UBS Slashes Asset Minimum for Robo-Advice Program
The wirehouse cuts the minimum for its hybrid Advice Advantage Program by 50%.
UBS has cut the minimum investment for its hybrid robo-advice offering in half, dropping it from $10,000 to $5,000.
The wirehouse disclosed the change to its UBS Advice Advantage Program in its latest Form ADV, which it filed Oct. 30.
The reduction follows similar pricing moves by rivals including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. In July, Fidelity said it was dropping its annual advisory fee for robo-advice to zero on accounts with less than $10,000.
The UBS price change is part of a collaborative initiative between UBS Global Wealth Management and Asset Management to align their businesses in the Americas. (It was first reported by InvestmentNews.)
In January, UBS introduced a new, all-inclusive separately managed account pricing model; it dropped the management fee to zero for asset management strategies. In July, the wirehouse expanded the model to include select strategies from third-party managers.
See: UBS Wealth Reports Dwindling Advisor Headcount, Asset Outflows in Americas
In the firm’s recent earnings announcement, UBS Asset Management’s zero-fee SMA pricing initiative in the U.S. contributed $8 billion in net new money for asset management in the third quarter, helping achieve a total of $35 billion in inflows since inception in the fourth quarter of 2019.
For the UBS Advice Portfolio, the minimum is being reduced to make the program accessible to more clients, especially in the firm’s emerging affluent channel.
On Nov. 13, the UBS Managed Portfolio program will close to new accounts. Those investors already enrolled in it will be moved to the firm’s ACCESS program on or about Nov. 20, where their assets will be managed by UBS Asset Management.
This change and related measures are tied to the firm’s strategy of aligning UBS Wealth Management and Asset Management businesses in the Americas.
Members of the Wealth Management USA Investment Management Team, which manages the accounts, will also transition to Asset Management. All strategies will maintain their current minimums, except for the Sustainable Investing portfolio, which will be reduced to $25,000 from $50,000 to make it more accessible to advisors and clients.
In the Americas, UBS had 6,353 advisors as of Sept. 30, a drop of 274 from 6,627 in Q3’19 and a decline of 57 from 6,410 in Q2’20.
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