UBS wealth management business in the Americas saw its pretax profits soar 54% from a year ago to $386 million in the fourth quarter. The bank said these results were tied to growth in fee-based revenue from larger client assets and an increase in transaction-based income.
For the full year, profits improved 7% from 2019 to $1.4 billion.
Meanwhile, wealth advisors in the Americas added net client assets of $1.4 billion in Q4’20 — reversing outflows of $9.2 billion in Q3’20 and outflows of $9 billion in Q4’19.
Invested assets in UBS Americas’ wealth unit hit $1.6 trillion in the latest period, up from $1.4 trillion in both the year-ago and prior periods.
Advisor Headcount
The number of wealth advisors in the Americas declined by 244 from last year’s 6,549 and by 48 from last quarter’s 6,353 — totaling 6,305 as of Dec. 31, 2020.