After watching advisors walk, UBS adjusts pay plan, a boost for some advisors

UBS wealth management in the United States appears to be backtracking from a 2025 pay reduction in some advisors' overall compensation. This week it announced internally it would add to some advisors’ pay next year - if they met certain targets. 

Last year’s changes in pay were not popular with some UBS financial advisors. For the three months ending in June, UBS saw a net loss of 111 financial advisors in the Americas region compared to the end of March. One third-party recruiter said this winter UBS would be “the biggest loser of advisor share in 2025,”

There’s positive news for UBS advisors. The firm will boost compensation to financial advisors who generate $1 million to $3 million per year in annual fees and revenue, know as gross dealer concession, or GDC, in the industry. Those advisors will see a 50 basis point increase in compensation, or half of one percent, according to a company source.

For a financial advisor reaching that $1 million target, that translates into $5,000.

And UBS also is rewarding its star financial advisors, according to the company source. For advisors generating $20 million or more in annual revenue, the firm is  increasing compensation with a payout of 60%, or 60 cents per dollar of revenue. UBS is also adding several more sweeteners to its 2026 pay plan for its advisors.

UBS is the smallest of the four wirehouses - which includes Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors - with less than 6,000 financial advisors. On average, the firm’s advisors are among the highest on average when counting annual revenue, or GDC.  

Toward the end of last year, UBS said it was redrawing its pay plan for advisors and in 2025 would cut a bonus for teams - unique in the industry. It also cut rates on its pay grid that squeezed advisors who are the lower producers of revenue, a long-running tactic by large firms to boost margins.

“I think it’s too little, too late,” said Danny Sarch, an industry recruiter, when asked about the changes in next year’s compensation plan or grid at UBS. “The firm really needed to do something more dramatic, like saying, 'we’re not messing with your payout again for five years,' as opposed to the giving back of what they took away.”

“Each year, the firm seems to have no respect for such changes, or that advisors want control of their destinies,” Sarch said. “Imagine wondering every September or October what you were going to get paid the next year.”

In a memo to UBS advisors on Tuesday, Rob Karofsky, co-president of UBS Global Wealth Management, and Michael Camacho, UBS’s U.S. Wealth head, informed advisors of the changes.

“Every change we’ve made to the plan is designed to result in positive outcomes for advisors, align with our strategy of helping you successfully grow your business, and ensure that we remain among the most competitive in the industry,” they wrote.

“In the years to come, our goal is to keep changes to the plan to a minimum, while retaining the flexibility to adjust to the competitive landscape,” they wrote.

After reporting in February that it was expecting financial advisors to leave the firm after changes to the firm’s compensation plan, UBS reported this summer a 3.8% year-over-year decline in the total number of advisors in its Americas region.

The drop in headcount totals a net decline over 12 months of 229 fewer advisors at UBS in the Americas at the end of June, when its advisors headcount totaled 5,773. A year earlier, the firm reported 6,002 advisors employed in the region.