Advisor moves: BMO taps Northern Trust alum to lead San Diego

Two wirehouse firms have announced separate advisor hires this week, with BMO Wealth Management adding market leadership in San Diego and Merrill bringing in a veteran team in South Florida.

BMO nabs Northern Trust leader for San Diego market

Ali Nafii has joined BMO Wealth Management as managing director for its San Diego market, a hire the firm is framing as central to its broader California expansion.

Nafii brings nearly two decades of wealth management experience to the role, most recently serving as senior managing director at Northern Trust Wealth Management. He was elevated to lead the San Diego wealth division in 2024, and he'd been with the firm for over 10 years beginning in 2015.

Earlier in his career, he worked at Jarislowsky Fraser Global Investment Management in Montreal. He reports to Clark Pingree, west regional president of BMO Wealth Management, who said the firm is "making a strategic investment in San Diego" with Nafii's hiring.

BMO's California push centers on expanding in markets where it already has commercial banking relationships and layering wealth management services alongside them. Michele Havens, head of US wealth management at BMO, described the approach as "densifying in markets where we already have strong Commercial Banking relationships and bringing Wealth Management alongside to better serve clients." 

Merrill builds out South Florida

Meanwhile, Merrill said it has brought on managing director David Warren and his team from UBS Private Wealth Management, placing them within the firm's South Florida & Islands Market under Senior Market Executive Jerry Castro.

Warren, who has 30 years of industry experience, oversees $645 million in client assets and had approximately $5.3 million in annual production at his prior firm. His practice targets high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients, including family offices, and sits within Merrill Private Wealth Management, led in Florida by Regional Managing Director Josh Moody.

Warren's team has appeared on the Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisors list for seven consecutive years, from 2019 through 2025. Originally from New Zealand, Warren launched his career as a financial advisor in New York City in 1995. He is joined at Merrill by Ana Orriols, relationship manager; John Fearnow, senior private wealth client associate; and Sofya Preobrazhenskaya, private wealth client associate.

The hire is part of a wider Florida buildout for Merrill, which recently tapped John Inhouse to lead a newly formed West Florida market while giving other regional leaders expanded responsibilities. 

Warren's move to Merrill is also emblematic of the continuing retention challenge at UBS. After losing out on the talent war last year – including $9 billion in advisor assets that left in Q3 2025 alone – the wirehouse has been working to regain its status in the US wealth space, with last month's approval of a national bank license setting the stage for a possible turnaround.