UBS reels in $30 billion J.P. Morgan team focused on Mexico

UBS Financial Services Inc. pulled off a recruiting coup on Friday by hiring five ultra-high-net-worth advisers from J.P. Morgan Private Bank who focus primarily on Mexico and managed $30 billion. According to a memo obtained by InvestmentNews, the financial advisers — Miguel Barbosa, Alfonso Barros, Carlos Rodriguez-Aspirichaga, Juan Calderon and Ricardo Mendez — joined UBS from J.P. Morgan's private bank. "As a fully integrated team with a successful, well-established coverage model, they will join as managing directors and be based in our New York, Miami and Houston offices in order to provide comprehensive coverage and specialized, strategic advice and customized solutions for their client base," according to the memo, which was signed by Rick Gonzalez, international division director, UBS Wealth Management USA. A spokeswoman for J.P. Morgan Securities, Kaitlin Finnerty, declined to comment. The five advisers have combined decades of experience working with wealthy Latin American families, according to the memo. For example, Mr. Rodriguez-Aspirichaga joins UBS with over 20 years of experience and Mr. Barbosa was most recently market manager for the for the Mexico region at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, according to the memo. UBS' significant hiring of the team comes at a time when recruiting has changed on Wall Street, leaving some to wonder whether moves by huge teams of advisers had become a thing of the past. In 2016, UBS Wealth Management Americas announced a new adviser compensation plan and said it was going to cut back on recruiting by 40%, selectively recruit advisers and shift its focus toward retaining top-producing advisers. A year later, rivals Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley followed UBS' lead and said they too were reducing recruiting, which is widely perceived as a costly way to do business. In the fall, Morgan Stanley and UBS both announced they had left the protocol for broker recruiting, essentially making it more difficult for competitors to recruit those firms' advisers.