UBS Wealth Management Americas plans to open a Manhattan office, according to an internal memo issued Thursday.
David McWilliams, an Eastern division director for the company, said that it plans to begin serving clients from the new office, which is located at 101 Park Avenue, early in the fourth quarter.
McWilliams said UBS identified New York as a key market earlier this year. “We embarked upon a business planning process with each regional director to develop near- and medium-term strategic goals for their regions,” he said in the memo. “As part of this effort, we looked closely at our footprint to determine if there were opportunities for growth in markets that are underserved by UBS or that represent a growing target client base.”
UBS already has a “strong foothold” in the New York region, McWilliams said. “We are confident that with greater expansion and focus, we can build on this leadership position and increase our marketshare going forward.”
William Van Scoyoc has been named complex director for this new office. He will report to Chris Amo, the regional director for the Metropolitan region. Scoyoc worked for Morgan Stanley for 15 years, most recently as complex manager for Morgan's 1211 Avenue of the Americas Complex in New York, which had 90 financial advisors and generated $80 million in revenue.
Some analysts were skeptical about UBS expanding into New York at a time when many large financial services companies are retracting. Allison Chin-Leong, a spokeswoman for UBS, said “despite the ongoing market turmoil and challenging time, we feel that New York City is an important strategic market to grow our business as part the plan to grow in the top 15 markets. … Internal research of advisors surveyed have shown that two-thirds of financial advisors are extremely satisfied overall and 60% are more satisfied in the past 6 months than before.”
