UBS executives unveiled the firm’s 2026 financial advisor compensation strategy in a call held Tuesday morning, telling the firm’s advisor force that their goal is to create “positive outcomes for all advisors” and provide meaningful support to junior advisors looking to stay and grow their practices for the long term.
Among the changes is an update to the payout grid for advisors producing between $1 million and $3 million in revenue. Regardless of length of service, producers in this range will see their payout percentage increase by half a percentage point. As an example, a $2 million producer would see a payout of 50.5% in 2026.
Another core grid change includes the creation of a new segment for top producers who generate $20 million or more in 2026. Regardless of length of service, producers at this level will see payout rise to 60%.
Next year, UBS is likewise increasing the cash component of its compensation versus stock for advisors who produce between $3 million and $4 million. In those bands, payouts will shift from 85% cash to 86% cash.
The firm also announced substantial changes to its treatment of teams and junior advisors. For 2025, advisors who are part of a team but who have less than $750,000 in individual production are not eligible for payouts made via the high-performing team grid. That policy is changing in 2026, such that advisors with fewer than six years of experience will have no individual production threshold.
For advisors with six to eight years of service, the individual production requirement to participate in the high-performing team payout grid will be set at $500,000 for 2026. This target increases in several bands before requiring $750,000 of production for team members with 10 or more years of service.
UBS will not change two of its three growth awards next year, namely the awards for net new money and return on assets. The award for qualified new relationships is changing, however, in order to incentivize advisors to win the biggest new clients. For 2025, every new account over $1 million earned advisors the same 1% payout amount. For 2026, new relationships over $10 million will come with a higher payout of 1.5%.
Finally, in addition to other minor changes, UBS is increasing its production credits for client money brought into its core savings account from 5 basis points to 10 bps.
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