NEW YORK — UBS Wealth Management Americas plans to increase its U.S. financial adviser headcount by about 150 this year after accounting for attrition, the company confirmed late Friday.
The brokerage expects to hire 175 to 200 people from outside the securities business, and is also aiming to recruit about 350 to 400 experienced brokers from competing firms.
UBS has about 6,800 brokers. Only Morgan Stanley's brokerage joint venture Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Bank of Maerica Corp.'s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and Wells Fargo & Co.'s Wells Fargo Advisors employ more brokers.
The headcount forecasts were reported earlier Friday in a story by Reuters.
UBS' brokerage arm has been more self-reliant lately, depending less on its Swiss parent UBS AG since Robert McCann assumed leadership of the unit in 2009. Under McCann, the brokerage's financial advisers have been actively growing their books of business, and defections among those advisers has dropped.
