A group of twelve brokers from Piper Jaffray, the wealth and investment manager, soon to be acquired by UBS, have joined Merrill Lynch. ...

A group of twelve brokers from Piper Jaffray, the wealth and investment manager, soon to be acquired by UBS, have joined Merrill Lynch. UBS Wealth Management will acquire Piper Jaffray in a $500 million deal set to close in the third quarter of 2006. Several veterans were included in the move to Merrill, reported Dow Jones Newswires. The team of twelve managed around $1.2 billion in client assets at Piper Jaffray. Eight other sales personnel have left in recent weeks, according to the report. UBS put the moves down to the attrition associated with acquisitions, and the quality of the advisors. Among those who switched to Merrill is Mark Eckerline, a Piper veteran who left in mid-May. UBS currently has more than 7,500 brokers and will gain 800 more brokers when it acquires Piper Jaffray. UBS has offered a retention package that will allow brokers producing $1 million or more to keep 70 per cent of their previous year's production. Merrill has more than 15,000 brokers. Earlier this week, WealthBriefing reported on the departures from Piper Jaffray of Michael Danielson, Chad Nelson, Jeremy Christensen and Daniel Peterson, who are all moving to Wachovia. In addition, Stephen Hird is moving to Morgan Stanley.