UBS suffers mass defection of wealth advisers
Eighteen UK-based private bankers have resigned from UBS to join a new business backed by Goldman Sachs and run by a former executive from the Swiss bank.
The new business, Vestra Wealth, is led by David Scott, who quit UBS in May 2007 after selling his Scott Goodman Harris advisory business to the Swiss bank in 2004.
Scott declined to say why former UBS personnel had joined him. But UBS has suffered a bad press following writedowns in its investment banking division and headhunters have been warning that more defections from UBS were on the stocks for some weeks.
David Scott confirmed that the senior staff who have quit UBS include Duncan Carmichael-Jack, Neil Pedley and David Guild: "Although there would be many others who deserve a mention." A further 30 support staff have resigned from UBS to join his operation. The London offices rented by Scott have space for 100 employees. Scott did not rule out taking Vestra Wealth overseas.
Scott added: "We are aiming to offer a personalised service to our clients, who would tend to be worth at least seven figures. We do not want to sort clients by size, not do we want to take a formula approach." He said that Vestra Wealth would offer a comprehensive advisory service, making use of third party asset management firms where appropriate.
Scott refused to specify the size of Goldman Sachs' shareholding. No one from Goldman is joining his operation. It is understood that certain people being hired by Scott from UBS used to work for Laing & Cruikshank, which UBS bought several years ago. Michael Kerr-Dineen, former head of Laing, left UBS in 2006 to set up a new firm called Cheviot Asset Management, taking 80 UBS colleagues with him.
A spokeswoman from UBS said: “We can confirm that 18 client advisers and some support staff from UBS Wealth Management in the UK have resigned. We have taken all necessary steps to ensure our clients continue to receive the level of professional service they would normally expect.
"UBS Wealth Management’s strategy remains unchanged and we continue to progress with our strong ambitions for the UK market by delivering its world-leading service to all our clients. UBS Wealth Management, named the UK’s best private bank, has around £37 billion in invested assets and more than 300 client advisers.
"Year on year, UBS Wealth Management in the UK has seen strong increases in financial performance, net new money, invested assets and client advisers.”
In April, three London-based wealth advisers quit UBS to join Morgan Stanley.
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