UBS officially taps Bob McCann to run wealth management

After months of speculation, UBS today named Robert McCann as its new head of wealth management in the Americas. Mr. McCann, the former head of the brokerage business at Merrill Lynch & Co., left that company after it was acquired by Bank of America in January. He will now oversee 8,000 financial advisers at UBS in the Americas region. Mr. McCann will replace Martin Hoekstra, the current head of UBS' U.S. wealth management business. Mr. McCann's official appointment comes just a few weeks aafter he settled a lawsuit with BofA that allowed him to pursue another executive-level position at a competing firm. While he offered no specific details on where his next position could be, he said during his trial that he was after a “once in a lifetime” opportunity, according to multiple reports. Mr. McCann has been vying for this top spot at UBS since at least July, as InvestmentNews first reported, along with Sallie Krawcheck — who is now the head of the global wealth and investment management business at Bank of America.