While one team managing billions in assets left UBS to form an independent advisory firm, an advisor who had overseen more than $1 billion joined it from the wealth manager Glenmede.
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The team UBS lost — now named Beacon Coast Advisors — is led by Michael Evans and David Jasper, a pair of advisors with decades of industry experience. They and their colleagues had managed roughly $3.5 billion in client assets before leaving UBS to start Beacon Coast in San Francisco.
The advisor UBS recruited — Adam Conish — had overseen roughly $1.2 billion in his previous position as director of endowment and foundation management at Glenmede, a firm with a long history of working with institutional clients. He started his career at Glenmede in 2007 and is based in Philadelphia.
UBS
UBS’ continuing struggles with advisor departures
The moves come amid UBS’ efforts to slow advisor departures following late-2024 changes it made to compensation policies in a bid to improve profit margins. Among other things, UBS eliminated a policy that allowed members of advisory teams to be paid a percentage of their total revenue production; now they receive a percentage of the revenue generated by the highest-producing member.
UBS took steps last year
In its latest “Advisors on the Move” report, analytics firm Wolfe Research found that UBS has lost 130 advisors since the start of the year. Other firms have lost more over the same period: Bank of America lost 413 advisors from Merrill and its other wealth management subsidiaries, and Edward Jones lost 234 advisors, according to data firm ISS Market Intelligence.
Recruiters have said UBS has also tried to boost its appeal to advisors at industry rivals by offering transition deals worth more than 500% of their previous year’s revenue production. The results have so far been mixed.
UBS’ advisor headcount for its Americas unit, which includes the U.S., Canada and Latin America,
Often, departing teams have AUM tallies in the billions. In November, UBS
Beacon Coast led by advisors who joined UBS from Goldman
Beacon Coast Advisors was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Both Evans and Jasper, managing partners in the new firm, were at Goldman Sachs from 1997 to 2003 before moving to UBS. Joining them at Beacon Coast Advisors are partner Eddie Huang, Vice President of Family Office Services Katherine Piersanti and Associate for Portfolio Strategy Marcus Ferreira.
The firm specializes in working with founders, executives and employees who are looking for help managing money from the sale of a company or other “liquidity event.”
“You can spend years building something without liquidity, without certainty, and then everything changes at once,” Evans said in a statement. “That transition introduces a new set of decisions, and those decisions often carry long-term consequences. Our work is built around helping clients navigate that moment with clarity and structure.”
UBS declined to comment on the move.
Institutional assets can take longer to move from one firm to another
Meanwhile, Conish is joining UBS’ Mid-Atlantic Market, which is managed by Market Executive Brendan Graham, and will report to Patricia Cashin, senior market director for the greater Philadelphia area.
“Adam is an extremely talented financial advisor with decades of experience and a unique focus on advising foundations, endowments and non-profit organizations,” Cashin said in a statement.
Ron Edde, an industry recruiter and the founder of Millennium Career Advisors, said assets managed for institutions can sometimes take longer to move from one firm to another than assets managed for individual clients. That’s in large part because institutions’ holdings are controlled by boards of directors, which often meet only once every quarter or even every year.
“And they aren’t going to call a special meeting just for this,” Edde said. “If they don’t have anything scheduled for next quarter, you could sit there waiting for a while to get something considered.”
