Adviser Team With $1.6B Exits UBS for LPL, Citing Compensation Changes
A team of financial advisers has left UBS for LPL Financial, the latest in a series of departures following a restructuring of compensation policies at the Swiss banking giant. The move, as reported by industry recruiters, highlights a growing trend of dissatisfaction among UBS advisers in the wake of the firm’s recent strategic shifts.
Reported on earlier by Financial Planning, Golden State Wealth Management – a California-based team with approximately $1.6 billion in assets under management – has joined LPL Financial. The team is led by advisers Ronald Ewing, Edward Macha, Alex Pittz, Clinton Moore and Brian Gudgel.
The primary reason for the departure, according to industry recruiter Ron Edde, was a change to UBS’s compensation policy. In November 2024, UBS informed advisers of a new pay structure that eliminated the “combined team grid,” which had allowed wealth managers to be paid a percentage of their team’s total production. The firm instead adopted a “highest producer grid,” which calculates payouts based solely on the revenue of the top-producing member. This change, along with the elimination of credit for trailing commissions on mutual funds, was a key factor in the team’s decision.
“It’s the same catalyst that it’s been for a lot of the UBS teams that have left,” said Edde, who helped facilitate the move. He noted that while the team had been considering a move to independence for years, the compensation changes were “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The team’s departure may be part of a larger trend. UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse in 2023, valued at $3.3 billion, and subsequent cost-cutting measures had already created a sense of unease. The recent pay changes appear to have accelerated the exodus of advisers seeking more favorable compensation structures elsewhere.
Last month, AltsWire reported that hybrid registered investment advisory Sanctuary Wealth added Dial Square Private Wealth to its growing network of partner firms. The Orange County-based firm had been with UBS since 2013 and reported $1.2 billion in client assets. And in May 2025, Sanctuary snagged a $2 billion team from UBS: 1280 Financial Partners.
Also, in July 2025, financial advisers managing over $480 million in client assets left UBS for the independent channel of Ameriprise Financial Inc. They joined Q5 Wealth Management, an established Ameriprise practice that transitioned from UBS to Ameriprise in 2024.
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