Morgan Stanley, UBS recruit advisors with $1.5B in combined AUM

Morgan Stanley and UBS hired a slew of advisors, underlining their approach to selective recruiting roughly two years after cutting back on hiring efforts and almost a year after leaving the Broker Protocol.

The moves — totalling approximately $1.5 billion in combined assets — occurred in a recruiting landscape dramatically different than that of two years ago, when UBS was the first wirehouse to reveal changes to its thinking on recruiting costs.

The firm slashed efforts aimed at poaching talent from rivals in order to shift resources back to advisors currently at the firm, executives said. UBS also simplified its compensation plan and raised pay for some brokers. Recruiting costs for the firm have been falling ever since.

For the second quarter, compensation related to financial advisor recruiting fell 22% year-over-year to 144 million francs ($145 million), according to the the company. Recruitment loans to advisors fell 10% to 2.384 billion francs ($2.4 billion).

Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch similarly cut back on hiring efforts. Then, Morgan Stanley quit the protocol a year ago, citing what it said was loopholes exploited by other firms. UBS followed suit in November.

As recruiting moves have slowed between the wirehouses, both firms have experienced lower advisor attrition levels this year.

Meanwhile, they maintain selective recruiting policies, which resulted Friday in UBS hiring Merrill Lynch advisors Jamie Schade and Mark Henestofel.

The Dayton, Ohio-based duo previously oversaw $500 million at Merrill Lynch, according to a person familiar with the matter.

This is Schade’s first career move as an advisor. He joined Merrill Lynch in 1998, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. Henestofel moved to Merrill from H. Beck in 2003. Both men are graduates of Xavier University, a Jesuit Catholic university in Cincinnati, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

A spokeswoman for Merrill Lynch was unavailable for immediate comment.

• Going independent
• Raymond James Financial
• Career moves
• Dynasty Financial Partners
• Merrill Lynch
• Stifel Financial
• Recruiting
• Wirehouse advisors
• Wells Fargo Advisors
• RIAs

Advisors on the move: 71 of biggest, most recent jumps

Dynasty, Raymond James and Stifel are among the biggest beneficiaries of recent advisor moves.

By Andrew Welsch

1 Min Read

Morgan Stanley picked up seven advisors from UBS and Merrill Lynch. The slew of recruits oversaw $975 million in client assets and generated $8.8 million in annual revenue, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Husband-and-wife team Scott and Tricia Mercalde joined Morgan Stanley in Kenwood, Ohio. They had been affiliated with UBS since 2006, having previously worked at Smith Barney, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records.

In Los Angeles, Morgan Stanley hired UBS advisors Kevin Martin and Andrew Archer. Martin, a 30-year industry veteran, started his career at Merrill Lynch and moved to UBS in 2009. Archer moved to the wirehouse the same year, having previously worked at Wells Fargo.

Morgan Stanley picked up three advisors from Merrill Lynch: Christian Conroy in

Jericho, New York, and Gregory Chevrier and Walter Grubbs in Newport, Virginia.

Conroy has two years of work experience at Merrill, according to BrokerCheck. Chevrier and Grubbs have worked at the wirehouse since transitioning their practices over from Lincoln Financial Network in 2010.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman confirmed the new hires.

“As we’ve said before, we are always in the market for top advisors that are looking to grow their practice,” she said in a statement.

A UBS spokeswoman declined to comment on the departures.