UBS revamps wealth management unit

After weeks of discussions, UBS AG has announced a reorganization of its wealth management business to help integrate the unit with its financial adviser business. As part of the realignment, Diane Frimmel, chief operating officer for Wealth Management Americas, will serve as head of the emerging-affluent segment and become part of the Wealth Management Advisor Group leadership team, according to a Feb 4 e-mail sent to UBS employees from Robert McCann, chief executive of UBS’ Wealth Management Americas. Tom Naratil, Wealth Management Americas’ chief financial officer and chief risk officer, will take over Ms. Frimmel’s duties until a new chief operating officer is named, according to the e-mail. Additionally, UBS is consolidating its wealth management business from three regions into two. The east division will be headed by David McWilliams, former manager of the central region, and the west division will be led by Michael Schweitzer, former head of the west region, according to a separate e-mail sent Feb. 4 by Robert Mulholland, head of UBS’s Wealth Management Advisor Group. Jason Chandler, northeast regional manager, will assume the role of head of private wealth management, according to the e-mail. To focus more on its ultrahigh-net-worth business, UBS has appointed John Straus, head of private wealth management, as head of strategic client relationships, a new position reporting to Brian Hull, head of wealth management partnerships. Paul Santucci has been named chief operating officer of the Wealth Management Advisor Group, reporting to Mr. Mulholland. The Swiss bank hopes that by streamlining its wealth management business, it will better support financial advisers in serving their clients, said Kris Kagel, a spokesman. “We are making the UBS Wealth Management Advisor Group more nimble and efficient, lining up all the expertise of this tightknit group of senior managers squarely behind the financial advisers and their branches, to better serve our clients and accelerate our growth,” he wrote in an e-mail. Mr. McCann, who joined UBS in October from Merrill Lynch & Co Inc., in January named as head of the adviser business Mr. Mulholland, a 25-year Merrill veteran, and appointed Mr. Hull head of wealth management partnerships.