UBS Hires Million-Dollar Bank Producer, Names New Florida Manager

UBS Wealth Management has hired a million-dollar producer in Arizona and promoted a manager in Florida, filling some gaps that have widened since it deemphasized recruiting from traditional competitors four years ago.

Jennifer Lucovich, who spent the last decade of her 16-year career with the brokerage units of BMO Harris Bank and predecessor M&I Bank, joined UBS in Scottsdale on Friday, according to an announcement from UBS.

She was producing $1.1 million in annual revenue on $196 million in client assets, said a person at UBS familiar with her practice. Bank of Montreal’s BMO Wealth Management unit in the U.S. focuses on serving investors with minimum assets of $1 million, according to her former branch’s website, which lists five other private wealth advisors.

Lucovich, who joined UBS with client associate Jerrod Logan, did not return a request for comment on her move.

UBS’s brokerage force throughout the Americas fell by about 300 last year as it continued a strategy of shaving its overhang of recruiting loans while bolstering retention. But the Swiss bank, whose U.S. brokerage force has fallen below 6,000 advisors, has been selectively recruiting.

Lucovich’s move occurred the same day that UBS hired a three-advisor team in Westport, Conn. that was producing $2.2 million on $1.05 billion of client assets at Raymond James’ high-net-worth Alex. Brown unit.

Many of UBS’s recent arrivals, however, have come from wealth units of commercial banks and asset management firms rather than from traditional wirehouse competitors. It reached into BMO Harris last September when it hired Neil Conway, an $800,000-a-year producer in Milwaukee, Wis. In May, it hired three brokers in Dallas from AllianceBernstein’s Sanford C. Bernstein unit who were producing about $13 million.

A spokeswoman at Chicago-based BMO did not immediately return a request for comment. Neither BMO nor UBS belongs to the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, which allows brokers to take limited customer contact information with them when moving to other signatory firms.

Like Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, UBS also continues to scramble to fill branch management roles. Many veteran managers comfortable with performance metrics that formerly included a strong element of recruiting have said they are less amenable to promoting new parent company agendas that includes selling loans.

In Florida, UBS on Wednesday said it promoted Karmen Keup to oversee its branches in Sarasota, Fort Myers and Bonita Springs. Keup spent all but two years of her 20-year career at UBS, working her way up from operations manager to assistant market head for private wealth segment advisors in Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., according to the announcement and to her LinkedIn profile.

“Karmen is an outstanding leader in our industry, recognized for supporting her colleagues to best serve the needs of their clients,” Greg Kadet, head of UBS’s Greater Florida market, said in a prepared statement.

Keup appears to be taking the job of three predecessors.

Eric N. Dunn, a producing manager at the Sarasota branch remains there as a broker, according to a person answering the phone at the office. Dunn did not return a call for comment.

Michael J. Rhodes, another producing manager in Fort Myers, according to its website, declined to comment on his role. He has been with UBS for the last seven years of his 20-year career.

According to online job postings, UBS had been searching for a manager for the Bonita Springs branch.

Keup started her career at UBS in 1998 and shifted to Morgan Stanley in 2004 for a short stint before returning to UBS in 2006, according to her BrokerCheck record.