UBS hires $1B Morgan Stanley team as part of UHNW drive

Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg

UBS took another step on its quest to serve the ultra wealthy, with its latest advisor acquisition coming in the New England marketplace. 

The Swiss bank's U.S. wealth division won over a Providence-based advisor team managing $1 billion in assets from larger rival Morgan Stanley earlier this month. 

The five-person Narragansett Bay Group, led by private wealth advisors Joseph P. Tamburini, Nancy A. Pasquariello and Nathan J. Hickney, started on Oct. 14 at UBS. They were joined by senior wealth strategy associate Jennifer Hickney and client service associate Patrick Monahan, and will report to Boston private wealth market complex director Maxwell Bardeen at UBS. 

The advisors will also operate in the UBS Northeast Private Wealth market division, led by Julie Fox. The move will "strengthen our wealth management offering in the region," Bardeen said in a press release. John Mathews, Head of UBS Private Wealth Management, added in the release that the Narragansett advisors would contribute to the firm's goal to target "ultra-high net worth clients with customized and personalized offerings." 

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The group declined to comment for this story, citing the UBS policy for new advisors, but their new page on the Swiss bank's website describes their practice as specializing in families with intergenerational wealth and business owners. "Many of them have built their wealth through private family businesses or corporate & public service, or they serve as stewards for family wealth that was created many generations ago," the group said of their clients on their UBS advisor page.  

Tamburini specializes in portfolio management and investment strategies and has 30 years of experience, UBS said in the press release. He also has experience in alternative investments advising and holds a "certified exit planning advisor" designation, according to his UBS employee bio, meaning expertise in helping business owners cash out and sell their companies. 

Pasquariello is a certified financial planner and a chartered retirement planning counselor who specializes in high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals and families; Hickney, who is a CFP, CRPS and certified investment management analyst, focuses on "investment analytics and investment management," according to the press release. Both Pasquariello and Hickney also have experience with owning small businesses themselves; Pasquariello's employee bio states that she used to own a cafe and catering operation that she later sold her stake in. 

The advisors' move comes as many wirehouses lost talent to regionals, boutiques and independent firms in the first half of the year. In the wirehouse space, though, experts say UBS differentiates itself by offering a comparatively more individualized experience for veteran advisors. 

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Morgan Stanley, one of the few banks to show net growth in advisors over the first six months of this year, is "a very good firm — very good technology, very good product offering, very strong brand,"  said Jordan Schultz, the founder and president of industry recruiting firm Schultz Consultants. "However, because they have so many people there, it's very hard not managing to the lowest common denominator." 

The result, he said, is that creative advisors and their managers have less of a chance to stand out and do their own thing. "It's a big organization with a lot of red tape, where it's very hard for managers to have any effect on a daily basis, a positive effect on the advisors." Since the U.S. wealth arm of UBS is a much smaller-sized competitor, "they give more control to the managers locally and empower them, which ultimately should lead to a more enveloping environment for the advisors." 

Schultz added that in the past couple of months, he had noticed UBS winning over "sizable teams" from their major competitors by signaling their willingness to "go after a higher end client and a higher end advisor."  

"They've done a good job of allocating capital expenditure from the company to the private wealth area of the firm. And I could understand how that could be attractive to high net worth or ultra high net worth advisors." 

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Michael Terrana, another consultant specializing in facilitating advisor moves, said in an interview that the move was likely also motivated by the money offered; the first half of 2022 saw near-record deals being paid for advisors as talent wars raged. "UBS, [on] headcount they can't compete with Merrill or Morgan or even Wells but AUM-wise, they definitely compete because they have more million dollar producers, on a percentage basis than the other firms. So they cater to the million plus type producer," he said, adding that UBS likely offered a highly lucrative upfront forgivable loan worth several millions of dollars to the group, potentially as much as $20 million — with the catch, of course, that it has to be paid back with interest and taxes amortized over 10 or more years. "So, you're basically captive at that firm. You can't leave, because if you leave, you owe the money back," he said, noting that the forgivable loan was a common recruiting tactic in the industry. "Essentially, they're buying your loyalty for the next 10 or 15 years. But advisors that need the upfront money, they don't care. I mean, it's a big number, right?" 

Terrana added that the advisors in this case might also have faced extra challenges in their move, given that Morgan Stanley is no longer a firm signed onto the industry-wide broker protocol agreements. Member firms in the protocol agree to not sue their outgoing advisors for taking clients' contact information with them. The advisors here probably had to get a lawyer to help them "make sure that they're not taking any client information or firm property when they leave, and that they're not blanket calling their clients once they end up at the new firm," Terrana said. "That would trigger a TRO (temporary restraining order), or have them fighting in court." UBS is also a non-protocol brokerage, meaning the same legal dance would be repeated if the advisors were to attempt leaving in the future.