UBS - Layoffs
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If you take salary, and you’re tier 4 or 5…
GONE. Tier 3... probably gone. Or "Action Planned", which is as good as gone.I am not lvl 4 or 5. between 2/3.
still, no one is safe. question is, since on salary... severance is in order. oh well, we will find out next week.
Does anyone have any info at all w/ regard to recruits that took upfront checks and don't meet the criteria for production or assets under mgmt?
No severence. You are an “at will” employee. You’ll get your salary check on the 25th, and then your final production check on the 10th of May.
And if you're BOM liked you, you may even get an "'atta boy" on your way out.Well, let me qualify that… lump sum up front. No repayment.
Payments over time... no repayment of funds already received by you, but no future payments from UBS to you on balance due.FYI if you are UBS looking to move to SF…apparently SF can’t recruit UBS as part of the deal to buy the 55 branches.
Most of the low producers have already beeen counseld out the last two weeks.
There are supposed to be 2,000 layoffs in WMUS and another 2,500 in U.S. in bamking and trading. This is out of a total 8,900 cuts worldwide.
Who is going to get let go? Mainly non client facing individuals. Middle managers and support staff ( not CSA’s). You will see a lot less people in Weehawken. A lot less support people in the field. They are going from 8 regions to 3. Each region has a support structure, 5 of those support structures will no longer be there.
Will NFA’s get let go? I am sure that some will, and some will not. Some will get different rolls. the ones who are the more successful ones will still be here.
Are they going to let go FA’s who are not doing 1mm or have $100,000,000 in asets. I do not think so.
However, none of this is any different than what is happenning at all of the firms. ML laid off trainees 2 months ago.
Look at what has happend, revenue is down 35% in 7 months. They have to cut considerable overhead to get the cost structure in line with the new revenue or they can not make money.
Please clarify. What happens to recent recruits, quintile 1 or 2 from previous firm but revenue/assets down significantly due to move and below 100 mil assets/1 mil revenue, LOS 5-6? If let go, will up front lump sum be owed back and if not will only obligation be to pay taxes on advanced amount or will pro-rated amount be owed back commensurate to period of loan for which you will not be able to work due to having been let go?
Kaap,
Great question. I don’t know but it is interesting. UBS already booked the up front expense so the question is will the IRS require us to consider the remaining as taxable if they release us from contract. I know a guy who joined from another firm last year and now has unvested UBS shares. Will these be immediately vested? I think my whole branch is toast. Yes, they sold 55 really small branches, but lots of remaining branches do not fit the $1 million client. I know I sound like an indie infomercial but wow, I’m tired of the big firm BS.
Guys … I hear you … I totally do, BUT you need to stop chatting on this forum, go copy your client statements and whatever else you need and hit the road. I have moved twice and kept at least 90% of the people I was expecting to. Have some confidence in your business and relationships and I think you will be surprised. Segment your book and go one-by-one, be honest with yourself, and make a list who you think is in and who you think is out. At the end of the day, you will lose some you thought you would keep and keep some you thought you would lose, but more importantly, you lose the people you didn’t really have a relationship with, and that is probably a good thing. And even if you are doing less gross than what you have been used to, you are still going to net anywhere b/w 50-65%, which is at least a 80% higher payout then you are getting. I think you will also notice that your attitude about prospecting will improve b/c now you are keeping more of what you bring in.
If you are serious about Indy BDs, then call Pershing, who is the #1 Clearing Firm in the Industry with over 900 BD clients and ask them who they might recommend in your area or region. I think you will be surprised at what some of the smaller BDs are bringing to the table.
Secretknowledge,
What about BOMs? Are they going to be let go? What about the management structure in the branch? Will branch admins & op mgrs be asked to leave? When are the regions being compressed/reduced? It seems like alot is suppose to happen in a very short period of time. Thks!
I hate it for you guys going through this but, leaving ubs (you’ve been screwed) was the greatest thing i ever did.
This cluster fukc of layoffs just ANOTHER example of ubs.
The one good thing
…these jerk off’s just like a dumb client,
they are cutting people
…bear market over.
IF they cut you…
be happy…move to a real firm
Mr Clutch, good idea to call clearing firms, most BDs large and small are just remarketing the clearing services. Go with a small firm where they know who you are and Compliance works with you not against you. The clearing firms know who is good and is having troubles. They know the ins and outs of each BD. I highly suggest do not go to a self clearing firm they are usually very large and will provide you the same hassles as a wirehouse or large regional (just a wirehouse that serves a region). If you need benefits some indies will offer hybrid solutions so you get benefits of a wire but few hassles and you own your biz. The 3 big clearings are NFS ( When I was in management we used them), First Clearing and Wachovia. My opinion having dealt with all and talking to reps at all is: NFS is decent but have had tech integration issues but they are improving on that, FCC which is Wachovia and is integrating AGE, Wells, their old tech in Richmond etc. ( service in general was very questionable- like or hate no inbetweens) and Pershing has been solid. RBC is another good independent platform but mixed reviews on service and not many BDs to choose from. Pershing which is part of Bank of New York Mellon seems to be the most well rounded and clients have no issue with knowing you are affiliated with them. Deutche uses them for clearing too which comforts clients. Call your regional Pershing office and ask for suggestions. BTW be careful of BDs excessively marking up any clearing firms services (they all mark up them up!) I personally am only looking at Pershing frims. There are some smaller clearing firms but clients will not feel warm and fuzzy. I am not representing clearing firms just trying to give info. IMHO go small BD with good excess capital per rep and clears through Pershing. Pershing will help you narow your choice.
Betsyross:
Only the usuall for those areas. You might see some branches upgrade people if they have the opportunity. I do not think that these position are in very much danger of getting laid off. It is all about compliance and ops so I would find it almost impossible to believe thay would cut managers for those areas in the branches.
Branch managers are the same way. Someone has to run the place. You might see some CSA layoffs around the edges, but not mauch unless your branch was way overstaffed in the first place. Marten Hoekstra places to much empahsis on quality of client service.
I really think that you are going to see a positive change in attitude at corporate once this is all done. At this point I just think everyone wants it over with.
I think some of the comments on this site are from a lot of people who are not at UBS and do not understand what is going on there and around the rest of the street. There has been a cosmic change in revenue streams of FA’s in all distribution channels. All of us are going to have to make changes in our expense structures. That goes for those people who are indi also.
The lower producers will leave the wirehouses because the expense structure of all of the wirehouses is to high and therefore those brokers are not very profitable for them. They try to handle it by putting them in the “penalty box” instead of counseling them out of the business or to a different model.
So, you will see a lot of movement from the lower producing brokers either initiated by the firms (SF) or by the brokers. They will go to regionals were they are very welcome and profitable as there expense structures are much lower. A portion of those will migrate to indies and the rest will leave the business. It is called the mother of all shakeouts.
I do not think that you will see very much movement in the short term from the larger producers that have not already moved. Those of us who missed the window for various reasons will not move until we can compensated for it like we feel we should. Or, we have different employment stratagies at our current employer.
You will also see more branch consolidations in multi branch markets to drive efficiencies. And yes, the emphasis will be on larger accounts. By the way, that has been everyones emphasis anyways. Do they think that we intentionally go after small accounts?
Personnaly, I am very curious to see how ML/BA works out. I have already heard some interesting things about co marketing and cross referrals. If they can pull the referrals from the private bankers to ML it could be huge. Only time will tell. Citimorg IO am not sure about. I do not see the same type of referral opportunity. WFC i have not heard much about.
SecretKnowledge:
I wonder about the branches, though. I think they will try to consolidate in different market areas; and therefore, weed out some managers. There are a couple offices in my market area that are close. I had heard that in other large BD's, they are trimming down on managers. They are making the complexes bigger, where one person runs the entire complex and handles the recruiting for the entire complex. Then they are putting 9/10's in the individual branches, some in a sales manager type role, and letting them handle the day-to-day stuff; thereby, reducing the overhead. Personally, I think my branch is overstaffed. My BOM recruited a bunch of people last year. He gave them alot of CSA support (probably too much given that gross doesn't add up to so much free support). Rumor has it that the branch is paying 100% of it. Given our office revenues, I think it's possible some support staff will be asked to leave. Or the new recruits will have to start paying for some of their support. I wonder about the profit margins in my office. Do you have any idea how the new regions will be divided up? Who will be running them? I know in your previous post, you said they will go from 8 to 3. When will this happen? Will it be simutaneous to all the other layoffs going on this month? And no, I don't think we intentionally go after small accounts. In many cases, it's a service you provide for the larger accounts. I have taken alot of small accounts because my large accounts referred them to me. It would hurt the large relationship to migrate them. That being said, I have had a few really good smaller accounts. I'm very interested, too, to see how the BAC/ML & MS/C mergers work out. I think they are going through alot of change/pain. I hear that alot of Smith Barney folks are leaving in the droves. The Smith Barney office down the road from my office is practically empty. Why can't we pull referrals from the banking side? I think before it gets better, it's going to be a little rough. I'm not sure UBS has made up it's mind about what type of organization/business model it really wants to have. In terms of the FA's in my office...alot of them are unhappy with everything that has happened over the last year. If they could find a good place to go with a good deal, I think some of the large producers would leave.