RBC makes biggest hire ever with $5.5 billion team from UBS

For the second time this month, RBC Wealth Management expanded its presence in the U.S. by luring a major advisory team away from UBS.

This time, RBC recruited a team who managed $5.5 billion in client assets at their former firm — RBC's biggest hire ever. The ESOP Group, standing for "employee stock ownership plans," left UBS to join RBC's office in Atlanta.

"The ESOP Group is a sophisticated, multigenerational team that goes above and beyond to provide exceptional client service and innovative strategies that support their clients' business succession needs and goals," Robin Long, director of RBC's South Atlantic Complex, said in a statement. "We couldn't be happier to welcome them to our firm."

The ESOP Group was founded in 1989, and is composed of three advisors — Leslie Lauer, Rebecca Glasgow and Curt Rubinas — and seven other associates. 

The team particularly focuses on succession planning, where its expertise on ESOPs comes in handy. But the Group also has decades of experience in asset management, estate and retirement planning, insurance, philanthropy and other staples of wealth management.

"RBC Wealth Management's supportive leadership and culture will allow us the freedom to focus on what we do best — helping our clients transition their businesses," Lauer said in a statement. "We are confident that RBC's strong balance sheet and consistently high credit rating will enable us to provide increased opportunities for our clients."

RBC Wealth Management

For RBC, the move continues a streak of aggressive recruitment in the U.S. Earlier this month, the Canadian firm reeled in James, Ford & Duble Wealth Partners — also from UBS — which had $1.1 billion in client assets. And in April, RBC nabbed the Todd Halbrook and Adam MacDonald Wealth Management Group, which was managing $1 billion in client assets, away from First Republic.

Read more: RBC snatches $1.1B team from UBS

"There's really no team that is too big for a firm like RBC from an assets perspective," said Jason Diamond, a vice president at the recruitment firm Diamond Consultants, which counseled the ESOP Group on its move to RBC. "They're able to handle high net worth relationships, sophisticated teams, PWM [professional wealth management] teams — you name it — and they have the resources and capabilities to support the business."

UBS declined Financial Planning's request for comment.