UBS adds to Southern California push with $500 million adviser

UBS AG said Thursday it has added another deep-pocketed adviser to its Southern California wealth management business. A team headed by M. Scott Harries joined the brokerage's Los Angeles office from Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Private Bank and Investment Group on Oct. 29, the same day that four other teams from Merrill in Southern California also switched to UBS, according to Gregg Rosenberg, a UBS spokesman. (Get the details on all six teams to recently move from Merrill Lynch to UBS) Mr. Harries' team managed $500 million in client assets and debt at Merrill, Mr. Rosenberg said in a statement. Altogether, the teams that joined UBS in Southern California on Oct. 29 managed more than $5.2 billion for clients at Merrill, according to UBS. Merrill Lynch is the largest of the four U.S. wirehouse brokerages by client assets; UBS is the smallest. Mr. Harries has been in the securities industry since 1989, when he started at Goldman Sachs & Co., according to regulatory records. He started at Merrill Lynch in 2000. UBS did not disclose his revenue figures. Ana Sollitto, a spokeswoman for Merrill's parent company, Bank of America Corp., declined to comment on the departures.