$730M UBS team jumps to Stifel

Stifel enticed a UBS team that managed $730 million in client assets, a spokesman confirmed.

It’s the latest hires for the regional BD, which picked up a Merrill Lynch team last month that oversaw approximately $1 billion in client assets.

• J.P. Morgan Securities
• Raymond James Financial
• Focus Financial Partners
• UBS Wealth Management
• Career moves
• Dynasty Financial Partners
• Merrill Lynch
• Recruiting
• Wells Fargo Advisors

Biggest recruiting moves of 2018

The following 17 teams oversaw about $75 billion in assets. The firms ending the year with prize recruits include a diverse cast: regional BDs, wirehouses, boutiques and RIAs.

By Andrew Welsch

1 Min Read

The recruits from UBS — advisors Tom Lieser, Leigh Anne Gage, and Tom Awadalla — are joining a new Stifel branch in downtown Cincinnati, making it the firm’s second in the Cincinnati area and 24th in Ohio, according to the company.

Lieser is an advisor of 16 years, having started at Smith Barney in 2002, staying through the firm’s merger with Morgan Stanley and transitioning to UBS in 2011, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. Awadalla also moved to UBS from Morgan Stanley in 2011. Gage joined the Swiss bank in 2009.

Earlier this month, Stifel CEO Ron Kruszewski indicated that he expected the firm’s recruiting efforts to pick up steam this year. “As I look at our pipeline and the people visiting the firm, I feel good about this,” Kruszewski told analysts during an earnings call.

The St. Louis-based company has heavily courted talent from the wirehouses. Stifel’s headcount rose to 2,301 advisors at the end of 2018 from 2,244 advisors for the same period a year ago.