UBS Wealth Management Americas has named Daniel Gallagher as branch manager of its Madison Avenue office in New York.

Gallagher previously worked for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney as a non-producing branch manager. Prior to that, he spent five years in Morgan Stanley and a year at the Smith Barney brokerage.

The appointment comes a week after the appointment of Nicholas Yrizarry as independent advisor for the firm's Newport Beach branch. Yrizarry used to operate independently through his company Nicholas Yrizarry & Associates.

For the first quarter, UBS Wealth Management Americas reported a 3 per cent drop in advisor headcount, owing mostly to huge net outflows in the wake of the global crisis. In a statement that followed, the bank said that it is back in the market and that it is hiring financial advisors on a selective basis.

The company has $721.6 billion in total client assets and not more than 6,900 advisers. UBS says it intends to bring this number back up to around 10,000.