UBS Recruits $11.5M Bernstein Team | Industry Talent Move

UBS Expands West Coast Presence

UBS Wealth Management USA finalized the recruitment of Lumina Wealth Partners on Friday. The team moved from Bernstein Private Wealth Management in Los Angeles. This group of advisors generated $11.5 million in annual revenue. They oversaw $1.4 billion in client assets. The move signals a continued push by UBS to capture talent from private wealth divisions of major asset managers.

Lumina Wealth Partners includes lead advisors Pasha E. Azad and Dayne L. Crist. Steven Summerhays and Koby Dardashti also moved with the group. Four support staff members joined the transition as well. They are reporting to a Century City office. This location opened only last year. It currently houses 225 employees from across UBS business segments including private wealth, investment banking, and asset management.

Kate Daniels, the senior market director for Los Angeles Private Wealth Management, noted the move in a firm statement. She described the arrival as a positive step for the firm. She stated the new space gathers various colleagues to address the complex needs of clients. Azad spent his entire career at Bernstein, starting in 2001. Crist joined Bernstein in 2015 after a brief stint at Northwestern Mutual. Neither advisor provided a comment regarding the transition.

Bernstein Facing Ongoing Advisor Turnover

Bernstein Private Wealth is a unit of the asset manager AllianceBernstein. A company spokesperson declined to speak on the record regarding the departure. The private wealth unit held $167 billion in assets under management at the end of June. This team is the third major group to depart the firm in recent months. NewEdge Wealth picked up a $2.2 billion team in Houston earlier this month. Another group managing $1.4 billion joined Cresset in December. These departures indicate a pattern of high-producing teams seeking new platforms outside of the traditional asset management structure.

Strategic Recruitment and Legal Risks

UBS is working to strengthen its broker headcount. The firm saw a jump in advisor attrition over the past year. Recruiters are now moving away from the standard practice of only targeting wirehouse competitors. They now focus on private banks and wealth units of large investment houses. These targets often prove difficult to poach. Clients at these firms share strong ties with the institution. Advisors frequently face strict garden leave periods or non-solicitation agreements that restrict their movement.

Legal disputes often follow these high-value moves. UBS hired two teams from Bernstein in 2023 with combined assets of $1.7 billion. That transition ended in a courtroom. A judge eventually enjoined those advisors from certain business practices. The court ordered them to pay $334,000 in damages to their former employer for violating non-solicitation terms. The industry is watching this latest move to see if Lumina Wealth Partners avoids similar litigation. The hiring process shows that UBS remains committed to this strategy despite the potential for expensive legal friction. The firm continues to build its private wealth footprint in high-net-worth markets like Los Angeles.