By David Wignall

Two veteran financial advisors who oversee $1.2 billion in client assets have left UBS to establish an independent practice affiliated with Sanctuary Wealth. Their departure adds to a list of advisor defections this year at Switzerland's largest bank.

The advisors, Jim Chiate and Tony Guinane, are based in Orange County, Calif., and have founded a practice called Dial Square Private Wealth. Joining them are support staffers Owen Galasso and Nazgol Nekoomaram.

"Going independent was not a quick decision," Chiate said in a statement. "While we could have easily moved to another traditional wirehouse or private bank, once we understood the evolution of the independent space over the last decade, we couldn't ignore the value independence would provide to our clients."

Chiate and Guinane are among the advisors who have sought greater independence via partnerships with Sanctuary, which operates as an independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisor. Sanctuary specializes in helping seasoned advisors exit the large national brokerage firms -- colloquially known as wirehouses -- and open their own practices.

That approach has found fertile soil this year: Over the past 12 months, Sanctuary has taken on 16 new partner firms with more than $10 billion in client assets, the firm said in its announcement of Chiate and Guinane's recruitment. Sanctuary says it now has 125 teams overseeing more than $55 billion in client assets, making it a beneficiary of an industrywide shift toward independence.

Chiate and Guinane first teamed up in 2003 at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch, before leaving for UBS in 2013, according to the announcement. At UBS, the pair were members of Wise River Advisors, a $6.2 billion team that also included Chiate's brother and nephew. Jim's family members have chosen to remain at UBS, according to Wise River's webpage.

Wise River was ranked the No. 41 private wealth management team in the country by Barron's in 2025.

At UBS, Chiate and Guinane specialized in serving ultrahigh-net-worth clients, the announcement says. "After building a remarkable practice in wirehouses, Jim and Tony, like many highly successful wealth managers limited by the employee model, decided to start their own firm," said Vince Fertitta, Sanctuary's president of wealth management, in a statement.

A spokeswoman for UBS declined to comment.

Chiate and Guinane aren't the only former UBS advisors to join Sanctuary this year. In May, a team managing $2 billion left the bank to establish a practice in the South; in February, a solo advisor with $200 million set up a new firm in Minnesota.

The American wealth management arm of UBS has been losing ground in recent months. The wirehouse, which warned in January that it could experience a spike in attrition following changes to its advisor compensation plan, has seen billion-dollar teams defect to Rockefeller, RBC, and other firms. The bank's Americas advisor head count dropped to 5,773 at the end of the second quarter from 5,884 in March. UBS is accelerating its efforts to recruit and train young advisors, which could help reverse the shortfall.

Write to advisor.editors@barrons.com

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August 18, 2025 13:09 ET (17:09 GMT)

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