Wirehouse Moves This Week: UBS Loses Three Teams, Led by a $1B Pittsburgh Group to RBC, as J.P. Morgan Sheds a Houston Practice

UBS lost three teams, led by a $1 billion Pittsburgh group to RBC, as J.P. Morgan lost a Houston practice to Rockefeller.

UBS was again the firm most exposed in this week's wirehouse tally, losing three teams in five business days while adding a single advisor. Counting only moves that were registered, took effect or were first announced by a hiring firm between Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, we found five: four team departures and one individual hire. Rockefeller Capital Management was the most active recruiter, taking one group from J.P. Morgan and one from UBS on the same day, and we could not confirm a single move into or out of Merrill or Wells Fargo inside the window.

The largest exit by reported assets went to RBC Wealth Management. Raymond Nepa and Jennifer Susco, managing directors who led a five-person UBS practice in Pittsburgh, now work from RBC's Pittsburgh North branch, and RBC said the group brought more than $1 billion in client assets, as reported by InvestmentNews on Oct. 22. BrokerCheck shows both picked up RBC Capital Markets registrations on Oct. 22, with Nepa's UBS record going back to January 1995 and Susco's to December 2007. Julia Munchel, Karen Venneri and Max Freed moved with them. Pittsburgh is the latest stop in a long run of UBS teams choosing RBC this year. Read our coverage of the hire.

J.P. Morgan Advisors lost its second team in as many weeks. Chris Sheets and Forrest Green, who operate as Sage Wealth Partners in Houston, joined Rockefeller Global Family Office, which announced the team on LinkedIn. Reported assets differ by outlet: Barron's put the book at $700 million, while WealthManagement.com, citing a Forbes Best-in-State ranking, gave a figure of $1.4 billion. BrokerCheck shows Rockefeller registrations starting Oct. 23 for both men and their J.P. Morgan Securities records closing Oct. 25. Partner Scott Holstead stayed at J.P. Morgan. The two had come to the bank from Bernstein in 2018, which makes this a departure of recruited talent rather than of advisors inherited through First Republic, as was the case with Latigo Peak. More on the Sage Wealth Partners move.

Rockefeller's second hire that day came from UBS in Ohio. Andrea Shea and her son Martin Shea, working as Shea Wealth Partners, became Rockefeller's second team in Columbus, the firm said, and Barron's reported that they had handled $350 million at UBS. Both carry Rockefeller registrations dated Oct. 23 in BrokerCheck, although their UBS registrations had not yet been closed when we checked on Oct. 29.

UBS also lost a Dallas team to William Blair, which used the hire to open a Dallas private wealth office. Ryan Berube and Allen Abney lead the four-person group, William Blair announced on Oct. 27, and InvestmentNews said the team reported $2.1 billion in assets under custody. BrokerCheck dates their William Blair registrations to Oct. 20, two days before our window opens, but we include the move because the firm's first public announcement fell inside it. Abney's UBS registration ended Oct. 28. William Blair said Berube, a CFP and 1996 Olympic relay gold medalist, previously ran wealth teams at four firms, J.P. Morgan among them.

The lone wirehouse addition we could verify went the other way. UBS said Adam Piatt joined its Ft. Myers, Fla., office on Oct. 23 in the Florida Gulf market under Tyler Hutchens. BrokerCheck shows Piatt arriving from Morgan Stanley, where he had been registered since 2015, and before that spending more than six years at UBS, so this is a return. UBS did not give an asset figure. A follow-up from last week: Russell Price and Sam Mineo, the Las Vegas pair now operating as Truing Capital Advisors, have finished the paperwork side of their exit. Their UBS registrations ended Oct. 27 in BrokerCheck, and the SEC adviser database lists them with Elevation Point Wealth Partners from Oct. 23. Background is in last week's recap.

The week's departures came as UBS reported third-quarter results on Oct. 28. On the earnings call, finance chief Todd Tuckner said reported headcount in the U.S. wealth business fell by slightly less than 1% from the prior quarter, and that some level of net attrition is normal for the industry as advisors keep moving to independent firms. UBS also said its Americas wealth unit brought in $17 billion of net new assets in the quarter.

Merrill and Wells Fargo produced nothing we could pin to the window with either a firm announcement or confirmation from a second outlet. Two Wells Fargo items surfaced this week but fell outside it: a father and son team in Ohio whose Raymond James registrations date to August, and a $400 million Morgan Stanley advisor in Naples whose Wells Fargo registration began Oct. 15. Morgan Stanley's only verifiable appearance was as the firm Piatt left. Treat that as a gap in what we can verify rather than proof that nothing happened: registration records often lag a move by several days, and we do not rely on every outlet that covers recruiting. For Merrill readers, here is our look at the firm's 2027 compensation plan.

On our own numbers: the WirehouseHUB registration scorecard still stops at Oct. 8, with 2,933 moves logged, which means neither this week nor last is in it yet. We verified each move in this recap through BrokerCheck, the SEC adviser database or the hiring firm's own announcement, and every asset figure comes from a firm or from the outlet credited beside it.