Advisor headcount at UBS has fallen to almost 5,600, well below the firm's publicly reported figures for its Americas unit.

A current UBS advisor told AdvisorHub that there were only 5,612 advisors in the system at the beginning of August. The number of advisors in the system represented an almost 14 percent decline from the first quarter of 2018, when the rankings reflected 6,507 advisors.

According to UBS executives, part of the decline is strategic. For example, executives now focus on a small subset of more productive advisors. UBS Group AG CEO Ralph Hamers announced that profitability in the Americas has increased by 60 percent even as advisor headcount has decreased over the past three years. 

Industry recruiters have shared that the decline in advisor headcount is not unique to UBS. All of its wirehouse peers are currently struggling with a declining sales force that has been aging out or breaking away. The recruiter further noted that UBS's lack of a robust training program may influence its vulnerability to departures.

To combat the decline in headcount, UBS expects to recruit in the range of 120 and 180 new advisor trainees this year. According to UBS executives recruiting will be an essential part of helping to boost net new fee-based assets, a key metric of the health of the brokerage unit that turned negative in the second quarter.

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