People Moves

Merrill Ramps Up Recruitment With Hires From UBS

Wendy Spires Assistant Editor 14 July 2009

Merrill Ramps Up Recruitment With Hires From UBS

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, which is part of Bank of America, has recently recruited Darwin Campbell and Jeffrey Tutor from UBS, continuing a sustained raid on the Swiss bank’s US advisors.

Messrs Campbell and Tutor, who together managed $225 million of client assets at UBS, joined Merrill’s Englewood, Colorado office at the start of this month. Mr Campbell had been with the Swiss firm for six years, while Mr Tutor had spent nine years there.

As reported by WealthBriefing last week, UBS has lost its mantle as the world’s largest wealth management business to Bank of America, according to an annual survey of the industry by consultants Scorpio Partnership.

The report shows that Bank of America, which took over Merrill Lynch at the start of 2009, has $1.5 trillion of assets under management while UBS has $1.39 trillion. However, UBS remains the dominant international player as BoA/Merrill is predominantly a domestic US firm.

In recent staff moves between the two firms, it emerged last month that Merrill Lynch had recruited two teams of financial advisors from UBS for its offices in Houston, Texas and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

William Rovere and Stuart Winn, who had both worked for UBS Wealth Management for over eight years, joined Merrill Lynch in Houston; combined, they managed $336 million in client assets.

The second team, which joined Merrill’s Atlantic City branch, is comprised of Ralph Autuore and Paul Oakley. The pair, who were both with UBS for nine years, had $162 million in assets under management.

The Swiss giant is not alone in seeing multiple defections to Merrill Lynch over recent months; recruiting a raft of advisors from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Wells Fargo Advisors along with UBS, Merrill has made a number of appointments to various offices across the US.

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