Tampa Team Managing $1.3B Joins UBS From Bank of America
A four-advisor Tampa, Fla.-based team managing about $1.3 billion in client assets is joining UBS from Bank of America Private Bank, the Swiss-based wirehouse announced.
The advisors, including Jesse Flatt, Lea Ann Drew, Brandon Burns and Carlos Rodriguez, will join UBS’s Greater Florida/Gulf Coast Market under the supervision of Tampa Bay Senior Market Director Jack Heiss.
According to Heiss, the team built their careers around serving ultra-high-net-worth and business-leader clients, while UBS Southeast Regional Director Julia Fox said the team would bring more than 100 years of combined experience and have “spent decades building deep relationships throughout the Tampa community.”
As part of UBS, the team will work with client families, individuals and executives on financial services, including investment management, tax needs, estate planning and asset allocation.
According to UBS, Flatt has nearly 20 years of industry experience, with advisory roles at Invesco, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Before working as a senior portfolio manager at Bank of America Private Bank, he was a portfolio manager at RBC Rochdale.
Drew has about four decades of industry experience, starting with Barnett Bank in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1988. In addition to nearly 15 years with Bank of America Private Bank, where she worked as a senior trust officer, Drew previously worked for Wells Fargo Private Bank and SunTrust in similar roles.
Like Flatt, Burns was a portfolio manager at RBC Rochdale before joining Bank of America Private Bank in 2022. He was a market investment executive and senior portfolio manager in Central and North Florida, and he also mentored other portfolio managers and private wealth advisors. Rodriguez spent 30 years in the industry, including 14 years at SunTrust Bank and the previous 12 at Bank of America Private Bank as a wealth strategies advisor.
Earlier this year, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti said the bank is identifying candidates to replace him, as he hopes to step down by spring 2027 at the latest. (In a January interview, Ermotti expressed a preference for an internal successor.)
The potential internal successor candidates include Chief Operating Officer Beatriz Martin, Aleksandar Ivanovic, who leads the firm’s asset management business, and wealth management co-leaders Iqbal Khan and Ribert Karofsky.
During a conference in May, Ermotti also floated the possibility of acquisitions by the firm’s American business as another option to boost growth. Earlier this year, the bank’s Americas business hit client inflows of $5.3 billion for the first three months of the year, after three straight quarters of outflows.
