RBC brings on former UBS manager for South Texas region

RBC Wealth Management is shoring up its presence in Texas with the recruitment of a regional manager from UBS Group.

RBC Wealth Management, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada, announced Monday that it had hired Scott Skinner to be its Texas south complex director. The position will have him working out of Houston and overseeing eight branch offices and 73 advisors with $13.2 billion in assets under management.

Courtesy of RBC Wealth Management

Skinner has been in the industry for 23 years, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's BrokerCheck database. He was most recently UBS's market director for the Central Texas region and was with UBS for a total of 10 years.

Phil Waxelbaum, an industry recruiter and the founder of Masada Consulting, said RBC Wealth Management is one of the few firms that's willing to look beyond its own staff when it has management positions. In that regard, he said, it's a lot like Raymond James, which began expanding rapidly in the 2000s from going outside its own house to fill managerial positions.

"As Raymond James was growing, it became increasingly apparent they needed to break away from this one-village mentality," Waxelbaum said. "Which is good. Because if you don't do that, you can become too narrow. You don't have anybody who has played for another team."

Waxelbaum said firms that hire managers from outside get to benefit from the lessons those people learned elsewhere. That's particularly true for someone trying to make his way in a market as large and complex as South Texas. 

"If he made any mistakes in that geographic region, it has been at UBS," Waxelbaum said.

UBS couldn't be reached for comment.

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RBC gave a big boost to its U.S. wealth management ambitions in 2000 with its purchase of the former Minneapolis-based brokerage Dain Rauscher for $1.46 billion. The division now has around 2,000 advisors in the U.S. and $513 billion in assets under management. In November, it reported $215 million in net income, a figure driven down 73.8% in part by complications by its purchase in 2015 of City National bank. 

Waxelbaum said RBC is one of many wealth managers that's seeking to cater mainly to high net worth and ultrahigh net worth clients. He sees the firm as being on a trajectory to double or even triple its advisor headcount in coming years.

"And I have every confidence they will succeed," Waxelbaum said.

RBC has been one of the most active recruiters in the wealth management industry in recent years. In August, it made its biggest hire ever, poaching from UBS a team managing $5.5 billion in client assets in the Atlanta area. The move prompted UBS to file a lawsuit trying to prevent the group from soliciting former clients. 

RBC returned to the UBS well in September, picking up a team in Kansas managing $1 billion. In October, it was Merrill Lynch's turn. The Bank of America unit lost a nine-person team in Miami managing $1.37 billion to RBC Wealth Management. 

Skinner started his career at Merrill Lynch in Tallahassee, Florida, and eventually became a complex director in the firm's wealth management division. He moved to Sun America Capital Service, a subsidiary of the insurance giant AIG, in 2009 and then joined UBS in 2013.

Skinner said in a statement, "The top priorities for my new role are to continue RBC Wealth Management's growth in southern Texas by recruiting seasoned, high-quality financial advisors and to foster a supportive and success-oriented work environment."