By David Wignall

UBS continued to shed wealth managers this week, as a team of four advisors who oversaw roughly $1.25 billion in client assets jumped ship for LPL Financial. Their move comes just as UBS said it would raise advisor pay next year.

According to LPL, the four advisors -- Jeffrey Allen, Steve Armaly, Brian Blackburn, and Michael Lee -- are launching their own independent practice, called Ox Road Capital, based in Greenville, S.C.

Ox Road will be backed by LPL's strategic wealth program, a model which grants advisors independent ownership while giving them the back-office support of a larger firm. LPL's strategic wealth program specifically caters to advisors leaving large banks, according to the firm's website.

"All businesses and individuals have three seasons they pass through -- survival, success and significance," says Lee, one of the breakaways. "We reached that final stage where we began to think about legacy and it was clear we needed to make a move to really build something that could outlast the founders."

Allen, another founder, says the group chose what he called structured independence after eliminating undesirable options. The four ex-UBS partners didn't want to take on outside equity ownership, hire another partner, or continue serving as W-2 employees. "It became clear that the space we were targeting was the supported independent model space," says Allen.

The four advisors first got together in 2016, where they worked at a UBS-owned practice called the Alpha Group, according to an archived version of the firm's website. At Alpha Group, the foursome worked alongside two more advisors, Chris J. Newton and his son C.J. Newton II. The father-and-son pair remain at UBS.

A spokeswoman for UBS didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

UBS has experienced a rush of high-profile defections this year, after it announced changes to its advisor compensation plan for 2025. Teams managing billions in client assets have left for venues including RBC, Rockefeller, and Merrill Lynch, while others have departed the bank in favor of structured independence.

On the same day that LPL announced it had lured away the Ox Road team, UBS unveiled its 2026 compensation plan -- months earlier than it usually does. The new payout plan, which raises top-performing advisors' pay and incentivizes bringing on new clients, could help the bank retain more advisors.

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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September 17, 2025 13:01 ET (17:01 GMT)

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