UBS Wealth Management Americas turned out a record fourth quarter, serving as a bright spot in an otherwise tough quarter for the Swiss bank.
Revenue for the U.S. wealth business rose to $1.75 billion in the fourth quarter, a 7% increase from the third quarter, which came in with $1.63 billion, and a 16% rise from the fourth quarter of 2011, which had $1.5 billion in revenue.
At the same time, pretax profit for the Wealth Management Americas unit fell by 7% from the previous quarter to $216 million, down from $232 million in the third quarter, but climbed 36% from the fourth quarter of 2011, which had $159 million. Pretax profit for the year came in at $873 million, as the firm strives to reach a $1 billion per year target by 2015.
Net new money rose to $8.8 billion, an 84% increase from the third quarter with $4.8 billion and up 312% from the fourth quarter of last year with $2.1 billion. Net new money with dividends and interest totaled $16.7 billion for the quarter and $44.8 billion for the year.
Invested assets grew to $843 billion for the quarter, a 1% increase from $832 billion in the third quarter and a 12% jump from $756 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Invested assets per advisor also grew to $119 million, up 1% from $118 million in the third quarter and 10% from the $108 million in the fourth quarter of last year.
Revenue per advisor came in at about $1.001 million, an 8% increase from $927,000 in the third quarter and a 15% rise from $869,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011.
UBS financial advisor headcount in the U.S. also continued to grow in the fourth quarter to a total of 7,059, an increase of 27 from the third quarter, with 7,032 financial advisors, and up 92 from the 6,967 total the firm posted in the fourth quarter of 2011.
For more on UBS overall earnings for the fourth quarter, including a quarterly loss tied to fines and costs,
