Pros
If you're an experienced Advisor and need a nearly infinite toolbox for your clients and like compensation littered with options, bonuses, commissions, grants, a bonus here, a bonus there, a bonus around every corner, then you can't beat UBS. I had several years' experience before going to UBS, but came on board as part of the New Financial Advisor program with a nice salary and a low commission rate, but a contract laced with bonus opportunities. In year one, I made $96k.
Cons
UBS is undergoing a serious overhaul of their demographic. At the moment there is a little 'coveting of thy neighbor' in that they're trying hard to become Goldman Sachs. Unfortunately they just don't have the firepower to make it happen. Reset the clock 2 years when it was all good and their heads weren't on the chopping block with the IRS and the investment bank wasn't in chaos, and you could not work at a better broker. I've interviewed with ML, Jones, Fargo Advisors, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley and NO ONE could touch UBS' comp structure. Unfortunately with Gruebel at the helm, UBS is being torn down one brick at a time and what's left will be a sad, sad embarassment to the old Paine Webber, upon which it rested it's head when it acquired it. If my review sounds confused, it is. Two years ago, UBS was king in my book. Now, watching it crumble, it makes me sad. What was once a stellar, growing broker, ready to take over a Goldman Sachs is now destined to be Goldman's prison "Sally". Unfortunately now the only advisors at UBS in good shape are the ones who were paid to come there from other firms over the past year. The best Advisors have been let go or have moved on to somewhere with some growth potential.
