street Partners all got their start in the industry at Merrill. Landry was at Merrill from 1998 to 2006, when he left to join UBS; DePaulis was there from 2004 to 2006 before leaving for a short stint at Athena Capital Advisors and then joining UBS in 2008; and Fortune was at Merrill briefly in 2000 before quickly leaving for Smith Barney and then going to UBS in 2009.

UBS has struggled to retain large advisor teams since it announced various modifications to advisor compensation policies in late 2024. Although UBS said this year that it will roll back some of the changes in 2026, advisors have continued to head for the exits.

Before its new pay policy this year, UBS had used what it called a Combined Team Grid, which allowed wealth managers on advisory teams to be paid out a percentage of the group's total production. That grid was replaced with one that allows advisors on a team to receive payouts set as a percentage of the revenue generated by only the highest-producing member.

Waxelbam said the Hingham Street Partners team was clearly "a casualty of UBS's frenetic treatment of advisors."

"This is a team that, had UBS stayed the course, would have probably stayed with UBS for the balance of their careers," he said. "This was not a team that was unhappy with the UBS service model. What they were unhappy with is the lack of consistency in leadership."

Cresset pulls in $1.4B team from Bernstein Private Wealth

Cresset, a prominent RIA and family office firm, is bolstering its presence in Texas with a seven-person firm recruited from Bernstein Private Wealth Management.

The new practice, led by the financial advisors Michael Ellington, Zach Gardner and Danique van der Velden, had managed $1.4 billion at Bernstein Private Wealth, the wealth management division of AllianceBernstein.

The team specializes in advising ultrahigh net worth families, business owners and entrepreneurs. Ellington, who started in the industry in 1998, and van der Velden, who started in 2019, had spent their careers to this point at Bernstein. Gardner began at Salient Capital in 2009 and moved to Bernstein in 2019.

Cresset was founded in 2017 in Chicago. It now has $235 billion in assets under management and advisement.

Janney recruits advisors managing $600M in total from Wells Fargo, Ameriprise

Janney Montgomery Scott is adding to its eastern seaboard presence with teams in North and South Carolina pulled from Wells Fargo and Ameriprise.

The financial advisors Albert Grenert and Michael Smith are joining Janney from Wells Fargo, where they had managed $500 million in client assets. They'll initially work out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and then move sometime next year to a new location in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Grenert started his career at Prudential Securities in 1992 and moved through various other firms before joining Wells Fargo in 2016. Smith started at Wells Fargo in 2007.

Meanwhile, Janney announced the recruitment of a father-son advisory team that had previously managed $100 million at Ameriprise. Johnny "Wayne" Thompson and his son Jason Thompson are joining Janney in Florence, South Carolina. Wayne Thompson started his career in 1998 at Ameriprise, and Jason started in 2004.

Janney said in its announcement that it has added 33 advisors with $6.5 billion in assets this year.

Merrill draws $412M team from Wells Fargo

Culpepper and Pennell (6).png — John Culpepper and Sam Pennell have joined Merrill from Wells Fargo.

Merrill has turned to its industry rival Wells Fargo for an advisory team with a strong presence in North Carolina.

The financial advisors Ryan Culpepper and Sam Pennell have joined Merrill in its Charlotte & Associates Market, which includes the Charlotte, North Carolina area and is overseen by senior market executive Peter Ardolino. The two had previously managed $412 million in client assets at Wells Fargo.

Culpepper's move to Merrill marks his return to the firm after many years. His first stint there started in 2001 and lasted until 2008. He joined Wells Fargo in 2018 after stints at Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley. Pennell started at Morgan Stanley in 2012 and moved to Wells Fargo in 2018.

Forbes named the group a "best-in-state wealth management team" for North Carolina earlier this year.

Mercer acquires $1B AUM Glass Jacobson Wealth Advisors

Mercer Advisors, one of the most active acquirers in wealth management, has scooped up a firm in Maryland with tax expertise and roughly $1 billion in client assets.

Glass Jacobson Wealth Advisors has offices in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. and more than 20 advisors, planners and analysts working with more than 660 families. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The firm's origins are in Glass Jacobson Financial Group, an accounting and tax practice started in 1962.

"For decades, they've been a cornerstone of the Mid-Atlantic financial community, serving generations of families and business owners with the kind of local insight and personal commitment that can only come from deep roots in the region," Ben Kautz, executive managing director of Mercer Advisors, said in a statement.

The acquisition allows Glass Jacobson to draw on Mercer's expertise in family office services, financial and estate planning, tax planning and preparation and investment management.

Mercer has its headquarters in Denver and more than 1,400 employees in 100 offices throughout the U.S. It manages $90 billion in client assets and is majority owned by the private equity firms Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital and Altas Partners.