View Document Text
SEC File Number 801-7163
March 31, 2025
UBS Financial Services Inc.
1000 Harbor Boulevard
Weehawken, NJ 07086
201-352-3000
http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com
Discretionary Programs
Portfolio Management Program (PMP)
Advisor Allocation Program (AAP)
UBS Advice Portfolio Program (Digital Discretionary Program)
Separately Managed Accounts Programs
ACCESS
Managed Accounts Consulting (MAC)
Unified Managed Accounts Program
UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio (SWP)
Non-Discretionary Advisory Programs
UBS Strategic Advisor
Personalized Asset Consulting and Evaluation (PACE)
PACE Multi Advisor Program
PACE Select Advisors Trust
Portfolio Advisory Programs
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program (UBS-CAP)
UBS Institutional Consulting Program (IC)
Alternative Investments Advisory Program
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program Select (CAP Select)
This Form ADV disclosure brochure provides information about the qualifications and business practices of UBS Financial Services
Inc. and our retail and institutional wrap fee and advice-only investment advisory programs that you should consider before
becoming a client of any of these programs.
If you have any questions about the content of this brochure, please contact us at 888-526-7454. The information in this brochure
has not been approved or verified by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or by any state securities authority.
Additional information about UBS Financial Services Inc. is also available on the SEC’s website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
Please note that registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training.
This Form ADV Disclosure Brochure applies to all of your accounts at UBS Financial Services Inc. established in the Programs described in this Brochure,
including any advisory accounts you may open in the future. We will not provide another copy of the Form ADV Disclosure Brochure when you establish new
advisory accounts unless there is an updated version or there are material changes to the document we originally provided to you. Annually we will provide you
with a copy of our updated Form ADV Disclosure Brochure or a summary of material changes from the brochure previously provided to you.
Please retain all these documents for future reference as they contain important information if you decide to add services or open new advisory
accounts with our Firm.
Our Client Relationship Agreement, Disclosure booklet and other related documents are available at ubs.com/accountdisclosures or by calling your Financial
Advisor. You may obtain a copy of the current Form ADV Disclosure at any time by contacting your Financial Advisor.
Item 2. Material Changes
This section describes the material changes to our Wrap Fee Programs Form ADV Disclosure Brochure since the amendment of our Form ADV
on March 30, 2024.
The Section “About UBS Financial Services Inc.”
“Our Responsibilities as an Investment Adviser” has been revised to state that where UBS recommends proprietary or affiliated investments on
a non-discretionary basis to you regarding your covered retirement accounts and would receive increased compensation, we may operate
under the US Department of Labor’s Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02, where relevant, a special rule that requires us to act in your
best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours when we provide investment advice or recommendations as a fiduciary.
Item 4. Services, Fees and Compensation has been revised as follows:
Item 4.B (Advisory Programs: Fee schedules, Minimum Investments and Minimum Annual Fees) has been updated to reflect that the
minimum account opening size for Strategic Wealth Portfolio has been reduced from $100,000 to $25,000 (but can be higher if SMA sub-
accounts are included in the target allocation).
In Item 4. B. 1 (Your Program Fee; Services Included in Your Program Fee), the discussion of affiliated or proprietary SMA Advantage
strategies that charge a Premium Services Fee has been revised to state that they are not available to Retirement Plan clients enrolled in the IC
Program with a Limited Power of Attorney for Financial Advisor Discretion Services. Premium Services Fees may be charged to Retirement Plan
clients in IC non-discretionary programs and other IC clients. Recommending affiliated managers raises a conflict of interest, because retaining
those entities will result in increased compensation to UBS and/or a UBS affiliate. Current Retirement Plan clients in IC non-discretionary
programs may execute a contract amendment to permit SMA Advantage strategies with a premium service fee.
Item 4. D (Compensation to Financial Advisors, Market Directors and Associate Market Executives (“Advisors”) Who Recommend
Advisory Programs) has been updated to reflect changes to the standard compensation plan for Financial Advisors by revising the Incentive
Grid Rate range and the available awards.
In Item 4.G.2 the subsection titled Rebalancing Your Asset Allocation: Rebalancing Options, Process, Thresholds and Limitations has
been revised to reflect changes to certain automatic rebalancing thresholds. In PACE and SWP, the single mutual fund, ETF and SMA
concentrations, as applicable, of 70% have increased by 1% before automatic rebalancing is triggered. In AAP, the single
mutual fund and ETF concentrations of 35% and the single SMA strategy concentration of 70% have also increased by 1%.
Accounts are subject to rebalancing as provided in that subsection.
Item 4. H (Portfolio Advisory and Alternative Investments Advisory Programs) has been revised to state that for Retirement Plan
clients enrolled in the IC Program with a Limited Power of Attorney for Financial Advisor Discretion Services, our investment searches will not
include UBS affiliated/proprietary mutual or sub advised funds unless such investments or strategies are eligible within the IC Program and
made available at no additional cost to client. Such funds or strategies may be available to Retirement Plan clients in IC non-discretionary
programs and other IC clients.
Section E.1 (Description of our Discretionary Programs; UBS Advice Portfolio Program)
UBS Advice Portfolio Program: The UBS Advice Portfolio Program was closed to enrollment for new clients or new accounts on March 21,
2025. On or about June 13, 2025, any existing UBS Advice Portfolio accounts will transition to a similar UBS House View multi-asset portfolio
in the ACCESS program. The House View portfolios are managed by the same portfolio management team currently responsible for the UBS
Advice Portfolios and will continue to leverage asset allocation guidance from the UBS Chief Investment Office (CIO) and portfolio
construction and execution capabilities from UBS Asset Management.
Accounts enrolled in the UBS Advice Portfolio Program will be automatically transitioned to the UBS ACCESS—Separately Managed Account
(SMA)—Advisory program unless a client takes action to select another program or no program prior to June 9, 2025.
Ongoing management and maintenance activities for any existing UBS Advice Portfolio Program (cash flows, withdrawals, etc.) accounts will
remain available until June 13.
Item 5 Account Requirements and Client Types has been revised as follows:
Item 5.B.2 (Investment strategies; Eligible and Ineligible Assets), the subsection titled “Single Share Class Mutual Funds” has been
updated to reflect that 12b-1 fees paid by legacy A, B, C or other share classes of mutual funds in UBS brokerage accounts will be retained by
UBS and no longer shared with Financial Advisors unless certain conditions apply. This change will take effect on or around the middle of
2025, and creates a conflict of interest because it influences the recommendations that you receive from your Financial Advisor.
In Item 5.C.7. (the Debiting/Invoicing Program Fees sub-section) has been revised to clarify details about the Bill To feature and when the
feature will be terminated. The feature will not automatically terminate when there is a title/ownership change, or new authorized parties are
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added to the Bill To account. It is your responsibility to contact your Financial Advisor in order to update your billing features.
Section 6. Portfolio Management Selection and Evaluation has been revised to add the following section.
A. Alternative Investments Due Diligence, Review and Approval and Allocation of Investment Opportunities
Unified Global Alternatives (UGA) is a new business unit established in January 2025 through a collaboration between the Global Wealth
Management and Asset Management divisions of UBS.
UGA combines the Global Alternatives Investment Solutions teams within Global Wealth Management with Asset Management’s Hedge Fund
Solutions, Real Estate and Private Markets Multi-Manager businesses along with their respective sales and distribution support teams. UGA is
designed to serve the needs of clients from both divisions.
UBS Financial Services Inc. the sponsor of the advisory programs described in this Brochure is part of the Global Wealth Management (GWM)
Division.
Prior to the creation of UGA, GWM (including UBS-FS) managed an open architecture platform of alternative investments, while the AM areas
which are part of UGA, structured and managed proprietary alternative investments that could be offered to brokerage and advisory clients
on the UBS-FS Platform. AM funds underwent investment and operational due diligence on an arm’s-length basis and the respective business
units operated separately without common revenue targets. Not approving an AM fund for the UBS-FS platform had no impact on the overall
goals or compensation of the GWM team.
The creation of UGA gives rise to new conflicts of interest as it brings together the formerly independent teams with a common goal to grow
the alternative investment franchise, increase revenues and gain better value for clients. GWM has delegated initial and ongoing due diligence
responsibilities, negotiation of placement agreements and onboarding of alternatives investments for the GWM platforms to UGA.
To address the conflicts of interest, UGA has adopted policies, procedures that require (1) the consistent and objective application of due
diligence requirements for all funds approved for the GWM platforms; (2) revenue targets for the business teams to be product type neutral
so as to not favor proprietary products vs. non-proprietary products; (3) the allocation of capacity and investment opportunities among GWM
and AM clients to be subject to a fair and reasonable process that complies with fiduciary obligations. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in
instances in which the fund capacity allocated to UBS is limited (for example, private markets), fiduciary portfolios will be given priority access
versus non-fiduciary accounts.
Item 9.B. has been updated to include the following disciplinary items:
Date of Action: December 30, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
Without admitting or denying the findings, the Firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that from February 2014 through
November 2024, it sent its customers millions of trade confirmations that either (1) disclosed that the price shown was or may be an average
price when it was not an average price or (2) failed to disclose that the price shown was in fact an average price. The findings also stated that
the firm failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to achieve compliance with Exchange Act Rule 10B-10 and
FINRA rule 2232.
Disposition: Censure and fine of $1.1 million.
Date of Action: December 18, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
The firm entered into an Acceptance Waiver & Consent under which the firm, without admitting or denying the findings, consented to the
sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to assess whether its
registered representatives recommended to retail customers short-term trades of syndicate preferred stocks that were unsuitable.
Disposition: Censure, fine of $500,000, restitution of $343,914.66 plus interest, and disgorgement of $2,645,537 plus interest.
Date of Action: July 8, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish and
maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to achieve compliance with the firm's obligation to monitor transmittals of customer funds
to third parties and to respond reasonably to red flags of private securities transactions. The findings stated the firm failed to detect that a
registered representative, who was acting outside the scope of their employment with the firm, sold to their customers unapproved securities
that were offered by a third party. The firm repaid the customers their principal plus the amount of appreciation reported to them by the third
party totaling more than $17 million.
Disposition: Censure and fine of $850,000.
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Item 3. Table of contents
Item 2. Material Changes ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Item 3. Table of contents ......................................................................................................................................................... 4
About UBS Financial Services Inc. ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Item 4. Services, Fees and Compensation ............................................................................................................................12
A. About Our Investment Advisory Programs ..................................................................................................................................... 12
B. Advisory Programs: Fee Schedules, Minimum ................................................................................................................................ 13
1. Your Program Fee; Services Included in Your Program Fee: .................................................................................................... 20
Fees/Other Charges Not Covered by your Program Fee .................................................................................................................. 22
C.
D. Compensation to Financial Advisors, Market Directors and Associate Market Executives (“Advisors”) Who Recommend Advisory
F.
Programs ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 23
1. Compensation to UBS Portfolio Managers and Financial Advisors in our Advisory Programs. ................................................... 24
2. Compensation to SMA Managers in the ACCESS, MAC, SWP and AAP Programs. ................................................................. 25
E. Description of Our Discretionary Programs: Portfolio Management Program (PMP) and Advisor Allocation Program .................... 25
1. UBS Advice Portfolio Program ....................................................................................................................................................... 25
2. Portfolio Management Program (PMP) Strategies and Models. ............................................................................................... 28
3. Advisor Allocation Program ................................................................................................................................................... 28
Separately Managed Accounts Programs, SMA Manager Sub-Accounts in the Strategic Wealth Portfolio and Advisor Allocation
Programs ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 28
1. ACCESS (single contract) ....................................................................................................................................................... 28
2. Managed Accounts Consulting (MAC) (dual contract)............................................................................................................ 29
3. Asset Allocation Services in our Non-Discretionary, Unified Managed Account, Portfolio Advisory Programs and Alternative
H.
C.
Investments Advisory Programs ............................................................................................................................................. 31
4. Unified Managed Account Programs: UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio Program (SWP) and Advisor Allocation Program (AAP) .. 32
G. Non-Discretionary Advisory Programs ............................................................................................................................................ 33
1. UBS Strategic Advisor Program Eligible Assets and Non-Billable Assets in Strategic Advisor ................................................. 33
2. PACE—Personalized Asset Consulting and Evaluation ............................................................................................................ 34
Portfolio Advisory and Alternative Investments Advisory Programs ................................................................................................. 37
Item 5. Account Requirements and Types of Clients ...........................................................................................................42
A. Account Requirements for Establishing and Maintaining Advisory Accounts with Our Firm ............................................................ 42
Your Investment Advisory Agreement ........................................................................................................................................... 42
B.
1. Funding Your Account. ......................................................................................................................................................... 44
2.
Investment strategies; Eligible and Ineligible Assets ................................................................................................................ 45
3. Investment Restrictions & Investment Policy Statements ............................................................................................................. 49
4. Performance Reporting for Your Account ................................................................................................................................. 50
5. Trade Confirmations and Account Statements ....................................................................................................................... 50
6. Electronic delivery of documents ........................................................................................................................................... 50
7. Valuation and Other Information ........................................................................................................................................... 51
8. UBS Sweep Programs and Cash Balances in your Advisory Accounts ...................................................................................... 51
Billing Practices ............................................................................................................................................................................. 55
1. Relating Accounts for Billing Purposes ................................................................................................................................... 55
2. Minimum Annual Fees .......................................................................................................................................................... 55
Initial Program Fee ................................................................................................................................................................ 55
3.
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A.
B.
4. Quarterly Fee ........................................................................................................................................................................ 56
5. Quarterly Fee Adjustment ...................................................................................................................................................... 56
6 . Impact of Alternative Investments Valuation and Redemptions on your Program Fee. ............................................................. 57
7. Additional Billing Practices. .................................................................................................................................................... 57
D. Trading and Execution Practices ......................................................................................................................................................... 60
E. Closing your Advisory Accounts; Terminating your Agreement ...................................................................................................... 62
Item 6. Portfolio Management Selection and Evaluation ...................................................................................................63
A. Alternative Investments Due Diligence, Review and Approval and Allocation of Investment Opportunities ...................................... 63
Selecting an SMA Manager; Our Investment Manager Evaluation Process ...................................................................................... 64
B.
C. UBS or UBS Affiliates and Employees Acting as Portfolio Managers. ............................................................................................... 67
D. Advisory Business .......................................................................................................................................................................... 68
1. Corporate Structure .............................................................................................................................................................. 68
2. Advisory Services ................................................................................................................................................................... 68
3. How we tailor accounts for clients. ........................................................................................................................................ 68
4. Performance Fees and Side by Side Management .................................................................................................................. 69
5. Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies and Risk of Loss .................................................................................................. 69
6. Voting of Client Securities (Proxy Voting) ............................................................................................................................... 71
Item 7. Client Information Provided to Portfolio Managers ...............................................................................................73
Item 8. Client Contact with Portfolio Managers ...................................................................................................................73
Item 9. Additional Information ..............................................................................................................................................73
A.
Executive Officers and Board of Directors ....................................................................................................................................... 73
B. Disciplinary History ........................................................................................................................................................................ 74
Item 10. Other Financial Industry Activities and Affiliations ............................................................................................77
Item 11. Investment Adviser Code of Ethics, Participation or Interest in Client Transactions and Personal Trading ..77
Investment Adviser Code of Ethics ................................................................................................................................................. 77
Participation or Interest in Client Transactions ............................................................................................................................... 78
1. Principal transactions and agency cross trades. ...................................................................................................................... 78
2. Additional Sources of Compensation from SMA Managers or Vendors Whose Products We May Recommend to Our Advisory
Clients .................................................................................................................................................................................. 79
3. Additional Sources of Compensation in Connection with Investments in Advisory Accounts ................................................... 79
4. Margin and Lending .............................................................................................................................................................. 86
Item 12. Personal Trading ......................................................................................................................................................88
Item 13. Review of Accounts ..................................................................................................................................................88
Item 14. Client Referrals and Other Compensation .............................................................................................................89
Item 15. Financial Information ...............................................................................................................................................90
SUMMARY OF MATERIAL CHANGES .....................................................................................................................................91
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Definitions. References in this brochure to:
“Account”, “account”, "Investment Advisory Account" or "Advisory Account" means your advisory account(s) established in the
advisory programs described in this Brochure.
”Advisory Programs” or “Programs” as used in this Brochure means our ACCESS, Portfolio Management Program, Managed
Accounts Consulting, UBS Strategic Advisor, UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio, Advisor Allocation Program, Advice Portfolio Program, PACE
programs, UBS-CAP, CAP Select, and IC.
“Agreement” means the Advisory Relationship Agreement.
“Asset Allocation” refers to the asset allocation selected for your program account.
"UBS-CAP Portfolio" means, collectively, the eligible Advisory Accounts you enroll in UBS-CAP and, in limited circumstances, accounts you
hold at other financial institutions that you elect to include in UBS-CAP.
“CAP Select Portfolio” means the 100% diversified alternative investments portfolio you hold in the CAP Select Program.
“IC Account” means an IC Program-specific account held at UBS and opened under the UBS Institutional Consulting Program (“IC Program”).
“IC Held Away” means a non-discretionary Account in the IC Program where the client elects to hold the assets away from UBS.
“IC Portfolio” means, collectively, the eligible Advisory Accounts you enroll in IC and/or the accounts you hold at other financial institutions
that you elect to include in IC.
“Model Provider” means SMA Managers who provide their investment strategy models to UBS for implementation or an Overlay
Manager hired by UBS to implement such models.
“Overlay Manager” means the investment adviser(s) hired by UBS to implement the models provided by Model Providers.
“Plan” means employee benefit plans qualified under Section 401(a) or Section 403(b)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as
amended, or under any other employee retirement or welfare plan subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as
amended (ERISA) or a defined benefit employee benefit plan for a municipal entity or a nonqualified retirement plan.
"Portfolio Based Advisory Programs" means the UBS Consolidated Advisory Program or UBS-CAP and the UBS Institutional Consulting
Program or IC, advisory programs in which our services are provided to you on a portfolio level instead of individually at each Account level
for certain eligible UBS Advisory Accounts (and, in certain circumstances, accounts you hold at other financial institutions).
“Program Assets” means the assets you invest through our Advisory Programs.
"Program Fee" means, collectively, the UBS Investment Advisory Fee and if applicable, given your Program selection, the SMA Manager Fee.
"Questionnaire" or "Risk Profile Questionnaire" means the Account Risk Profile Questionnaire you complete to determine your
investment needs, objectives and risk tolerances for the assets being invested in each Advisory Account. For UBS-CAP and IC, your
Questionnaire will define the risk tolerances and objectives that you have for all your eligible assets and accounts included in the UBS-CAP
Portfolio or the IC Portfolio as a whole.
"Retirement Accounts" include all types of Individual Retirement Accounts including SEPs, SIMPLEs, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts,
and “Plans”.
“SMA Manager” means your ACCESS, MAC, AAP, SWP, or IC separately managed account investment manager, Overlay Manager or Model
Provider, as applicable.
"SMA Manager Fee" means the separately managed account investment management fee payable to your ACCESS, MAC, SWP, AAP, IC
investment manager or, as applicable, Model Provider (if any) in our Programs.
"Share Class Conversion" refers to the conversion of mutual fund, offshore fund and/or alternative investment brokerage share classes to
advisory/institutional share classes which are eligible and billable in certain Programs.
“Single Share Class(es)” refers to the single share class of mutual funds with no front-end loads, back-end loads or 12b-1s offered for
purchase in our brokerage platform effective January 2020 subject to a per-transaction commission.
“UBS” unless otherwise noted, means UBS Financial Services Inc.
"UBS Investment Advisory Fee" means the portion of the Program Fee payable to UBS for its investment advisory services.
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“UBS Portfolio Manager” means the UBS Asset Management investment professionals who manage assets on a discretionary basis in UBS
Advice Portfolio Program or your Portfolio Management Program Financial Advisor.
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About UBS Financial Services Inc.
obligations. We encourage you to review this information carefully,
along with your applicable contracts, and discuss it with your
Financial Advisor
Our services as an Investment Adviser and Relationship
with You
UBS Financial Services Inc. (“UBS”) is one of the nation’s leading
securities firms, serving the investment and capital needs of individual,
corporate and institutional clients. We are a member of all principal
securities and commodities exchanges in the United States including
the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). Our parent company, UBS
Group AG, is a global, integrated investment services firm and one of
the world’s leading banks. We are registered to act as a broker-dealer,
investment adviser, and futures commission merchant.
We believe that professional investment advisory programs
can help investors pursue their investment objectives.
However, the fees and expenses associated with advisory
services may exceed those that apply to brokerage services.
Advisory programs are not for everyone. Please speak with
your Financial Advisor for additional information.
As a registered investment adviser, we complete Part I of Form ADV,
which contains additional information about our business and our
affiliates. This information is publicly available through our filings with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at
www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
-
This information is current as of the date of this Brochure and is
subject to change at our discretion.
Conducting Business with UBS: Investment Advisory and
Broker Dealer Services
In our capacity as an investment adviser under the Investment
Advisers Act, we offer a number of investment advisory
services and programs, including financial planning for a fee,
discretionary investment management and non-discretionary
investment advisory programs, and advice on the selection of
investment managers, mutual funds, exchange traded funds
and other securities offered through our investment advisory
programs.
-
The fees for these services and programs are calculated as a
percentage of assets in the account or a flat or annual fee and
are charged on an ongoing basis.
Important distinctions between brokerage and advisory
services. As a wealth management firm providing services to clients
in the United States, UBS Financial Services Inc. is registered with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a broker-dealer
and an investment adviser, offering both investment advisory and
brokerage services.1
Our clients work with their Financial Advisors to determine the
services that are most appropriate given their financial goals and
circumstances. Based on the services you request, we can act as an
investment adviser, as a broker-dealer, or as both. Most of our
Financial Advisors are qualified and licensed to provide both
brokerage as well as investment advisory services.
- When we act as your investment adviser, we will enter into a
written agreement with you expressly acknowledging our
investment advisory relationship with you and describing our
specific obligations to you. At the beginning of our advisory
relationship, we will give you our Form ADV brochure which
provides detailed information about, among other things: the
program(s) you select; the advisory services we provide; our
fees, personnel, other business activities and financial industry
affiliations; and conflicts between our interests and your
interests.
Our Responsibilities as an Investment Adviser
You may obtain information about your Financial Advisor, their
licenses, educational background, employment history, and if they
have had any problems with regulators or received serious complaints
from investors through the FINRA BrokerCheck service available from
FINRA at http://www.finra.org, or from the Securities and
Exchange Commission at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
–
In addition, some of our Financial Advisors hold educational
credentials, such as the Certified Financial PlannerTM (CFP®)2
designation. Holding a professional designation typically indicates that
the Financial Advisor has completed certain courses or continuing
education. However, a Financial Advisor's professional designation
does not change the obligations of UBS as a firm in providing
investment advisory or brokerage services to you.
–
When you participate in one of our investment advisory
programs, we are considered to have a fiduciary relationship with
you under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Our
responsibilities include the obligation to:
– Disclose: Disclose all material facts, including conflicts
between our interests and your interests, to you.
Inform: Inform you if we or our affiliates receive additional
compensation from you or a third-party as a result of our
relationship with you.
Seek best execution: Where we direct trading, to seek best
execution of your securities transactions.
– Obtain consent for principal trades and agency cross trades:
It is important to understand that investment advisory
and brokerage services are separate and distinct and each is
governed by different laws and separate arrangements that
we may have with you. The specific services we provide, our
relationship with you and our legal duties to you in each
arrangement are described in our applicable contracts with
you.
–
This section summarizes the key distinctions between brokerage
and investment advisory services and our respective duties and
Obtain your informed consent after providing appropriate
disclosure before engaging in transactions with you for our
own account or that of an affiliate (principal trades) or
transactions where we or our affiliates act as broker for
parties on both sides of the transactions.
Treat you fairly: Treat you and our other advisory clients
fairly and equitably, without unfairly favoring one client to
the International Resource Management Account.
2Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®,
Certified Financial PlannerTM and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the
U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and
ongoing certification requirements.
1Examples of our advisory programs and services include our fee-based financial
planning services and our ACCESS, Portfolio Management Program, Managed
Accounts Consulting, UBS-CAP, UBS Institutional Consulting, Retirement Plan
Consulting Services Program, UBS Strategic Advisor, UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio,
Advisor Allocation Program, UBS Advice Portfolio Program and PACE programs.
Examples of our brokerage accounts include Resource Management Account® and
Page 8 of 94
the disadvantage of another.
funds and municipal securities. Notwithstanding the
foregoing, principal trading is subject to certain restrictions
and generally not permitted in the Programs described in
this Brochure.
– Act in your best interest: Act in what we reasonably believe
to be your best interests and in the event of a conflict of
interest, place your interests before our own.
– Make informed recommendations: Provide investment
advice and recommendations that we reasonably determine
are suitable for you given your individual financial situation,
investment objectives and goals (based on information you
provide) and that are consistent with any restrictions you
have placed on us.
This Form ADV Disclosure Brochure describes the various
conflicts of interests, compensation practices, and
limitations of our Advisory Programs. It is important that
before you decide to enroll in an Advisory Program you
review this Form ADV carefully and understand these
conflicts of interest and limitations, including but not
limited to that you will pay a separate ongoing asset-
based fee for our services.
– When we provide investment advisory services, our fiduciary
status under the federal retirement laws depends on the
nature of the specific services we have agreed to provide to
you. Please see your applicable agreement and related
disclosures for more information.
The Form ADV Disclosure Brochures for all of our advisory
programs can be found at ubs.com/advisorydisclosures. If
you have any questions or concerns, please speak with
your Financial Advisor.
Ongoing advice and monitoring
If specified in your client agreement:
− We will provide advice and management services (as applicable)
on an ongoing basis.
− We will also monitor your account investments (including cash
Additional information about the Firm’s brokerage
business, related conflicts of interest and compensation
practices is available in the “Your Relationship with UBS”
disclosure which is available online
atubs.com/relationshipwithubs.
and cash equivalents) and provide investment recommendations
on an ongoing basis.
Conflict of interest—asset-based compensation
− When we act as your investment adviser, we and our
If you do not want to pay for fee-based ongoing investment
advice and monitoring through an investment advisory
program, then consider opening a brokerage account with us
instead.
Termination of your advisory account or agreement will end our
fiduciary relationship with you under the Investment Advisers Act
as it pertains to the terminated account or services and, depending
on the terms of your investment advisory agreement with us, will
cause your account to be converted to, and designated as, a
brokerage account.
representatives earn more when you invest more in your
advisory account, and we earn the same advisory fee rate
regardless of how frequently you trade. We also receive
payments from third parties, including the investment
products in which you invest and their sponsors. These third-
party fees are disclosed in this Form ADV Brochure and the
investment product’s prospectus and other offering
documents.
− This creates an incentive for us to recommend that you:
− Increase the assets in your advisory accounts to
increase our fees;
− Invest in investment products that result in greater
compensation to us (including products and services provided
by us and our affiliates or those for which we receive a
portion of product-level fees that you pay); and
− Maintain cash balances in a sweep investment.
Conflict of Interest—principal trades and underwriting
− We may trade with you for our own accounts—a practice
When we provide “investment advice” or recommendations (as
defined in Department of Labor regulation section 2510.3-21) on a
non-discretionary basis to you regarding your covered retirement
accounts, we are fiduciaries within the meaning of Title I of the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act and/or the Internal
Revenue Code, as applicable, which are laws governing retirement
accounts. The way we make money or are otherwise compensated
creates certain conflicts with your interests, so when
recommending investments where UBS would increase its
compensation (including recommendations of an affiliate) we may
operate under the US Department of Labor’s Prohibited Transaction
Exemption 2020-02 (“PTE 2020-02”), where relevant, a special rule
that requires us to act in your best interest and not put our interest
ahead of yours when we provide investment advice or
recommendations as a fiduciary.
known as “principal trading.” This means that we can buy
investments from you, or sell them to you, including securities
that we buy in bulk (or in an underwriting/IPO) and then
distribute to individual investors. But, we can only do this upon
written disclosure and with your specific consent to each
transaction.
− When we trade on a principal basis, we earn compensation by
marking up the price of securities we sell to you, or by marking
down the price of securities we buy from you, and from
discounts and selling concessions for underwritings and IPOs.
Under PTE 2020-02, when providing individualized investment
advice and recommendations regarding your retirement accounts
that is based on our review of your particular needs and individual
circumstances, we must also:
− Meet a professional standard of care (give prudent advice);
− Not put our financial interests ahead of yours (give loyal advice);
− Avoid misleading statements about conflicts of interest, fees,
and investments;
This creates a UBS firm-level incentive to:
− Follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that we give
advice that is in your best interest;
− Offer securities that we have in inventory or where we are
participating in an underwriting syndicate; and
− Charge no more than is reasonable for our services; and
− Give you basic information about conflicts of interest.
− Execute your trade against our proprietary accounts
− Types of securities commonly traded on a principal basis
include fixed income securities, IPOs, certain closed-end
Limitations.
The retirement laws limit the types of products and services we can
offer in your retirement account. This fiduciary acknowledgment
Page 9 of 94
terminated investment advisory services, UBS does not act as a
registered investment adviser.
does not create or modify a contractual obligation or fiduciary
status under state law or federal laws other than retirement laws.
Not all services or activities we provide to your retirement
account(s) or interactions with you are subject to the provisions
above. For example, we are not fiduciaries, and you should not
expect us to be acting as a fiduciary with respect to:
− Communications consisting of general information and
education about the financial markets, asset allocations,
financial planning illustrations and scenarios or the advantages
and risks of particular investments;
− General information and educational materials we may provide
regarding options and alternatives that should be considered
when deciding whether to roll over or transfer retirement
accounts to UBS;
When we act as your broker-dealer, we are subject to the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, the Securities Act of 1933, the rules of self-
regulatory organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority (FINRA), the rules of the New York Stock Exchange and
applicable state laws. When you have a brokerage account with us,
we have the following responsibilities:
− Fairness obligation: We have a duty to deal fairly with you.
Consistent with our duty of fairness, we are obligated to make
sure that the prices you receive when we execute transactions
for you are reasonable and fair in light of prevailing market
conditions and that the commissions and other fees we charge
you are not excessive.
− Advice or recommendations we provide with respect to
− Seek best execution: Where we direct trading, to seek best
execution of your securities transactions.
accounts that are not retirement accounts (this includes taxable
accounts);
− Transactions you enter into that are unsolicited or self-directed
(i.e. where UBS does not provide a recommendation);
− Advice or recommendations we provide on a one-time or
− Suitability: We must have a reasonable basis for believing that
any securities recommendations we make to you are
suitable and appropriate for you, given your individual
financial circumstances, needs and goals.
episodic basis;
− Best interest: If you are an ”individual wealth management
− Advice or recommendations that are not based on our review of
your individual needs or your specific circumstances; and Advice
or recommendations that you execute at another financial
institution where we do not receive compensation.
Our Services as a Broker-Dealer and Relationship with You
client”3 we must have a reasonable basis for believing that a
recommendation of any securities transaction or investment
strategy involving securities is in your best interest, without
placing the financial or other interest of the firm or Financial
Advisor ahead of your interests. As part of our best interest
obligation, we must provide written full and fair disclosure of all
material facts relating to the scope and terms of our relationship
with you.
− Principal trading: We are permitted to buy securities from you
Although a brokerage relationship can be a cost-effective way
of investing your assets, it is not for everyone. As a brokerage
client, you need to understand and agree to our service
limitations and conflicts.
-
As a full-service broker-dealer, our services are not limited to
taking customer orders and executing securities transactions.
In our capacity as a broker-dealer, we provide a variety of
services relating to investments in securities, including
investment research, trade execution and custody services. We
may also make recommendations to our brokerage clients
about whether to buy, sell or hold securities, and/or access
banking-related services such as credit cards, mortgages, credit
lines and margin for your accounts. We do not make
investment decisions for you or manage your accounts on a
discretionary basis. We will only buy or sell securities for
brokerage clients based on specific directions from you.
- We receive transaction-based compensation for trades you
or sell securities to you from our (or our affiliates) own
inventory, known as “principal trading” and earn a profit on
those trades. When we engage in principal trades, we disclose the
capacity in which we acted on your trade confirmation, though we
are not required to communicate this or obtain your consent in
advance or to inform you of the profit earned on the trades. Absent
special circumstances, we are not held to the same legal
standards that apply when providing investment advisory
services to you. Our legal obligations to disclose detailed
information to you about the nature and scope of our business,
personnel, fees, conflicts between our interests and your interests
and other matters are more limited than when we are providing
investment advisory services to you. Notwithstanding the
foregoing, principal trading is subject to certain restrictions—
and in many cases not allowed-- with respect to retirement
plans subject to ERISA.
− No monitoring: We have no duty to provide ongoing
decide to enter into, which includes commissions,
administrative fees and compensation from third parties that
are disclosed to you.
-
recommendations or monitor your investments. We are not
obligated to provide recommendations to you, or to update
recommendations made previously, and not doing so should not
be viewed as a recommendation to hold an investment.
− Your responsibility: You are responsible for independently
Unlike how we charge for investment advisory services, we do
not charge or receive a separate fee for our advice or
recommendations and our recommendations are provided
solely incidental to our brokerage services.
ensuring that the investments in your accounts remain
appropriate given your investment objective, risk tolerance,
financial circumstances and investment needs.
Our Responsibilities to You as a Broker-Dealer
− Transaction-based compensation: We receive transaction-
based compensation for trades you decide to enter into, which
includes commissions, administrative fees and compensation
from third parties that are disclosed to you.
When UBS acts as a broker-dealer, including when we recommend
securities transactions and/or banking-related services in your
account or make any recommendation on an account that has
obligation between UBS (or your financial professional). Please consult your
UBS agreements for all terms and conditions controlling your account and
relationship with us.
3 “Individual Wealth Management Client” is a natural person, or the legal
representative of a natural person, who receives a recommendation from
UBS and uses it primarily for personal, family or household purposes. This
disclosure does not create or modify any agreement, relationship or
Page 10 of 94
− No separate fee for advice: Unlike how we charge for
using our affiliate bank or money market funds of our
affiliates.
− Route trades to our affiliate for execution.
investment advisory services, we do not charge or receive a
separate fee for our advice or recommendations and our
recommendations are provided solely as incidental to our
brokerage services.
Conflict of interest: Principal trades and underwriting
− We may trade with you for our own accounts. This means
that we can buy investments from you, or sell them to you,
including securities that we buy in bulk or in an
underwriting/initial public offering (IPO) and then distribute
to individual investors.
− When we trade on a principal basis, we earn compensation
Conflict of interest: Transaction compensation
− When we act as a broker-dealer, we are compensated by the
commissions and fees you pay us as well as through
revenue we receive from third-parties that often include the
sponsors of investment products on our platform. Your Financial
Advisor does not receive a portion of all of these amounts so
that some conflicts apply at the Financial Advisor level and some
apply only to UBS at the firm level.
Financial Advisor conflicts include incentives to
recommend:
by marking up the price of securities we sell to you, or by
marking down the price of securities we buy from you,
and from discounts and selling concessions for underwritings
and IPOs. This creates a UBS firm-level incentive to:
− Offer securities that we have in inventory or where we are
participating in an underwriting syndicate; and
− Investments that result in greater compensation.
− That you trade more frequently.
− Execute your trade against our proprietary accounts.
UBS firm-level conflicts include incentives to:
− Offer products and services that we or our
affiliates create.
Types of securities commonly traded on a principal basis include
fixed income securities, IPOs, certain closed-end funds and
municipal securities.
− Offer products and services from companies that offer us
revenue.
− Maintain a sweep program for uninvested cash balances
Page 11 of 94
Item 4. Services, Fees and Compensation
A. About Our Investment Advisory Programs
institutional clients who choose to custody their assets away
from UBS. Under those circumstances, the consulting
services are offered in a non-wrap fee relationship.
However, these programs may not be appropriate for clients with
the following preferences:
This brochure describes our retail and certain institutional wrap fee
and non-wrap fee investment Advisory Programs. We offer a
variety of advisory services to address different investment
needs, including:
– A short-term investment horizon
– A desire to maintain consistently high levels of cash or
Program type
Programs included
money market funds in their accounts
– Clients who want to maintain highly concentrated
Discretionary Programs
–
Portfolio Management Program
UBS Advice Portfolio Program (not
available for new enrollments after
March 21, 2025)
Advisor Allocation Program
positions that will not be sold regardless of market
conditions
Investors who anticipate continuous withdrawals from their
accounts.
Separately managed account
(SMA) programs
ACCESS and Managed Accounts
Consulting
UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio
Unified managed account
program
PACE
UBS Strategic Advisor
Non-Discretionary Advisory
programs
Portfolio Based Advisory
Programs
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program
Institutional Consulting
Cash and Securities Concentration: Advisory Programs are not
appropriate for clients who want to maintain a high level of cash
and/or highly concentrated positions that will not be sold
regardless of market conditions. If you hold high level of cash
and/or highly concentrated positions in your Advisory Accounts,
then you do so against our recommendation and with the
understanding that the value of those securities will be included for
purposes of calculating the Program fee, resulting in a higher fee to
us. Cash in advisory accounts is automatically swept to sweep
programs offered by our affiliated Bank. The interest you earn from
the sweep is significantly lower than the advisory fee you pay to us.
UBS CAP Select
Alternative Investments
Advisory
You may hold excess cash or concentrated positions in a brokerage
account without incurring the Program Fee. If your account
continues to be outside of the cash and concentration guidelines
over a specified period of time, then your account will be removed
from the Program.
We do not hold ourselves out as specializing in a particular type of
advisory service or strategy. Instead, our Programs offer a broad
variety of strategies, SMA Managers, asset allocations and features.
In certain cases, the Advisory and consulting services available in
our programs may be provided by Financial Advisors that are
registered with companies that are affiliated with us.
Concentrated equity positions may be held in Concentrated Equity
Solutions (“CES”) SMA strategy (See section F. 2. Managed
Accounts (Managed Account Consulting Program for additional
information).
These Programs offer advisory services which allow you to
manage your account in a number of ways:
– You can delegate investment discretion to our Financial
Advisors or UBS Asset Management
Limitations of Product Offerings: While we offer an extensive
list of investment options and SMA strategies, the offerings are
limited to those approved for sale or recommendation at the Firm.
We do not offer or recommend every SMA Manager, investment or
strategy available in the industry.
– You can access the discretionary investment services of SMA
investment managers
– You can work with your Financial Advisor in those
programs over which you retain investment discretion
– You can use any combination of the above
Generally, these Programs are designed for:
There are important differences among these Programs in
terms of services, structure and administration, the depth
of research conducted on the managers available in the
programs, Program Fees and the compensation that
Financial Advisors receive. Please review this brochure
carefully as you decide which program is appropriate for
your investment needs.
– Clients who want to implement a medium to long term
investment plan
– Clients who seek and use the advice and guidance of an
investment professional either in their self-directed accounts
or by delegating management of their assets to a portfolio
manager and/or SMA Manager
Investors who prefer the consistency of fee-based pricing
–
– Clients who are looking for investment advice, custody,
In the future, we envision most of the Advisory Programs evolving
to a "Unified Advisory Solution" (UAS). UAS will consolidate certain
distinct Advisory Programs described in this Brochure and make
these advisory options available in a single client account. If at that
time, you have more than one Advisory Account with us, we may
combine these accounts into the one Unified Advisory Solution
account. We will provide prior written notice to you regarding
these changes and how they would affect your Accounts, fees and
the services we provide to you.
–
We offer other Advisory services not described in this brochure. If
you would like more information, please ask your Financial
Advisor for the Form ADV Disclosure Brochure for these
programs and services: See Item 6, "Section C Advisory Services–
trading and execution services, and performance reporting
in an all-inclusive account instead of accessing those services
separately
For CAP Select: clients who are looking for a diversified
asset allocation of alternative investment vehicles
The IC Program also provides consulting services to
–
Page 12 of 94
Advisory Business; Advisory Services" for additional details.
B. Advisory Programs: Fee Schedules, Minimum
Investments and Minimum Annual Fees
The following programs offer the flexibility to negotiate either
a flat-fee or a tiered (break-point) fee schedule:
ACCESS
-
- Managed Accounts Consulting (MAC)
Portfolio Management Program (PMP)
-
Institutional Consulting (IC)
-
Flat Fee Option: the agreed-upon annual fee is a fixed percentage
of the assets in the Account. That percentage does not change as
the value of your Account changes.
Tiered (Break-point) Fee Schedule: the negotiated fee, also a
percentage of the assets, varies based on asset levels and changes
as you increase or decrease assets in your account. Specific “break-
points” for each asset level are defined in your Program application
(the “Application”). You may request to have two or more eligible
Advisory Accounts treated as related accounts to qualify for certain
break-point discounts. Please discuss your options with your
Financial Advisor. If you negotiated a discount to the UBS
Investment Advisory Fee schedule, that discount will apply only to
the break-point asset level (i.e., the asset level that qualifies you for
reduced fees) indicated in your Application. As a result, your UBS
Investment Advisory Fee and overall Program Fee may change in
the future as you increase the assets in your account and trigger
the breakpoints listed in your application.
Fixed Fees: The IC Program also permits fixed annual hard-dollar
fees when IC services are provided on a non-discretionary basis and
the assets are held away from UBS. With a flat hard-dollar fee, your
fee remains the same dollar amount, regardless of changes in your
assets.
Page 13 of 94
All rates listed below indicate the maximum annual fees in each Program. These fees do not include management and administrative fees
and expenses of pooled investment vehicles that may be held in the account.
DISCRETIONARY PROGRAMS
Program Name
ADVISOR ALLOCATION PROGRAM
UBS ADVICE PORTFOLIO PROGRAM
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
(PMP)
$25,000 in eligible assets
Minimum Account
Size
The minimum account opening size:
$25,000.
Closed to new clients or accounts on
March 21, 2025.
Will be higher when SMA sub-accounts are
included in the Target Allocation and will
depend on the SMA Managers’ minimums.
Some SMA strategies have different minimums
in AAP and SWP than in the ACCESS or MAC
Programs. SMA strategies in SWP/AAP have
minimums ranging from $5,000 to
$1,000,000
All Assets: 1.25%
All Assets and strategy types (Equity,
Balanced and Fixed Income Accounts): 2.50%
Fee Schedule
Maximum Fee
UBS Investment Advisory Fee: All assets:
2.50% (SMA Manager Fee is additional)
PMP Liquidity Portfolios: 1.00%
The Advisor Allocation Program has a
“Blended Program Fee” that includes a UBS
Investment Advisory Fee which applies to all
assets in the Account and additional SMA
Manager fees for the investment management
services in the SMA sub-accounts. SMA
Manager Fees vary depending on the strategy
and manager(s) selected by your Financial
Advisor.
No minimum annual fee
No minimum annual fee
No minimum annual fee
Minimum Annual
Fee
Not applicable
SMA Manager’s
Fee (including
Premium Services
Fee)
Not applicable. UBS Financial Services
will pay UBS Asset Management for its
sub-advisory services from its own
resources. Clients will not pay a
separate investment management fee.
The SMA Manager’s Fee is in addition to the
UBS Investment Advisory Fee. Not all
strategies have an additional SMA Manager
Fee. Fees are based on a percentage of
assets under management and generally
range from 0.00% to 0.50% for all accounts.
Fee Options
Asset-based fee
Asset-based fee
Asset-based fee
Yes
Yes
No
Automatic
Rebalancing
Options
Page 14 of 94
SEPARATELY MANAGED ACCOUNTS PROGRAMS AND UNIFIED MANAGED ACCOUNTS PROGRAM
Program Name
ACCESS
Strategic Wealth Portfolio (SWP)
Managed Accounts Consulting
(MAC)
Relationship Type Single contract, sub-advisory program.
Client hires UBS-FS and authorizes UBS-
FS to hire manager and make manager
changes on client’s behalf.
Dual contract, consulting
program. Client hires UBS- FS
as consultant and hires
manager (directly) to manage
the account.
A unified managed account (with discretionary (SMA-
sub-accounts) and non-discretionary subaccounts)
that offers separately managed accounts, mutual
funds, and exchange traded funds (ETFs), within a
single account. Separately managed accounts are
sub-advised as in ACCESS.
$25,000.
The minimum account opening size: $25,000.
Minimum
Account Size
$100,000 or the manager’s
minimum (whichever is
greater).
Certain strategies have minimums from
$5,000 to over $1,000,000
$10,000,000 for MAC
accounts held at an outside
custodian, subject to limited
exceptions.
Can be higher when SMA sub-accounts are included
in the Target Allocation and will depend on the SMA
Managers’ minimums. Some SMA strategies have
different minimums in SWP than in the ACCESS or
MAC Programs. SMA strategies in SWP/AAP have
minimums ranging from $5,000 to $1,000,000
UBS Investment Advisory Fee: All assets: 2.50%
(SMA Manager Fee is additional)
Fee Schedule
Maximum Fee
UBS Investment Advisory Fee: All assets
and strategy types: 2.50% (SMA
Manager Fee is additional)
UBS Investment Advisory Fee:
All assets and strategy types:
2.50% (SMA Manager Fee is
additional)
The Strategic Wealth Portfolio Program has a
“Blended Program Fee” that includes a UBS
Investment Advisory Fee which applies to all assets
in the Account and additional SMA Manager fees
for the investment management services in the SMA
sub-accounts. SMA Manager Fees vary depending
on the strategy and manager(s) you selected.
No minimum annual fee
No minimum annual fee
No minimum annual fee
Minimum Annual
Fee
The SMA Manager’s fee is in addition to the UBS Investment Advisory Fee. Not all strategies have an additional SMA Manager Fee.
Fees are based on a percentage of assets under management
SMA Manager’s
Fee (including
Premium Services
Fee)
.
Generally range from 0.00% to 0.50%
for all accounts.
Fee is negotiated between the
client and the manager.
Generally range from 0.00% to 0.50% for all accounts.
Generally range from 0.02% to
2.00% for all accounts.
Fee Options
Asset-based fee
Asset-based fee
Asset-based fee
No
No
Yes
Automatic
Rebalancing
Options
The ACCESS, SWP, AAP, MAC and IC programs offer some of the same SMA strategies for different SMA Manager fees. The amount of the fee paid
to each SMA Manager is a function of that SMA Manager’s investment style and the fee negotiated with the SMA Manager either by UBS (in
ACCESS, SWP, AAP, IC with Power of Attorney for Limited Financial Advisor Discretion) or by you in the MAC and IC non-discretionary Programs.
Depending on your asset level and ability to negotiate the investment management fee with the SMA Manager in the dual- contract structure of
the MAC and IC programs, you may find that the single-contract structure in ACCESS, AAP and SWP provides a more cost-effective option or vice versa.
In addition, based on the combination of our UBS Investment Advisory Fees and your SMA Manager’s Fees, the overall Program Fee for your
SMA account in MAC or IC may exceed 3% of the account value. Please review your options and overall costs carefully with your Financial
Advisor before investing.
Page 15 of 94
NON-DISCRETIONARY ADVISORY PROGRAMS
Program Name
PACE Select
PACE Multi
UBS Strategic Advisor
Eligible
Investments
Affiliated Mutual Funds (100%
mutual funds)
Affiliated and Non-Affiliated Mutual
Funds
(100% mutual funds)
A combination of equities, open- and closed-end mutual
funds, ETFs, fixed-income securities, approved unit investment
trusts (UITs), options, certain alternative investments,
structured products and other securities.
$10,000
$5,000
Minimum
Account Size
$25,000 in eligible billable assets.
If you link to another Strategic Advisor account, only one of
the Related Accounts is subject to this minimum requirement.
Each other Related Account is subject to a minimum account
size of $10,000 in eligible assets.
Fee Schedule
All assets: 2.50%
All assets: 2.50%
All assets: 2.50%
Maximum Fee
Minimum
No minimum annual fee
No minimum annual fee
No minimum annual fee
Fee Options
Asset-based fee
Asset-based fee
Asset-based fee
Yes
Yes
No
Automatic
Rebalancing
Options
Page 16 of 94
PORTFOLIO BASED ADVISORY PROGRAMS
Name
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program (UBS-CAP)
UBS Institutional Consulting (IC)
UBS-CAP and IC services include, but are not limited to: 1) assistance in the development and preparation of investment policy guidelines, or an investment
policy statement for IC clients; 2) the preparation of an asset allocation study and analysis that allocates your investment assets among various asset
categories or classes; 3) selection of separate account managers, mutual funds and alternative investments; 4) portfolio evaluation and review; 5) ongoing
investment management consulting on items such as reviewing the asset allocation and investment policy and the impact of capital market developments
on the overall investment strategy.
Non-Discretionary: All programs eligible except PMP, AAP, PACE
Select, PACE Multi and UBS Advice Portfolio Program.
Implementation
Options and
Eligible Programs
All implementation Options: Alternative Investments, Non-
Researched Assets and Held Away Assets permitted at certain
levels.
Non-Discretionary: All advisory programs are eligible for the
CAP Relationship except PACE Select, PACE Multi and the
Advice Advantage Program. Strategic Advisor accounts are
eligible only if they do not hold alternative investments.
N/A
Limited Power of Attorney for Implementation of Client
Directed Investment Activities: All programs eligible except
PACE Select, PACE Multi. MAC is limited to Researched
Managers only. LPOA excludes Strategic Advisor accounts,
non-researched assets, non-researched managers (MAC
Eligible), Publicly Registered Non-Traded REITs and BDCs. Client
retains all authority over the implementation of investment
advice in those accounts and investments.
Power of Attorney for Limited Financial Advisor Discretion:
Eligible programs include ACCESS, MAC (Researched Managers
only), and Advisor Allocation Program. Alternative investments
can be included.
Power of Attorney for Limited Financial Advisor Discretion
Services: Eligible programs include ACCESS, MAC (Researched
Managers only) and PMP. PACE Select, PACE Multi and Advice
Portfolio Program accounts are not eligible for this relationship
type. Strategic Advisor (only accounts without alternative
investments) and SWP accounts and non-researched assets,
private equity, private real estate, REITs and BDCs may be
included in the CAP relationship but are excluded from the
LPOA. Client retains all authority over the implementation of
investment advice in those accounts and investments.
Discretion over private equity and real estate assets may be
granted on a limited exception basis for unsolicited client
requests for relationships that meet certain asset thresholds.
$10,000,000 (relationship size)
Minimum
Relationship Size
Non-Discretionary Services: $1 million
Discretionary Services: $5 million
Eligible Clients
All institutional clients that meet the minimum relationship size
are eligible for IC.
All clients that meet the minimum relationship size other than
qualified, defined benefit, and employee directed plans are
eligible for UBS-CAP.
Fee Schedule
The SMA Manager Fee in ACCESS, MAC, and AAP is in addition
to the IC program fee). See the ACCESS, MAC, and AAP
Program descriptions for details.
All assets: 2.50% (the SMA Manager Fee in ACCESS, MAC,
SWP and AAP is in addition to the UBS-CAP fee). See the
ACCESS, MAC, SWP and AAP Program descriptions for details.
Non-discretionary services.
Assets
Maximum program fee
$1 – 10 million
2.00%
$10 – 25 million
1.50%
$25 – 50 million
1.30%
$50 – 100 million
1.10%
$100 – 250 million
0.90%
$250 – 500 million
0.70%
$500 – 1 Billion
0.50%
> $1 Billion
0.30%
Page 17 of 94
PORTFOLIO BASED ADVISORY PROGRAMS
Name
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program (UBS-CAP)
UBS Institutional Consulting (IC)
Maximum program Fee
Discretionary services:
Assets
$5 – 25 million
1.80%
$25 – 50 million
1.55%
$50 – 100 million
1.30%
$100 – 250 million
1.05%
$250 – 500 million
0.80%
$500 – 1 Billion
0.58%
> $1 Billion
0.33%
In limited circumstances, IC can offer one-time project services
for a flat fee.
No minimum annual fee
For those clients eligible for both UBS-CAP and IC, your financial advisor has a conflict of interest in recommending
the program with the higher overall compensation to us and our affiliates and higher cost to the client.
Minimum Annual
Fee
$10,000 or the maximum program fee based on the fee
schedule with respect to services selected and the value of
Eligible Investments, whichever is less.
Fee Options
Asset-based fee
Asset-based or hard dollar for held away only; project services
available as a one-time fee
Page 18 of 94
ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS ADVISORY PROGRAM
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program Select (CAP Select)
Program Name
UBS
CAP Select services include, but are not limited to: 1) assistance in the development and preparation of investment policy
guidelines; 2) the preparation of an asset allocation study and analysis that allocates your investment assets among various
alternative investments asset categories or classes; 3) selection of alternative investments; 4) portfolio evaluation and review; 5)
ongoing investment management consulting on items such as reviewing the asset allocation and investment policy and the
impact of capital market developments 6on the overall investment strategy.
Consolidated
Advisory
Program -
Select
Implementation
Options
You may establish a CAP Select relationship on a fully non-discretionary basis (without any limited power of attorney) or you
may delegate certain activities to your Financial Advisor in this Program by selecting the Limited Power of Attorney option in the
CAP Select Application and executing the Agreement and Application. CAP Select offers (1) Limited Power of Attorney for
Implementation of Client Directed Investment Activities and (2) Power of Attorney for Limited Financial Advisor Discretion
Services.
You may establish a CAP Select Program Account on a stand-alone basis, or in conjunction with a UBS CAP Program Account.
CAP Select eligible assets are limited to alternative investment vehicles held at UBS.
Discretion over private equity and real estate assets may be granted on a limited exception basis for unsolicited client requests
for relationships that meet certain asset thresholds.
$10,000,000 (relationship size)
Minimum
Relationship Size
Fee Schedule
Maximum Fee
All assets: up to 1.00% CAP Select is an advice-only program in which the fee you pay is solely for the investment advice and
performance reporting provided in the Program. Custody, trading and execution fees are not applicable or assessed in this
Program.
No minimum annual fee
Minimum Annual
Asset-based fee (Advice-Only / Non-Wrap)
Fee Options
households. As such, not all products and services available at
UBS Financial Services Inc. are available through the IWSG. Clients
to the IWSG are currently limited to two different advisory
programs: ACCESS and MAC. We can change the products and
services available through the IWSG at any time, in our discretion.
Billing practices vary by Program. Please see “Account
Requirements and Types of Clients—Billing Practices” for a
description. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to
institute special pricing features, change account minimums
for new accounts, impose higher account minimums for
certain strategies or portfolios that may be offered from
time to time, terminate accounts that fall below the
minimum account value requirements, or require that
additional cash or securities be deposited to bring an
account up to the required minimum.
Various Roles and Services of your UBS Financial Advisor:
The services of our Financial Advisors vary depending on the
Program you select and can encompass different levels of
discretion available in our Advisory Programs. For example,
Financial Advisors who manage accounts on a discretionary basis
in the PMP and AAP Programs may also provide services to you
and to other clients outside of those Programs as non-
discretionary investment advisers in PACE, SWP, Strategic Advisor
and the SMA Programs. The same Financial Advisors can also
provide services to you and other clients in connection with
brokerage accounts in their capacity as broker-dealer
representatives. As a result, Financial Advisors participating in
PMP and AAP may dedicate time to activities other than
discretionary portfolio management. Further, the management of
accounts for which they exercise discretion in PMP and AAP will
differ from each other and from other accounts for which they
provide services, including differences in investment methodology,
asset allocation and/or investment recommendations. In addition,
we, our Financial Advisor and our affiliates may give advice and
take action in the performance of our duties to clients which
differs from advice given, or the timing and nature of actions
taken, with respect to other clients’ accounts.
Limited Advisory Program Options in Wealth Advice Center:
The Wealth Advice Center (WAC) supports primarily the needs of
mass affluent investors through a team-based approach. The
advice and services provided by the WAC Financial Advisors is
limited to an offering and service model designed for these
households. As such, not all products and services available at
UBS Financial Services Inc. are available through the UBS Wealth
Advice Center. New clients to the UBS Wealth Advice Center are
currently limited to the ACCESS and Strategic Wealth Portfolio
Programs. Clients already enrolled in the PACE Multi Advisor
Program or the PACE Select Advisor Program are permitted to
enroll additional accounts in those programs, if appropriate. In
addition, select employers have limited their participants to the
PACE Multi Advisor Program and PACE Select Advisor Program.
WAC clients in this scenario are permitted to enroll in PACE Multi
Advisor or PACE Select Advisor, if appropriate. We can change the
products and services available through the Wealth Advice Center
at any time, in our discretion.
Financial Advisors who participate in the PMP and AAP Programs
have an incentive to recommend their services in PMP and AAP
over those of third party SMA Managers in other Advisory
Programs or over traditional commission-based brokerage services.
In addition, we and our Financial Advisors have a conflict of
interest in recommending the services of related persons in
Limited Advisory Program Options in the International
Wealth Solutions Group: The International Wealth Solutions
Group (IWSG) supports primarily the needs of non-U.S. resident
mass affluent investors through a team-based approach. The
advice and services provided by the IWSG Financial Advisors is
limited to an offering and service model designed for these
Page 19 of 94
managing client accounts because this will result in higher overall
compensation to us and our affiliates than if third-party managers
were used.
The Fees for an Account may be changed either by sending you
prior written notice of the change with an opportunity for you to
object to the change, or obtaining your prior verbal consent which
we will confirm in writing for your records when fees are
increased or decreased. The IC Program requires written consent
for a fee increase. The fee change will be effective for the next
quarterly billing cycle. Your continued use of our services will
constitute your agreement to the change.
Only Financial Advisors who have received the internal designation
of Institutional Consultant may provide IC services. For more
information on the Institutional Consultant title see “Education
and Business Standards for Financial Advisors Participating in Our
Advisory Programs.”
Your Financial Advisor receives a percentage of the UBS
Investment Advisory Fees you pay to us.
1. Your Program Fee; Services Included in Your
Program Fee:
The Programs described in the Brochure, except for CAP Select,
charge a “wrap fee”. The IC Program charges a “wrap fee” if
the assets are held at UBS. For IC clients that hold their assets
away from UBS, the IC program fee is for advice only, but it is still
based on assets under management.
Fees are Negotiable. The fees we charge in our Programs are
negotiable and may differ from client to client, and for clients in
the Wealth Advice Center, based on a number of factors. These
factors include, but are not limited to, the type and size of the
account, the number and range of supplemental Advisory and
client-related services to be provided to the account, the scope of
the engagement and the complexity of services.
Although the UBS Advisory Fee is negotiable and can be waived in
certain instances, we limit the ability of Financial Advisors to
negotiate below certain levels (“hard floors”). The hard floors
differ based on relationship size, strategy type, and for separately
managed accounts offered in the ACCESS, SWP, and AAP
Programs with no additional manager fee.
That means the total Program Fee that you pay in the Programs
described in this brochure covers:
-the UBS Investment Advisory Fee which covers investment advice
and consulting services of UBS and your Financial Advisor
-trading, execution and settlement for trading through UBS
-custody at UBS
-performance reporting for accounts custodied at UBS (IC also
provides performance reporting for accounts custodied away from
UBS) and
-related account services that we provide to you depending on
the program that you select
-may include portfolio management as well.
If applicable, given your Program selection, the total Program Fee
includes the SMA Manager Fee.
Discount Sharing: We have discount sharing requirements in
our Advisory Programs to ensure fees are not priced below
specified levels. Discount sharing does not apply to accounts in the
Wealth Advice Center or to certain Managed Options Strategies.
Discount sharing levels and hard floors vary by style and in some
instances by the types of strategies available in a Program. For
example: the discount sharing levels and hard floors for an equity
strategy are different than for a fixed income strategy; and, within
those categories, hard floors levels differ for separately managed
accounts offered in the ACCESS, SWP and AAP programs with no
additional manager fee.
Financial Advisors receive less than their standard payout when
accounts are priced below the discount sharing levels. This creates
an incentive for Financial Advisors to price accounts at or above
those levels. If a Financial Advisor wishes to discount the UBS
Investment Advisory Fee below certain levels (but not below the
hard floors), he/she may have the opportunity to do so but may
earn reduced compensation associated with the discount.
Since your Program Fee for the wrap-fee programs covers trading
and execution costs, separate brokerage commissions will not
be charged to your Account. However, because our
Programs are investment advisory programs and the advice
and guidance of your Financial Advisor is the primary
service of the Programs, you should not enroll in our
Programs in order to obtain ancillary services such as
custody, trading and execution, or assume that you will
receive any particular benefit from the availability of those
services in the Programs. For example, depending on the
circumstances, Program Accounts may have low or no
trading (such as may be the case with a “buy and hold”
strategy) or the securities or other investments traded
might not typically incur commissions or other transaction-
based charges (such as can be the case with some fixed
income securities and mutual funds). Moreover, other
broker-dealers offer custody and trade execution services
on discounted or complimentary basis.
The maximum annual rates for the UBS Investment Advisory Fee
are listed in the fee schedules above.
These discount sharing fee levels are typically higher for equity and
balanced strategies than for fixed income strategies, and as such
this creates an incentive for Financial Advisors to recommend fixed
income strategies. However, the Advisory fee charged to clients
for fixed income strategies is traditionally lower than for equity
and balanced strategies. Financial Advisors are incentivized to
price accounts at the stated fee schedules. All assets held at UBS
(including brokerage assets) that are part of your marketing
relationship may be used by your Financial Advisor to determine
pricing for your Advisory Accounts.
CAP Select is an advice-only program in which the fee you pay is
solely for the investment advice and performance reporting
provided in the Program. If you hold assets away from UBS, the IC
Program is available on an advice-only basis. Custody, trading and
execution fees are not applicable or assessed in the CAP Select
Program and in the IC Program if you elect to hold assets away
from UBS.
Customized pricing and Financial Advisor compensation may be
approved for advisory relationships with assets over a certain
amount. Advisory Accounts enrolled in UBS-CAP and CAP Select
are subject to the Equity/Balanced and Pooled Investment Vehicle
(PIV) Discount Sharing schedule that is the same for all programs,
and account types.
Discount sharing is waived for client accounts enrolled in the IC
Program, except for accounts enrolled in an SMA Advantage
strategy. IC clients priced below certain levels may not be eligible
Your Fees Can Change: The UBS Investment Advisory Fee, SMA
Manager Fees (or Premium Services Fees) and overall Program
Fee for your Account(s) may change over the course of your
relationship with us.
Page 20 of 94
for SMA Advantage strategies, or if they are eligible, your Financial
Advisor may be subject to a reduced payout for those accounts
which creates a conflict of interest by incentivizing them to
recommend allocations to other investments that do not have a
reduced payout. We address our conflicts of interest by
maintaining policies and procedures requiring that Advisors act in
your best interest, reasonably supervising their activities and
disclosing these conflicts so that you can make fully informed
decisions. Affiliated or Proprietary SMA Advantage strategies that
charge a Premium Services Fee are not available to Rtirement Plan
clients enrolled in the IC Program with a Limited Power of
Attorney for Financial Advisor Discretion Services.
Advisory Programs. The Mandate amount is the amount of
collateral you are willing to put at risk. While the actual value of
assets in your Account will fluctuate over time, the Mandate
remains constant unless you change it by notifying your Financial
Advisor or UBS lowers the Mandate. In cases where UBS lowers
the Mandate, we will notify you in writing of the change.
Depending on the value of your account, this practice of
billing on the Mandate amount will result in higher
compensation to UBS and your Portfolio Manager than if
the Program Fee was based on the value of eligible assets in
your account. See "Account Requirements and Types of Clients;
Billing Practices" for more information. You should consider the
impact of these billing practices carefully before investing in these
strategies.
Important Considerations of an Asset-Based Fee Option.
During a promotional period in 2023, discount sharing thresholds
were temporarily suspended for certain accounts that invested in
fixed income strategies in ACCESS, MAC and PMP when specified
criteria were met. The minimum fees for such accounts were also
reduced to 15 basis points. Client pricing and Financial Advisor
discount sharing waivers remain for the life of the Advisory
account while invested in a fixed income strategy – unless there
are changes to the program or Advisory fee. This creates a conflict
of interest as it incentivizes Financial Advisors to recommend
maintaining accounts in these fixed income strategies over other
strategy types. While clients can benefit from the reduced fee,
Financial Advisors also benefit by receiving compensation based
on the entire fee charged to the accounts instead of having those
payouts reduced by discount sharing.
We set and evaluate the reasonability of UBS Investment Advisory
Fees in the Programs based on the investment advisory services we
offer, without regard – and attributing no economic benefit – to
any ancillary services such as custody, trading and execution
available in the Programs. You should expect that lower fees are
available from other firms offering the same or comparable
services. You may pay more or less in a UBS Financial Services
Inc. wrap- fee program than you might otherwise pay if you
purchased the services separately, through other firms, or if you
chose to purchase the same or similar securities in a brokerage
account without the investment advisory services of your Financial
Advisor.
UBS offers a dedicated liquidity strategy available to Financial
Advisors and their clients in the discretionary PMP Advisory
program. The maximum UBS Advisory fee for clients enrolled in
the liquidity strategy is 1.%, with Financial Advisors not subject to
discount sharing on applicable accounts, regardless of account
assets or relationship size.
For example, depending on your asset allocation or strategy
selection, you may find that the individual investments of your
strategy or allocation are available to you outside of the
Program for more or less than you would pay in the Program.
Several factors affect whether your fees and costs are more or
less in a fee-based program, including:
Size of the portfolio
Fees as well as other account requirements vary as a result of
the application of prior policies depending on when your
account was first opened. Fees for certain Advisory services
described in this Brochure are reduced for our employees, certain
family members or employees of our affiliates. We reserve the
right to change those fees upon termination of employment
with the firm.
-
- Whether we serve as custodian for your account assets
The types of investments you select, or are made by the
-
SMA Manager, Portfolio Manager or Financial Advisor
- Whether such investments carry additional administrative
-
or management fees
The trading activity in the Account and the types of
securities traded
- Whether your SMA Manager uses our trading and
execution capabilities or those of other broker-dealers
to execute transactions for your accounts
Discount sharing waivers provide Financial Advisors the
flexibility to price advisory accounts at lower fee levels
which can benefit clients, but also provide an incentive for
them to recommend moving from brokerage to advisory
programs to their clients which creates a conflict of
interest between the interest of the Financial Advisor and
the interest of the Client.
- Whether you have large cash holdings (i.e., cash or cash
equivalents such as bank account deposits or money
market funds offered as so-called sweep vehicles) in an
Account and whether investment advisory fees are
charged on those cash holdings
The actual costs of the services if purchased separately
-
Other types of fee arrangements—such as a fixed fee
arrangement—are available in certain programs. We may enter
into special agreements to provide other services involving specific
clients, Financial Advisors or any of our branch offices. For
more information regarding the above, contact your Financial
Advisor.
Your Program Fee will not be adjusted if, among other
things:
-
-
Program Fees are expressed as an annual rate that is prorated
for the quarterly or other billing period and is applied to the
asset value of the account. For billing purposes, asset value
means the total fair market value of the eligible securities in
your Advisory Account, including, where applicable, the value of
margin loans, dividends and accrued interest.
-
-
-
Options Overlay Strategy and Mandate Amounts: The
Program Fee for Options Overlay Strategies is typically based on a
"Mandate" amount of the strategy, selected by the client, not the
value of eligible assets in the Account, as is the practice for most
Your Account has low or no trading activity,
Your SMA Manager chooses to trade away from us, and
your trades are subject to commissions or other charges
imposed by other broker-dealers,
You choose to custody or trade your assets at another
financial institution,
You have large cash holdings, or
You decide not to implement or follow the investment
advice we provide to you.
Page 21 of 94
Program or to Retirement Plan clients in the IC Program with a
Limited Power of Attorney for Financial Advisor Discretion Services.
Accordingly, you should evaluate UBS Investment Advisory
Fees based solely on the investment advisory services we
provide, without regard to any ancillary services provided
such as custody, trading and execution services.
SMA Manager Fees: Certain SMA strategies are available in
several programs at different fee levels. Therefore, the Program
and/or SMA Manager Fee you pay will vary, depending on the
Program you select and the structure of the program (dual,
single contract, unified account, discretionary or non-
discretionary program). For example:
The ACCESS, MAC and IC programs offer some of the same SMA
strategies. Depending on your asset level and ability to negotiate
the SMA Manager Fee with the SMA Manager in the dual-
contract structure of the MAC or IC non-discretionary programs,
you may find that the single- contract structure in ACCESS
provides a more cost-effective option or vice versa. In addition,
based on the combination of our UBS Investment Advisory Fees
and your SMA Manager’s Fees, the overall Program Fee for your
SMA account in MAC or IC may exceed 3% of the account value.
We may, in our discretion, and in order to address fiduciary
obligations, offer the Programs to trust clients for which our
affiliate serves as trustee at substantially discounted rates than
those listed.
Some UBS SMA programs charge a negotiable UBS Advisory Fee
only, while others charge a negotiable UBS Advisory Fee, plus a
separate portfolio manager fee. As explained above, for SMA
Advantage strategies clients are not charged a separate portfolio
manager fee (except for applicable Premium Services Fees).
Because of this difference in fee structure, Financial Advisors
have a conflict of interest and an opportunity to charge a
higher UBS Investment Advisory Fee when clients enroll in
Investment Advisory Programs that do not include an
additional SMA Manager fee. Similarly, differences in SMA
Manager fees create a conflict of interest and provide an
opportunity for Financial Advisors to charge a higher UBS
Investment Advisory Fee for a strategy with lower or no
SMA Manager Fees than they would for strategies that
charge a higher SMA Manager Fee. Since UBS receives a
portion of the UBS Advisory Fee charged in SMA Program
accounts, there also is an incentive for UBS to promote
Programs/Strategies that do not charge a separate third party SMA
Manager Fee. UBS applies higher hard floors on the UBS
Advisory Fee when accounts enroll in SMA Advantage.
Depending on the size of the overall relationship, this can
limit the ability to negotiate a lower UBS Investment
Advisory Fee when the SMA Advantage strategies are used
compared to strategies that charge a separate SMA
Manager Fee.
C. Fees/Other Charges Not Covered by your
Fees charged by SMA Managers can vary significantly,
depending on the type of investment services offered. See the
SMA Program description tables above for the fee ranges in the
various Programs.
Program Fee
Depending on your Program and investment selections, you will
pay other charges in addition to the wrap fee, some of which may
add to the compensation that we receive. Program Fees will not
be reduced or offset by these fees. These additional fees will
reduce the overall return of your account.
Our UBS Investment Advisory Fees do not include:
SMA Advantage Strategies: Select strategies referred to as
“SMA Advantage strategies” in the ACCESS, AAP and SWP
Programs, including those offered by our affiliate UBS Asset
Management (AM), are available with no additional SMA Manager
fee charged to Clients. UBS Financial Services negotiates the SMA
Manager Fee with the Managers based on an institutional fee
schedule that is substantially lower than the ranges listed above
and will pay that fee out of its own resources. The Managers
charge additional fees for certain strategies or additional services
determined to be premium solutions, such as personalized tax
management and sustainable investing. The fees for those value-
add services will be paid by Clients (“Premium Services Fee”).
SMA Manager Fees. Our UBS Investment Advisory Fee does not
include the services of your SMA Manager in programs that offer
those services. Your SMA Manager will charge a separate fee for
discretionary portfolio management services, which UBS
negotiates in the ACCESS, AAP and SWP Programs. You are
responsible for negotiating SMA Manager fees in the MAC and IC
Programs, except for MAC Accounts in the UBS CAP or IC
Program with Limited Power of Attorney, where your Financial
Advisor negotiates on your behalf. The SMA Manager Fees
when added to UBS Investment Advisory Fees, comprise
your total “Program Fee.”
All Managers are invited to participate in SMA Advantage and
may choose to participate at any time during their relationship
with UBS. Participation is optional and it does not impact the
availability of a Manager’s strategy on the UBS Financial Services
Inc. platform. If a manager elects to participate in SMA
Advantage for some or all of its strategies, existing clients invested
in those strategies will see a decrease in the SMA Manager fee,
which we will communicate to you.
Trade Execution Cost through other Broker Dealers:
Commission charges for transactions for your account that your
SMA Manager or we, at your direction, effect through other
broker-dealers. See Item 5 Error! Reference source not found.for
important information about step-out trades and how they can
impact the overall costs of trading for your portfolio. If your SMA
Manager will not be executing transactions with UBS, our
SMA programs may not be an appropriate option if your
SMA Manager does not take action to ensure that you do
not incur additional costs;
-
Managers in SMA Advantage may opt out of the SMA Advantage
Program at any time. A manager’s decision to no longer participate
in SMA Advantage will not impact the availability of the strategy(s)
on the UBS platform. Clients invested in strategies being removed
from SMA Advantage will be required to pay the Investment
Manager Fee for that strategy, which will increase their overall fee,
depending on the Investment Manager Fee and if the strategy
included a premium fee within SMA Advantage. Existing clients
enrolled in a strategy that is removed from the SMA Advantage
program will receive notification prior to being charged the
Investment Manager Fee.
-
custody fees and trading fees imposed by other financial
institutions if you choose to custody and/or trade your
assets at other financial institutions (for example,
investments held away from UBS in UBS-CAP or IC);
fees associated with custody, delivery and conversion of
precious metals imposed by affiliates, or other financial
We do not charge an SMA Manager Fee or Premium Services Fee
to Retirement Plan or IRA clients invested in a SMA strategy
managed by a UBS affiliated Investment Manager in the AAP
Page 22 of 94
institutions;
responsibility.
- mark-ups/mark-downs on principal transactions with us,
D. Compensation to Financial Advisors, Market
-
-
Directors and Associate Market Executives
(“Advisors”) Who Recommend Advisory
Programs
-
Our standard compensation plan for Advisors consists of (1) a
guaranteed monthly minimum draw required by applicable law;
(2) a monthly earned payout based on the Advisor’s production if
it is greater than the monthly minimum draw; (3) a Year-End
Award; and (4) a Growth Award.
-
-
our affiliates or other broker-dealers;
internal trust fees;
costs relating to trading in and holding foreign securities
(other than commissions otherwise payable to us);
internal administrative, management, redemption (see
below) and performance fees imposed by collective
investment vehicles such as open-end and closed-end
mutual funds, UITs, hedge funds and other alternative
investments, exchange- traded funds or real estate
investment trusts;
subject to certain exceptions, redemption fees charged
by mutual funds for active trading in your Accounts (see
“Mutual Fund Redemption Fees for Active Trading”
below); and
other specialized charges, such as transfer taxes, and
fees we charge to customers to off-set fees we pay to
exchanges and/or regulatory agencies on certain
transactions.
Both the monthly production payout and any Year-End Award are
derived separately using an Incentive Grid Rate (a percentage) for
each Advisor. Incentive Grid Rates range from 28% to 59.5%,
with 10% to 15% of the rate assigned each month and applied to
applicable production for a potential Year End Award
consideration. The Year End Award is generally paid on a deferred
schedule. The Incentive Grid Rate increases as an Advisor’s
production and length of service with UBS increase. Financial
Advisors are eligible for various incentive awards based on a
variety of factors including but not limited to length of service, net
new assets, and production levels.
Monthly Earned Payout
The payout is a percentage (referred to as a production payout
rate) of the production (generally transaction revenue and
investment advisory program fees) that each Advisor generates
during that month, minus deferrals and adjustments specified in
our Advisor Compensation Plan. Account maintenance fees and
advisory fees that are priced below a specific level are not eligible
for a production payout or monthly credit(s) towards the
determination of the year end award. Advisors working as part of
a fully approved documented and active team that meets
minimum production requirements can qualify for a higher
production payout rate than they would receive working as an
individual.
Generally, Advisors are not paid on households that fall under the
following thresholds:
• Wealth Management US households: $250,000
• International households: $2,000,000
• Private Wealth Management households: $2,000,000
However, Advisors receive compensation at a reduced incentive
grid rate for production generated by those households if they
transfer or refer them to the Wealth Advice Center or the
International Wealth Solutions Group.
Because Financial Advisors are generally not paid on households
below the thresholds if they support them directly in the branches,
there is a conflict of interest and an incentive for the Financial
Advisor to transfer/or refer such households to the Wealth Advice
Center or to the International Wealth Solutions Group because it
will generate compensation for the referring Financial Advisor that
would not otherwise be received.
We reserve the right, at our discretion and without prior
notice, to change the methods by which we compensate
our Advisors and employees, including reducing and/or
denying production payout and/or awards at our
discretion for any reason.
For our Investment Advisory Programs (asset-based fee
programs) the Incentive Grid Rate is applied to the program fees
credited to the Financial Advisor by the Firm, but the payout is
generally reduced for accounts priced below certain thresholds.
Either UBS Financial Services or UBS Bank USA will also charge
interest on any outstanding loan balances (including margin
loans) to clients who borrow money from us or UBS Bank USA.
Clients also may be charged additional fees for specific account
services, such as:
Account Transfer Fee
Wire transfer charges
Annual Account Service Fees for retirement accounts
Fees relating to custody and transactions in physical securities
Voluntary corporate action fees
Fees for RMA and BSA services where such services are
available for the account
Mutual Fund Redemption Fees for Active Trading. The
mutual funds you hold in your Accounts may charge redemption
fees if shares are sold within a certain period of time after they are
purchased, also known as active trading. These fees may also
apply to the redemption portion of an exchange transaction if
shares are exchanged among funds (whether through direct
exchanges or through sales and new purchases) in the same family
of funds more frequently than is permitted by each fund’s
prospectus. The amount charged as a redemption fee, the length
of time you must hold your shares to avoid a redemption fee and
the number and frequency of exchanges among funds you may
make without paying a redemption fee, varies from one mutual
fund to another. This information is included in each Fund’s
prospectus. If you have questions about whether a redemption fee
will apply to a transaction you wish to make, please ask your
Financial Advisor for a prospectus for the applicable mutual
fund. If charged, redemption fees will be in addition to the
Program Fee and will be your responsibility.
You will not be charged redemption fees for mutual fund assets in
UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio, AAP, ACCESS, UBS Advice
Advantage, and PACE programs, resulting solely from automatic
transactions effected for your allocation, including periodic
automatic account rebalancing, periodic automatic withdrawals
from your account or withdrawals to pay your Program Fee if you
have selected these features. If due to system limitations or errors,
your account is charged redemption fees as a result of periodic
automatic account rebalancing, periodic automatic withdrawals
from your account or withdrawals to pay your Program Fee, we
will credit your Account for the amount of those fees.
Redemption fees incurred for any other reason and as a
result of your trading instructions (including tax harvest
instructions in our SMA programs) will be your
Page 23 of 94
management team to encourage Advisors to recommend products
and services that result in more revenue and/or are more profitable
to the firm, and can create a conflict of interest. Regardless of these
incentives, we maintain policies and procedures and supervisory
processes designed to ensure that Financial Advisors meet the
standard of conduct applicable to each client.
See "Discount Sharing". Advisory accounts in relationships with
assets over certain thresholds may have customized pricing and/or
payout rates as approved by the Firm.
The differences in the way we compensate Advisors for the
products we offer creates financial incentives for Advisors to
recommend certain products and account types over others, to
encourage clients to purchase multiple products and services, and
to choose a payment structure for products and services that
generates greater compensation.
We address our conflicts of interest by maintaining policies and
procedures reasonably designed to ensure that Financial Advisors
meet the required standard of conduct applicable to each account
type, supervising their activities and disclosing these conflicts so
that you can make fully informed decisions.
Compensation to Financial Advisors in the UBS Wealth
Advice Center, the International Wealth Solutions Group
and the Access Desk: All UBS Wealth Advice Center,
International Wealth Solutions Group and the Access Desk
Financial Advisors receive an annual salary and are also eligible to
earn an annual discretionary incentive compensation award.
Financial Advisors in the Wealth Advice Center receive more
production credits for investment advisory enrollments and
additional investments than for products or transactions in
brokerage accounts. This creates a conflict of interest and an
incentive for the Financial Advisors to recommend Advisory
Accounts over other products, services and transactions.
Production credits earned on Advisory products are based on the
time required to execute, which includes Financial Advisor effort,
product complexity and time required to complete the transaction.
Other compensation practices
Under certain circumstances (e.g., acquisitions and recruitment or
particular programs or designations, such as Wealth Advice
Center, Wealth Planning Associate, Financial Advisor Associates,
Institutional Consulting ("IC"), Retirement Plan Consulting
Services ("RPCS"), Retirement Plan Advisor (“RPA”), and
Retirement Plan Manager (“RPM”), some Financial Advisors or
producing Market Directors and Associate Market Executives are
compensated differently.
1. Compensation to UBS Portfolio Managers
and Financial Advisors in our Advisory
Programs.
The Advice Portfolio Program is managed by Portfolio Managers
employed by our affiliated, UBS Asset Management. Those
Portfolio Managers do not receive a portion of the UBS
Investment Advisory Fee paid by clients in the Program.
Compensation for Advisors recruited from other firms: In
general, if your Advisor is joining UBS from another firm, you
should discuss the reasons your Advisor decided to change firms
and any costs or changes in services you incur by transferring your
accounts to UBS. Typically, UBS pays Financial Advisors financial
incentives when they join and on an ongoing basis as described
below.
Financial Advisors receive a portion of the UBS Investment
Advisory Fee you pay to us. The entire UBS Investment Advisory
Fee you pay is allocated to the branch office and it is used as
the basis to calculate the percentage of the UBS Advisory
Program Fee that is paid to your Financial Advisor.
Advisors are eligible to receive incentives at the time they join
(based on prior firm revenue) and are eligible to receive additional
incentives while employed at UBS, based on reaching certain
minimum asset and/or production levels or other targets within a
specified period of time after joining UBS. In some cases, to
maintain the incentives, the recruited Financial Advisors are
required to achieve and maintain asset levels as determined at the
time of joining UBS.
The percentage payable to Financial Advisors acting in the PMP
and AAP Programs is based on their total production level at
UBS. Although, generally, the percentage is the same across
all advisory accounts serviced by the Financial Advisor, the
actual amount paid to the Financial Advisor can vary by Program
depending on the fees.
Generally these incentives are the continuance of monthly
payments for up to 12 years, unless the threshold/levels are not
met.
These payments can be substantial and take various forms,
including salary guarantees, loans, transition bonus payments and
various forms of compensation to encourage Financial Advisors to
join UBS, and are also contingent on your Financial Advisor's
continued employment. Therefore, even if the fees you pay at
UBS remain the same or are less, the transfer of your assets to UBS
contribute to your Financial Advisor's ability to meet such targets
and to receive additional loans and/or compensation even if not
directly related to your account or the fees you pay to us.
These practices create an incentive and a conflict of interest for
your Financial Advisor to recommend the transfer of your account
assets to UBS since a significant part of the Financial Advisor's
compensation is often contingent on the Financial Advisor
achieving a pre-determined level of revenue and/or assets at UBS.
You should carefully consider whether your Financial Advisor's
advice is aligned with your investment strategy and goals.
Compensation for Field Leadership
Financial Advisors who participate in the PMP and AAP
Programs have a conflict of interest and an incentive to
recommend their discretionary services in those Programs
over those of third party SMA Managers in other Advisory
Programs or over traditional commission-based brokerage
services. Some UBS SMA strategies charge a negotiable UBS
Advisory Fee only, while others charge a negotiable UBS Advisory
Fee, plus a separate SMA Manager fee. Because the UBS Financial
Advisor provides the discretionary portfolio management services
in PMP, the client does not pay a separate SMA Manager fee in
PMP. This difference in fee structure for PMP provides an
opportunity for the Financial Advisor to charge a higher UBS
Advisory Fee and, therefore, receive higher compensation. This
same conflict exists in situations where Financial Advisors in the
AAP Program choose to allocate all or a portion of the AAP
account assets to mutual funds and ETFs only, or to SMA
managers with no additional SMA Manager Fee. Since UBS
receives a portion of the UBS Advisory Fee charged in SMA
Program accounts, there also is an incentive for UBS to promote
the PMP and AAP Programs over other SMA Programs or
strategies that include a separate SMA Manager fee.
Elements of our field leader compensation are based on revenues
and sources of profit to the firm. This creates an incentive for our
Generally, Financial Advisors in UBS-CAP and IC will receive the
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same payout level across all Accounts enrolled in UBS-CAP or IC,
respectively, regardless of Program type or strategy in which those
assets are invested.
the services they provide, including fees for premium services such
as personalized tax management and sustainable investing. You
will be responsible for the payment of any SMA Manager Fees
(including Premium Services Fees).
Generally, your UBS Portfolio Manager or Financial Advisor will be
limited to investing in those securities classified as eligible for the
Program you selected.
Financial Advisors who do not participate in PMP or AAP
may refer their clients to Financial Advisors acting as
Portfolio Managers in the PMP Program or to Financial
Advisors in AAP. In those instances, the PMP Portfolio
Manager or AAP Financial Advisor shares a portion of
his/her fee with the referring Financial Advisor.
See “Account Requirements and Types of Clients—Eligible and
Ineligible Assets” for a description of our practices and consult
your Financial Advisor for the specific details regarding the
eligibility of specific assets and securities in the Program you
select.
2. Compensation to SMA Managers in the
ACCESS, MAC, SWP and AAP Programs.
We pay the SMA Manager Fee (including Premium Services Fees)
portion of the total Program Fee to your SMA Manager as
compensation for their services. The amount of the Program Fee
paid to each SMA Manager is a function of that SMA
Manager’s investment style and the fee we negotiated with
the SMA Manager or for MAC and IC non-discretionary Programs,
the fee you negotiated directly with the Manager.
SMA Manager fees can vary significantly, depending on the type
of investment services offered. Not all strategies in ACCESS, SWP
and AAP have an additional SMA Manager Fee (See Item 4 section
1. Your Program Fee SMA Advantage Strategies.)
Your PMP and AAP applications will include the name of the
Financial Advisor(s) who will be exercising discretion over your
assets in those Programs, or the name of his/her group (although
only a dedicated PMP or AAP Financial Advisor may exercise
discretion over your account). He/she will have primary
responsibility for the day-to-day management of your account.
For PMP and AAP accounts opened after you have established
your first Advisory account, we will confirm in writing your UBS
Portfolio Manager or AAP Financial Advisor or the name of his/her
group. Primary responsibility for the supervision of the PMP and
AAP accounts lies with the PMP/AAP Financial Advisor’s Branch
Office Manager.
When fees are charged, the annual fees paid to SMA Managers
are based on a percentage of assets under management and,
for ACCESS, SWP and AAP, generally range from
0.00% to 0.50% for all accounts. For MAC accounts the annual
fees paid to SMA Managers generally range from .02% to 2.00%
of assets under management. The compensation payable to SMA
Managers is typically higher for equity and balanced strategies
than it is for fixed income strategies.
Portfolio Manager Termination from the Discretionary
Programs. We retain the authority to remove any UBS
Portfolio Manager, AAP Financial Advisor, sub-advisor or model
portfolio or strategy from the Discretionary Programs at any time
and to transfer day-to-day management responsibility of your
account to another UBS Portfolio Manager, AAP Financial
Advisor(s), sub-advisor or Branch Office Manager at any time
without first notifying you or obtaining your consent.
We calculate SMA Manager Fees for ACCESS, SWP and AAP and
for MAC accounts where the SMA Manager Fee is deducted
directly from the account, in accordance with UBS's billing
practices as described in Item 5.C. Billing Practices. We pay the
SMA Manager Fees on your behalf based on all activity (i.e., initial
billing, quarterly billing, prior quarter fee adjustment) and assets in
their strategies.
Financial Advisors who participate in the AAP or PMP
Programs may also provide services to you outside of the
Program as non-discretionary investment advisers and in
their capacity as broker-dealer representatives. Please see
”Various Roles and Services of Your UBS Financial Advisor”
and “Conducting Business with UBS: Investment Advisory
and Broker-Dealer Services” for a description of the material
distinctions between our Advisory and broker-dealer
services and our obligations.
E. Description of Our Discretionary Programs:
Portfolio Management Program (PMP) and
Advisor Allocation Program
1. UBS Advice Portfolio Program
The Discretionary Programs described in this brochure offer you
the portfolio management services of UBS Financial Advisors
(PMP Program, Advisor Allocation Program).
As of March 21, 2025, the UBS Advice Portfolio Program is no
longer accepting new clients or new accounts. In addition, on or
about June 13, 2025, we will be closing the UBS Advice Portfolio,
and all existing clients enrolled in the UBS Advice Portfolio
Program will have the option to elect a new advisory program or
no advisory program or do nothing and be moved to a new
advisory program. Any new advisory program will have a Program
Fee.
The UBS Advice Portfolio Program is a wrap fee program that
offers clients a digital solution in which UBS Asset Management
manages the assets under a specific investment strategy/style
selected by the client.
By selecting our Discretionary Programs, you authorize: (1) UBS
to act as your investment adviser and give UBS the power to
execute transactions (i.e., buy, sell or otherwise trade securities
or other investments) for your Program account without
consulting you; (2) to take any actions necessary to open and
maintain your account or to complete and pay for transactions
for your account and, (3) if we deem appropriate, to delegate
investment management discretion of all or a portion of your
Account to a sub-advisor, model provider or overlay manager,
including those affiliated with UBS.
UBS Asset Management is responsible for the development and
ongoing maintenance of the model portfolios used in the Program
and leverages a proprietary portfolio management algorithm
licensed from Nvest, Inc., parent company of SigFig Wealth
Management LLC (“SigFig”), for ongoing monitoring, rebalancing
and tax loss harvesting.
Your delegation of investment authority gives UBS the sole
authority to manage your account and make all investment
decisions for your account without discussing these transactions
with you. This authority specifically includes the authority to hire
and fire SMA Managers and sub-advisers for your account, who
will, depending on the strategy selected, charge additional fees for
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A guiding assumption of the algorithm is that it will keep clients
within their selected risk profile by monitoring account level
volatility according to the CMAs and SAAs. In instances where an
account drifts beyond the bands of its risk profile, it will be
automatically rebalanced to the target model SAA. Further,
individual asset classes also have thresholds regarding the amount
that they may deviate from the target model SAA. In instances
where any asset class has drifted beyond a set threshold, the
algorithm will automatically rebalance the entire account to the
target model SAA.
The algorithm, which is used to manage individual Accounts, has
been customized to incorporate UBS views on capital market
assumptions, asset allocation, security selection, trade and
rebalancing thresholds and profiling questionnaire. The algorithm
generates a recommended target allocation and recommended
portfolio based on your responses to the Questionnaire. Once
your Account is enrolled in the Program, the algorithm reviews
your Account on a daily basis to determine if rebalancing is
necessary or, if selected, if tax harvesting opportunities are
available. Because these reviews occur automatically, the
algorithm might rebalance accounts without regard to market
conditions or on a more frequent basis than you might expect and
does not address prolonged changes in market conditions.
Pursuant to the terms of its licensing agreement with SigFig, UBS
pays SigFig a fee based on the assets enrolled in the UBS Advice
Portfolio Program in addition to software maintenance and other
fees. SigFig is an SEC-registered investment adviser;
however, SigFig is not acting as an investment adviser or sub-
adviser to clients in the UBS Advice Portfolio Program. SigFig
offers investment advisory services using their proprietary
algorithm but without the UBS customizations, research and
portfolio management. Those products are available to you away
from UBS at different, and sometimes lower, fees than the UBS
Advice Portfolio Program.
There are additional limitations in relation to the automated Tax
Loss Harvesting (TLH) logic within the algorithm. See “Tax Loss
Harvesting” Section below for details. UBS Asset Management
Portfolio Managers oversee the algorithm. They are responsible
for setting the model’s strategic asset allocation, identifying the
appropriate securities, identifying the tax loss harvesting securities
and the creation of the “white list,” which are equivalent
securities that can be used in place of the primary portfolio
holdings when there is an account restriction or tax loss harvesting
transaction that necessitates an alternative holding. Portfolio
Managers may manually override the algorithm in the scenarios
listed above. Beyond this oversight, human involvement in the
management of individual client, accounts includes, but is not
limited to, the following: corporate action monitoring, monitoring
for ineligible securities for strategy and trading activity, position
control (monitoring the allocation of accounts to align to model
within designated thresholds), review and release of trades,
Principal Agency (ineligible transactions), and monitoring of
individual account volatility.
UBS Financial Services Inc. and SigFig entered into a strategic
alliance to develop financial technology for UBS Global Wealth
Management, which included an equity investment in SigFig.
Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. nor any of its affiliates or
employees control directly or indirectly the operations of SigFig or
its affiliated companies.
Circumstances that may cause the Portfolio Managers to manually
override the algorithm include the following situations:
The UBS Advice Advantage service is a digital service that features
UBS analytics, including portfolio diagnostics on your investments
at UBS and held away. The service is a broker-dealer service that is
available to you free of charge. You do not have to enroll in
the Program in order to use the free service. UBS Advice
Advantage will also be closed on or about June 13, 2025.
Volatile market conditions
Investment Committee discretion
Technology failures
Trading volumes
The availability of funds
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- Other matters reasonably beyond our control
Key Assumptions of the Algorithm: The key assumptions of
the algorithm are rooted in the UBS Capital Market Assumptions
(CMAs), Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA), and covariance matrix
assumptions.
Strategies and Models. The UBS Advice Portfolio Program
offers investment strategies that consist of diversified portfolios of
exchange traded funds (ETFs) and cash in a single account that is
managed on a discretionary basis by UBS Asset Management
consistent with the investment strategy you select. ETFs not
chosen for inclusion in the portfolios may have characteristics
similar or superior to the mutual funds or ETFs selected for
inclusion. There is no guarantee the diversified portfolios will
meet their objectives or will result in positive investment returns.
Digital Investment Advisory Program. UBS Advice Portfolio is
a digital program in which all documents and disclosures
pertaining to your Account(s) in the Program will be delivered to
you electronically. Your enrollment in the Program is conditioned
on your acceptance of electronic delivery for all Program related
documents and disclosures. You may change your electronic
delivery instructions at any time by contacting your Financial
Advisor or by logging onto www.ubs.com/edelivery. However,
removal of the electronic delivery preference for the UBS Advice
Portfolio account will result in termination from the Program and
the preference for Accounts enrolled in other Advisory Programs
will be changed to paper delivery of documents.
CMAs can be defined broadly as the estimated returns, variances
(risk), and correlations between individual asset classes. The CMAs
are a core component of the process used to measure the
estimated risk and return of a portfolio and also establish the
Firm’s Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) models. Our SAAs consist
of a series of portfolio allocation models – each designed with
different client types in mind. Each SAA reflects our capital market
assumptions and a set of typical investor characteristics, such as
tax status and risk tolerance. Our risk bands represent the lower
and upper bound risk levels for each of the five investor risk
profiles: Conservative; Moderately Conservative; Moderate;
Moderately Aggressive; and Aggressive. UBS Advice Portfolio
model portfolios are constructed to generally deliver the strategic
asset allocation for a given investor risk profile, with asset class
exposure typically implemented with exchange traded funds
(ETFs). Model ETFs are selected based upon a number of criteria,
including but not limited to asset allocation fit, cost, liquidity, and
implementation ability in the context of minimum investment
requirements for the UBS Advice Portfolio program. Replacement
or restriction securities for the models are also selected under
these criteria, but also follow other selection criteria that may
allow for clients to benefit from tax loss harvesting trades.
The UBS Advice Portfolio Program does not consider your
concentration in any securities, income, debt, assets held
outside the Account, or other financial considerations and
as such is not a complete investment program and may not
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be suitable for all investors. You should consider the suitability
of the Program based on your financial needs and investment
objectives.
You may change your investment strategy at any time by going
online and completing a new Questionnaire. Any assistance you
may receive from a Financial Advisor is for educational purposes
only. You are solely responsible for choosing your investing
strategy. Neither UBS nor any of its employees are responsible for
your decisions. The Program is intended for medium to long-term
investors and is not a cash management program.
security. The designation of acceptable replacements can change
frequently due to availability of the securities and at the discretion
of UBS; (3) the feature is applied to accounts enrolled in the UBS
Advice Portfolio program, not to your entire portfolio at UBS. This
is important because tax losses are subject to “wash sales” rules.
A wash sale occurs when you sell a security and buy within a 30-
day period a substantially identical security. If you or a spouse buy
or sell any securities that overlap with the UBS Advice Portfolio’s
selected securities in another account during the wash sale period,
these losses may be disallowed; (4) for ETFs, only tax lots with
losses with certain minimum levels from the cost basis are
considered an eligible lot for tax loss harvesting, and within each
individual security these eligible lots must be equal to or greater
than $500.
Updates to your Information and Financial Advisor Support.
If a material change occurs to your goals, financial circumstances,
or investment objectives, or if you wish to impose or modify
reasonable restrictions on the management of your Account, it is
your responsibility to promptly update your information online or
contact your Financial Advisors so that they can update the
information on your behalf.
UBS will not change your portfolio selection unless you update
your investment profile through UBS Online Services. A UBS
Financial Advisor will be available by telephone or web chat to
respond to your questions and assist you with any changes or
updates to your Account or personal information. Changes to the
goals, financial circumstances or investment objectives for other
Accounts you have with UBS will not change the information for
your UBS Advice Portfolio Program.
Tax loss harvesting (TLH) opportunities depend on a variety of
factors, including but not limited to market fluctuations, position
cost basis, and account size. Securities prices must fluctuate to
some degree to create unrealized losses for potential TLH
opportunities. Generally, declining markets produce more
conducive environments for tax loss harvesting. The algorithm
conducts daily scans for 1) a specific percentage level loss in
qualifying lots and 2) a pre-determined dollar loss for that security.
These two criteria in combination serve to trigger a tax loss
harvesting trade. Generally, larger accounts will meet the criteria
for tax loss harvesting more frequently than smaller accounts due
to the dollar loss threshold. Frequent or recurring deposits may
also impact our ability to tax loss harvest. There is no guarantee
that the necessary conditions will exist on a frequent basis for
meaningful TLH trades to occur in your account.
Investment Restrictions. You may elect to impose investment
restrictions on the management of your Account. See Item 5B.3
Investment Restrictions & investment Policy Statement 3.
Investment Restrictions for details regarding the types of
restrictions available in these ETF portfolios. Imposing investment
restrictions on the management of your Account, will not
disqualify you from enrolling in the tax loss harvesting service.
Tax loss harvesting will not be performed on asset classes
that do not have suitable replacement securities. The
availability of suitable replacement securities for asset classes is
subject to change (without notice to you) as it is based on the
availability of qualifying replacement securities as determined by
UBS in its discretion.
Tax loss harvesting is not intended to eliminate taxes
altogether, but to offset current year taxable gains.
Aggregation. UBS aggregates purchase or sale orders for your
Account(s) in the UBS Advice Portfolio Program. In certain
circumstances, such as terminations, withdrawals, risk profile
changes, additional funds, or similar events, UBS may not
aggregate your purchase or sale order.
No Trading Access. UBS will make the trading decisions in your
Account. Once you enroll in the Program, you will not be able to
place trades in your Account.
UBS does not provide tax advice and the tax loss harvesting
service is not meant and should not be construed as such.
You are responsible for any tax implications and/or tax obligations
resulting from your decision to enroll in the Program, your
selection of investment strategies, and the selection of Tax Loss
Harvesting features for your Accounts. You should consult with
your own professional tax counselor with respect to tax matters.
We attempt to select “similar” investments to replace existing
investments as part of the strategies based on certain established
security attributes, e.g., historical returns, correlations, and
portfolio construction. We do not warrant or guarantee that these
similar investments will, in fact, perform similarly to the replaced
investments, nor do we warrant or guarantee that this tax loss
harvest with a replacement will in fact lower the investor’s tax
obligations.
Tax Loss Harvesting. You can add tax loss harvesting services at
any time during or after enrollment in the UBS Advice Portfolio
Program. The service is available for taxable accounts only and
applies to select UBS Advice Portfolio model securities and other
securities that we have designated as acceptable substitutes to the
primary model securities. The service has important limitations
which you should consider prior to enrolling as such limitations
may impact the overall value of the service to you. If you enroll, it
will apply to all taxable UBS Advice Portfolio Program accounts in
which you are the owner, including joint accounts. We may not
execute tax loss harvesting for specific securities in your
account if we determine doing so will impact UBS’s ability
to manage your account.
We require written notification of specific restricted securities if
you are prohibited from investing in any individual investment.
Such prohibitions may alter the “similar” investment we select as
part of the strategies and may alter the effectiveness of the
strategies. You must notify us immediately if any of the
investments recommended or purchased as part of the strategy
violate such restrictions.
Once this feature is added, your election will be applied to all
additional taxable accounts you establish in the Program. We will
implement tax loss harvesting services during the ongoing
management of your account subject to the following limitations:
(1) Securities must be held for at least 30 days to be eligible for tax
loss harvesting and must have a qualifying loss as defined in (4)
below; (2) Tax loss harvesting will be applied to securities in your
Account only if we have designated an acceptable replacement
Withdrawals – You may withdraw assets from your Account by
completing an online request or contacting your Financial Advisor.
If the market value of the Account falls below the minimum asset
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threshold due to withdrawal of assets, UBS will require you to
deposit additional money or eligible securities to bring the
Account to the required minimum. UBS reserves the right to
terminate the Account if the Account is not brought up to the
required minimum. Withdrawals from IRA accounts may incur tax
consequences, which will be your sole responsibility.
could have a greater impact on the value of the portfolio than
would occur if the portfolio held more securities. These portfolios
may not be appropriate for investors who are not willing to accept
a much greater risk of loss and volatility of investment returns
than the general stock market (as typically measured by the S&P
500 Index) and may not be an appropriate investment for a
significant portion of a client’s investable assets. We may impose
special suitability requirements with respect to these portfolios.
3. Advisor Allocation Program
The Advisor Allocation Program is a discretionary unified managed
account. Please see the section below “Unified Managed
Accounts” for a description of the features and services of the
Program.
F. Separately Managed Accounts Programs, SMA
Manager Sub-Accounts in the Strategic Wealth
Portfolio and Advisor Allocation Programs
Rebalancing. UBS will use portfolio management software to
rebalance your UBS Advice Portfolio Program Accounts periodically
by buying and selling ETF shares. Your Advice Portfolio Account’s
asset allocation and/or the risk profile for your chosen investment
strategy will be considered when evaluating the need to
rebalance. UBS will rebalance accounts if the allocation of the ETFs
in your Account deviates from target levels by more than an
amount specified in the Program’s parameters, which are subject
to change from time to time. Your Account(s) will be rebalanced
if your Account moves outside its targeted risk profile, if you
change your risk profile or when you seek to impose or modify
restrictions on the management of your Account. While the
system will monitor your Account daily, it does not mean your
Account will be traded daily. During periods where your Account
does not drift outside of the established parameters, no
rebalancing trades will be required. In instances where the
account value drops below a minimum account value, UBS may be
unable to rebalance the account to meet the parameters. In these
situations, you may be required to restore your account assets to a
minimum account value or, in certain circumstances, may be
required to end your participation in the Program.
UBS Advice Portfolio Program; Automatic Services and
Redemptions
SMA Programs: Structure/Hiring the SMA and Overlay
Managers: ACCESS, AAP and SWP are “sub-advised” programs.
That means you enter into an investment advisory agreement with
us and we, in turn, hire the SMA Manager(s) on your behalf, or for
the select SMA model strategies, including Strategist Models, an
Overlay Manager, to manage your assets in the strategy selected
or implement models from the Model Providers. Once we accept
your Account, we provide the SMA Manager or Overlay Manager,
as applicable, with your responses to the completed Risk Profile
Questionnaire and restrictions prior to the manager accepting the
account.
For assets in the UBS Advice Portfolio, you may instruct UBS
to make cash available to you by redeeming portfolio shares in
accordance with your instructions. When making redemptions
from your account, we first consider your investment strategy and
redeem those investments where your account is overweighted.
You may select the day of the month that the funds are desired (in
months where your selected day is not available, funds will be
made available the prior business day). Note that if automated
redemption takes your account balance below the technical
minimum required for the Program, UBS may terminate your
account from the Program.
2. Portfolio Management Program (PMP)
Strategies and Models.
The Portfolio Management Program offers a variety of investment
strategies and models managed by trained Financial Advisors who
manage client assets on a discretionary basis.
MAC and ACCESS are different in some very important
ways. In particular, in the ACCESS program, you delegate
discretion to us and direct us to hire a sub-advisor or Overlay
Manager to manage your assets or implement the selected
strategies through Model Providers. However, in the MAC
program, your relationship and your investment agreement are
directly with your SMA Manager. UBS will act as your consultant,
but you delegate discretionary authority over your accounts
directly to your SMA Manager in a separate agreement with them.
The MAC program requires that you enter into two separate
agreements, one with UBS for advisory services and one directly
with your SMA Manager for investment management services.
You are responsible for negotiating the terms, fees and conditions
of your agreement with your MAC SMA Manager. If your MAC
SMA strategy is also available in other Programs, you should
consider that based on the combination of our fees and your MAC
SMA Manager fees, the overall fee for your MAC Account may be
higher than the total fee you would pay in other Programs. You
should consider these options carefully as some may be more cost-
efficient to you.
We have a conflict in recommending the services of affiliated
managers in managing client accounts because this will result in
higher overall compensation to us and our affiliates than if third-
party managers were used.
1. ACCESS (single contract)
ACCESS offers you the portfolio management services of a select,
pre-screened group of SMA strategies.
ACCESS is a "sub-advised" program in which you hire UBS to
assist you in the selection of SMA strategies and authorize us to
hire the SMA Manager or Overlay Manager on your behalf.
Model SMA Strategies
Concentrated Strategies Risks: Concentrated strategies are
available in PMP, through Portfolio Managers whose strategies
have been pre-approved at UBS. Please review these
descriptions carefully and contact your Portfolio Manager with
any questions. With our approval, you may authorize your
Portfolio Manager to implement a concentrated strategy—
focusing heavily on securities in certain sectors or geographic
regions. This type of concentrated strategy can be more volatile
and presents a greater risk of loss, especially over the short term.
The more concentrated your portfolio, the higher your risk
exposure will typically be. These portfolios may not be diversified,
may hold securities representing only one or a limited number of
economic sectors or only be invested in international securities,
may include only a limited number of companies in certain sectors
and may invest in new or emerging businesses or securities of
foreign companies that present risks not typically associated with
U.S. equity investments. Because a concentrated portfolio may
hold a limited number of securities, movements in securities prices
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select strategies, the Overlay Manager may offer additional,
premium services such as tax management. If you select a strategy
with premium services, you will be responsible for paying the
Overlay Manager fee for those services. The Overlay Manager fees
for models that include a premium offering such as tax
management range from 10bps to 13bps.
Model Providers provide additional compensation to UBS in the
form of revenue sharing for Model Provider’s proprietary mutual
funds included in the models. See Mutual Fund Revenue
Sharing. In the Strategist Model fee arrangement, due to the
compensation arrangement described above, the Model Providers
will in most circumstances exclusively utilize only their proprietary
products, such as mutual funds or exchange trades funds, when
selecting investments for the model. The Model Provider receives
compensation for investments in their proprietary products and
therefore has an incentive to include them in their model(s). By
doing so, the Model Provider is not considering alternative
products from other firms that may have features, including cost
and fee structures, that may be preferable as compared to the
Model Provider’s proprietary products. When selecting products
from among its proprietary products for inclusion in the Model,
Model Provider will have an incentive to choose products that pay
them higher fees. The Model Provider may also have trading or
other policies that favor the Model Provider’s proprietary products
and directly managed strategies over the Strategists Models on the
UBS platform. The respective Form ADV disclosure brochures for
the Model Provider and the Overlay Manager will provide
additional important information regarding these arrangements.
For Model Strategies, the Overlay Manager manages your assets in
accordance with the selected strategy as developed by a “Model
Provider.” The Model Provider develops the strategy and maintains
a Model that they provide to the Overlay Manager for
implementation. Model Providers that manage discretionary
strategies based on the same Model Strategies available in the
Programs will generally trade their discretionary accounts first prior
to providing the model updates to the Overlay Manager.
Depending on the trading volume, that trading activity can impact
the price (up or down) at which clients in the Model Strategies
purchase the same securities. UBS does not offer SMA strategies
in which Model Providers manage discretionary strategies based
on the same Models available in the Programs.
You will not enter into a separate investment advisory agreement
with a Model Provider or Overlay Manager. The Model Provider
will not know your identity, does not manage your Account and is
not a fiduciary to you in connection with the services it provides.
The investment decisions for the Model Strategies will be
implemented by the Overlay Manager in accordance with the
investment recommendations and instructions provided to it by
the Model Provider. Model Providers provide advisory services
under agreements with UBS and the Overlay Manager by
providing investment recommendations for the Models. The
Overlay Manager will generally implement the Model Provider’s
recommendations without change, subject to any investment
restrictions you place on your Account, cash requests or deposits,
and other operational or investment considerations. The Overlay
Manager may determine, in its sole discretion, in light of
operational or investment considerations, to deviate from the
Strategist Model (e.g., to select another security or increase the
cash allocation within a model portfolio).
Review of Model Providers and Overlay Managers
The Model Provider and Overlay manager are subject to the
research process applied to all researched SMA Managers. As is
standard in the ACCESS, Strategic Wealth Portfolio and Advisor
Allocation Programs, UBS can replace or terminate a Model
Provider or Overlay Manager with notice to you.
By choosing a Model Strategy for your Account, you grant the
Overlay Manager investment discretion and trading authority for
investments in the account. The Overlay Manager has full trading
authority and may invest, reinvest, purchase, sell, exchange,
convert and otherwise trade assets, without any prior notice. UBS
does not select or otherwise advise the Overlay Manager in the
selection of securities for your Account.
Model Provider and Overlay Manager Fees.
The Model Strategies are available in the ACCESS, Strategic
Wealth Portfolio and Advisor Allocation Programs with the
following two fee structures:
•
Client pays the investment management fee to the
Overlay Manager.
Strategist Models
Strategist Models are separately managed account models
(“Strategist Models”) provided by affiliated and third-party
investment managers (“Model Providers”) to a third-party
manager we have selected to serve as an overlay manager (the
“Overlay Manager”) to implement the model in strategy client
accounts. The Strategist Models consist of a selection of securities
identified by the Model Provider in various assets classes, holdings
and weightings that are designed by the Model Provider to meet
the objectives of a particular investment style or discipline. Model
Providers provide changes to the Strategist Models directly to the
Overlay Manager for implementation.
2. Managed Accounts Consulting (MAC) (dual contract)
In this arrangement, the client pays a fee to the Overlay Manager
for the services provided in implementing the Model in the
strategy account. The Overlay Manager and Model Provider
separately negotiate a fee to be paid by Overlay Manager to
Model Provider for access to the Model. UBS does not compensate
the Overlay Manager for its services. Neither UBS, nor the client,
pays any compensation to the Model provider.
• UBS pays the investment management fee to the
Overlay Manager.
MAC Manager Research. We provide different levels of SMA
Manager due diligence and reviews in our MAC program. The
level of due diligence we undertake varies depending on whether
a Manager's strategy is considered MAC Researched or MAC
Eligible. Please see “Portfolio Manager Selection and
Evaluation—Selecting an SMA Manager; Our Investment
Manager Evaluation Process.”
In this arrangement, utilized for Strategist Models (see “Strategist
Models” below), the client does not pay a separate Overlay
Manager Fee. UBS compensates the Overlay Manager for its
services out of its own resources. The Model Provider is not paid
an account management fee by UBS or clients invested in the
Strategist Model. The Model Provider is compensated in this
arrangement by the management fees the Model Provider or its
affiliate(s) receive for the management services it provides to the
Model Provider’s proprietary products (generally mutual funds and
ETFs) the Model Provider includes in the Strategist Models. For
MAC SMA Manager Fee: In the MAC Program, you are solely
responsible for negotiating your investment management
agreement and the SMA Manager fees directly with the manager.
We will not hire your MAC SMA Manager nor will we negotiate
fees or execute agreements on your behalf, unless you have
delegated such responsibility to us in UBS-CAP through one of
the Limited Power of Attorney implementation options. However,
even in those circumstances our negotiations on your behalf
are limited to fees (as long as there is an LPOA) and not to any
Page 29 of 94
other contractual matters. You should consider that based on
the combination of our fees and your SMA Manager’s fees, the
overall fee for your MAC account may exceed 3% of the
account value. The services we offer through MAC may be
available to you on a more cost-efficient basis in other UBS
programs. You should consider all those options and costs
carefully before selecting an SMA Manager and an SMA
Program.
Important information regarding Options Overlay Strategies
strategies implement the strategy objectives using options trades
on a client's existing concentrated equity position. Options are
complex instruments and you should ensure you understand their
features and risks, as well as how they will be utilized by the
strategy manager, before investing in a CES strategy. These
strategies have various investment objectives typically seeking to
generate cash flows from options premium, help exit a stock
holding, or provide a degree of downside protection should the
stock go down in value. The pursuit of these objectives will limit
(to varying degrees depending on the strategy) your ability to fully
participate in potential future appreciation of the stock price.
Options Overlay Strategies are available in MAC.
CES strategies where covered calls are written against the
underlying stock position will significantly reduce the investor’s
upside participation in the underlying concentrated equity
position, especially during rapidly rising markets. The asymmetric
return profile of the option component of covered call writing
strategies (limited upside benefits for strategy investors, as
compared to much greater potential downside risk) can be
attributed to the strategy’s negatively skewed return
characteristics. If the account incurs losses in connection with
repurchasing outstanding call option positions and the losses are
not offset by the option premiums received, investors will need to
fund the account to close the outstanding option positions.
Therefore, strategies that include covered call writing should only
be considered by investors with the ability to deposit additional
cash into the account to offset potential losses in their option
positions over time.
Concentrated Equity Solutions Manager Fees
For CES strategies, the manager is not involved in the selection of
the underlying stock position(s) held in the account and will
manage the account in order to pursue the strategy in connection
with the underlying stock position(s) you deposit in the account.
Although the CES strategy manager will not research or manage
the underlying equity positions held in the account, the asset-
based billing for your CES strategy advisory account will include
billing for the value of the concentrated equity position held in the
account.
Options Overlay Strategies seek to generate income through the
strategic sale and purchase of index or equity options. Most of
these strategies are designed to perform best when the markets
are relatively range bound and/or historical patterns of market
volatility in the market persist. Some strategies perform best when
markets are increasing and others while markets are decreasing.
Option writing strategies are most challenged and are not
designed to perform well during periods when markets make
extreme directional moves and/or experience extreme changes in
volatility. The options trades are collateralized with marginable
securities such as bonds, stocks or cash held in an account. Using
the margin release of securities in order to purchase or sell short
the options positions for the Options Overlay Strategy is known as
leverage. You may be required to contribute additional cash or
securities as collateral to support the strategy. The maximum
losses incurred can be significantly higher than the premiums
received. As a result, the potential downside risk of the strategy
exceeds the potential upside gain. In addition, it is possible that
the investment advisory fee you pay for this strategy or any losses
resulting from this strategy could potentially cause a margin debit
to occur. Carrying a margin debit would cause margin interest to
be charged. The interest rate charged on any negative balances
(margin loans) may exceed the rate of return on accounts the
client uses as collateral. Options are complex instruments that are
not suitable for every investor, may involve a high degree of risk,
and may be appropriate investments only for sophisticated
investors who are capable of understanding and assuming the
risks involved.
Certain CES strategies will require the account to be approved for
margin which means you may incur a margin debit balance in your
account. We charge interest according to our Firm's usual credit
practices if payment of our fees or certain trading/market activity
results in a debit balance in your Account.
Options Overlay Strategies are aggressive and carry a high degree
of risk. You should not authorize the use of sophisticated option
strategies unless you are prepared to sustain large losses. You
should understand the risks of options trading and margin
borrowing thoroughly before investing in this type of strategy.
Investing in an Options Overlay Strategy will involve the use of
leverage, which increases the risk associated with your collateral
accounts, in some instances substantially, especially for collateral
accounts that have an account profile of conservative or
moderate, and as a result, increases your overall risk profile. In
addition, you should see the section of this brochure which further
describes the risks and potential conflicts of utilizing margin and
lending in our investment advisory programs. The Program Fee
imposed for the Options Overlay Strategy is in addition to any
commissions, fees, or advisory fees you are charged on the
accounts you use as collateral. Specifically, for Advisory accounts
used as collateral, we will include any margin balances in the
calculation of your account’s asset based fee; the use of margin in
your advisory account will increase the compensation paid to UBS
FS and our affiliates.
A portion of your CES Advisory Account may be held in cash, cash
equivalents or money market instruments which are subject to the
Program Fees so long as they remain in the account. Some CES
strategies seek to generate cash flows and, therefore, cash may
accumulate in the account over time. CES strategy managers do
not manage cash positions in the account. Cash, however, may be
utilized to cover security purchases made by the Investment
Manager. Since you will be billed advisory fees on the cash held in
the account, you should monitor the levels of cash in your CES
account over time to determine if such levels are necessary for the
account based on your selected strategy.
Concentrated Equity Solutions Account Performance
The underlying stock position deposited into the CES account will
be unique to each client and, therefore, performance for each CES
investor will vary significantly.
Management of Your SMA Account and SMA sub-accounts
in SWP and AAP. For the SMA Programs described in this
brochure and the SMA sub-accounts in SWP and AAP, your
SMA Manager has the sole authority to manage your account
(or the portion they manage in SWP and AAP, referred to as sub-
accounts), and will make all investment decisions for your
Concentrated Equity Solutions
The MAC Program offers Concentrated Equity Solutions (“CES”).
CES are separately managed account (“SMA”) strategies that seek
to address the risk (specific to an individual equity security, rather
than general market risk inherent in equity securities) associated
with a concentrated individual equity holding. Generally, these
Page 30 of 94
initial and ongoing investment advice of your Program Assets.
However, you, or your Financial Advisor in AAP, may decide to
implement your Target Allocation over a period of time, or
change it from time to time as long as it does not exceed your
stated risk tolerance. Once you or your AAP Financial Advisor
select your Target Allocation, we will implement the Asset
Allocation without taking into consideration your potential tax
consequences.
account/sub-account without discussing these transactions with
you or us. Your SMA Manager will generally be limited to
investing in those securities classified as eligible for the
program you selected. Please see “Account Requirements and
Types of Clients—Eligible and Ineligible Assets” for a
description of our practices and consult your Financial Advisor
for the specific details regarding asset/security eligibility in your
program.
We will execute transactions in your program accounts/sub-
accounts based on the instructions we receive from your SMA
Manager. In addition, neither UBS Financial Services nor
your Financial Advisor will have discretionary authority with
respect to, nor will we solicit your SMA Managers regarding,
the purchase or sale of securities for your SMA accounts/sub-
accounts.
We are not responsible for:
If the allocation includes SMA accounts/sub-accounts, the SMA
Managers manage their strategies and trade their accounts/sub-
accounts independent of each other. In addition, when reducing
the allocation to an SMA account/sub-account, we generally do
not transfer securities to other accounts/sub-accounts. This can
result in you holding and transacting in the same securities across
different accounts/sub-accounts, including sales and purchases of
the same security in a short timeframe or during rebalancing or
reallocation.
-
-
-
-
-
Your choice of SMA Manager
Their day-to-day investment decisions (including their
selection of tax lots for sale or redemption)
Their performance
The SMA Manager’s compliance with applicable laws,
rules or regulations
The SMA Manager’s compliance with best execution
obligations
Implementing and changing the Target Allocation, rebalancing
and other transactions may result in tax consequences to you.
You are responsible for any tax liabilities which result from
transactions in your Account(s) (including any redemptions or
upon the termination of participation in the Programs). Please
consult a qualified tax professional regarding the potential tax
implications of these transactions before investing in these
Programs. For more information on our asset allocations please
see “Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies and Risk of Loss—
Our Asset Allocations.”
- Other matters within the SMA Manager's control, including
implementation of your rebalancing election where the
manager has assumed the responsibility to manage your
account.
We reserve the right to refuse to execute any transaction in our
program accounts if we reasonably believe that it would violate
any applicable law or rule—including the rules of any regulatory
agency or self-regulatory organization. We may also refuse to
execute any transaction that would be inconsistent with any of
our policies and procedures.
3. Asset Allocation Services in our Non-
Discretionary, Unified Managed Account,
Portfolio Advisory Programs and Alternative
Investments Advisory Programs
Due to the non-discretionary nature of your SWP, PACE,
Strategic Advisor accounts, Client Directed CAP and CAP
Select options, and IC non-discretionary Program it is your
responsibility to determine whether and how to
implement the target asset allocation/investment strategy,
and to ensure that your asset allocation continues to be
consistent with your goals and risk tolerance over time.
The asset allocation for UBS-CAP and IC encompasses all
Advisory Accounts in your UBS-CAP Portfolio or IC Portfolio
respectively, while for other Programs, your asset
allocation reflects only your assets invested in your
individual Program Account and do not constitute advice
regarding other accounts, whether held at UBS or elsewhere.
You may deviate from your target asset allocation only by a pre-
determined level based on your risk tolerance. The rebalancing
feature, where available, will assist you in maintaining your
Account(s) in line with your target asset allocation. However,
deviations from your Target Allocation or risk tolerance will occur
for a variety of reasons, including fluctuations in the market value
of securities, any investment restrictions you impose on the
management of the account, any tax selling agreement, or for
accounts that do not meet the rebalancing thresholds. See
Rebalancing Your Asset Allocation for information about
Programs that offer rebalancing options and the rebalancing
process overall.
We will provide you with an asset allocation proposal for
accounts you establish in our UBS-CAP, CAP Select, PACE,
Strategic Advisor, Strategic Wealth Portfolio and Advisor
Allocation Programs. For non-discretionary Programs, your
Financial Advisor will review the results of your Risk Profile
Questionnaire with you and assist you in developing an asset
allocation for your Advisory Account, your UBS-CAP, CAP Select
portfolio, or your IC portfolio. For AAP, your Financial Advisor
has discretion to select the asset allocation of your AAP Account
based on the results of your Risk Profile Questionnaire. The
asset allocations are based on the information you provided to
us in your Risk Profile Questionnaire and discussions with you
regarding an appropriate allocation (Target Allocation) of your
Program Assets. The Target Allocation represents an investment
strategy that seeks to balance your investment objectives with
your risk tolerance.
We will notify you if your allocation shifts and is no longer
consistent within your risk profile and if those inconsistencies
continue for a period of time. You are responsible for addressing
any inconsistencies between your asset allocation and your risk
tolerance. If you do not take action to update the account profile
or modify your asset allocation, the account may be terminated.
Your Program Fees will be assessed regardless of whether or not
you follow our recommended allocation.
You may accept the Target Allocation for the Program Assets in
your Account, or your UBS-CAP, CAP Select, or IC Portfolio, or
you may customize it based on your preferences to include
different asset categories or different allocations to one or more
asset classes as long as it is consistent with the risk tolerance and
investment objectives for your Account or CAP or IC Portfolio.
You may consult with your Financial Advisor about these
choices. The allocation you or your AAP Financial Advisor select
for your Target Allocation is intended to be the basis for the
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4. Unified Managed Account Programs: UBS Strategic
Wealth Portfolio Program (SWP) and Advisor
Allocation Program (AAP)
with the Target Allocation. Your Financial Advisor can rebalance
or reallocate the account at any time. The initial Target Allocation,
investments and rebalancing thresholds for your AAP Account will
be described in a written proposal and we will notify you when
your Financial Advisor makes changes. Your Financial Advisor has
discretion over the purchase and sale of mutual funds and ETFs
and the selection of the SMA strategies in AAP, however, only the
SMA manager has discretion over the purchase and sales of assets
in the SMA sub-accounts.
SMA Sub-Accounts; Management of Your Account;
Discretionary Authority of Separately Managed Assets.
The SMA sub-accounts in SWP and AAP are managed on an
individual basis by the selected SMA Manager(s).
The Advisor Allocation Program and Strategic Wealth Portfolio
Program are Unified Managed Account Programs that offer
different levels of discretion to accommodate individual client
preferences. SWP and AAP share certain features, services and
basic requirements which are outlined below. Both Programs
offer the option to invest in SMA strategies, mutual funds and
ETFs which are held in separate “sub-accounts”. The primary
difference between the SWP and AAP Programs is the level of
discretion you will delegate to your Financial Advisor. If you or
your Financial Advisor selects SMA strategies for your Account,
you will be charged the applicable SMA Manager Fee or Premium
Services Fee, which will vary depending upon the strategy, in
addition to the UBS Investment Advisory Fee.
The SMA Managers will manage the SMA sub-accounts on a
discretionary basis and are responsible for rebalancing the SMA
sub-account they manage. (See Item 5D below for additional
information on Execution and Trading Practices). Neither UBS
Financial Services nor your Financial Advisor will have discretionary
authority with respect to, nor will we solicit your SMA Managers
regarding, the purchase or sale of securities for your SMA
accounts/sub-accounts.
Transactions in Mutual Fund and ETF Sub-Accounts
UMA Account Structure: Depending on your asset allocation,
your Account will be invested in a combination of investment
products—including individual equities or fixed-income in the
SMA sub-accounts,– mutual funds, exchange traded funds and
other securities available through the Programs. In both
Programs, your assets will be held in one account, but divided
within that account into investment sub-accounts. For example,
your assets may be divided among SMA sub-accounts and a
subaccount with mutual funds and ETFs. The sub-accounts offer
different levels of discretion, features, and services as described
below.
•
The following rules apply to mutual fund and ETF purchases
authorized by you in SWP (“Non-Discretionary Asset”) or
purchased by your Financial Advisor in AAP (“FA-Discretionary
Assets”):
The SWP Program requires a minimum of 3 investments,
or at least 2 if both are SMA sub-accounts.
• All purchases and redemptions of Non-Discretionary
•
The AAP Program account requires a minimum of 5
investments if the allocation includes only mutual funds
and ETFs, or at least 3 if one is an SMA sub-account.
•
Currently each of these Programs have a maximum of 35 sub-
accounts.
•
Assets and FA Discretionary Assets, as applicable, will be
made proportionally based on the Target Allocation
selected for the Account.
Investments will be subject to maintaining the minimum
cash level required for billing and other liquidity needs,
and to meet the minimum trade requirements (currently
$200 and subject to change).
The initial cash level will be approximately 1% of the
asset value of the Non-Discretionary Assets or FA
Discretionary Asset sub-account, as applicable, and can
fluctuate between 0.5% and 1.5%. If the cash level is
outside of this range, the sub- account will be
rebalanced to a cash level of approximately 1%;
however, if the trade dollar amount required is at or
below the minimum trade requirement, no trades will be
executed. The per-share value of certain investments can
cause the cash level to exceed 1.5% of the asset value of
the Non-Discretionary Asset or FA Discretionary Assets
sub-account, as applicable. In the event the cash level
does increase, it will be maintained at this higher
percentage.
SWP Non-Discretionary Services by UBS Financial Services
Inc.: If you select to include SMA strategies in your SWP
Account, the SMA Manager(s) you select will manage those assets
on your behalf on a discretionary basis. The Advisory services we
provide to you in SWP are non-discretionary - —meaning that you
retain sole discretion over the purchase and sale of mutual funds,
ETFs and the selection of SMA strategies for your Account and
must authorize each transaction and SMA manager selection in
advance. If you select SMA strategies for your Account, the SMA
Managers will manage the assets allocated to them on a
discretionary basis without the input or recommendation of your
Financial Advisor. You may impose investment restrictions for the
assets managed by SMA Managers. You may not impose
investment restrictions for the mutual funds and ETF sub-accounts.
Note that Accounts without an SMA sub-account are serviced on
a fully non-discretionary basis with the client retaining all
investment decisions over the assets invested in those Accounts.
The SWP Program does not offer overlay management services at
the Account level.
All account changes, including transactions in Non-Discretionary
Assets, are subject to a systematic administrative review to ensure
consistency with your Target Allocation. We will also ensure that
any required paperwork is complete. As a result, transactions are
not executed until after the administrative review is completed,
and it may take several days for your allocation changes to be
effected in your account. Because prices fluctuate during the
trading day, the prices you receive at the time the trades are
executed may be better or worse than the prices at the time you
authorized the changes to your account.
Rebalancing and Reallocation of your SWP and AAP Asset
Allocation
AAP Discretionary Services: Your Financial Advisor has
discretion to: (1) select a Target Allocation based on your
responses to the Risk Profile Questionnaire; (2) implement the
Target Allocation by investing in mutual funds, ETFs and
researched SMA strategies, including those managed by UBS
affiliates; (3) change the Target Allocation and investments at any
time as long as those changes remain consistent with the risk
profile and investment objectives you provided for your Account;
(4) establish, and change, the rebalancing frequency and
thresholds which are designed to maintain your Account in line
Page 32 of 94
to those transactions.
The SWP and AAP Programs offer several rebalancing options.
See below, Rebalancing Your Asset Allocation: Rebalancing
Options, Process, Thresholds and Limitations for a description of
rebalancing.
For information about our asset allocation services, see Asset
Allocation Services in our Non-Discretionary, Unified Managed
Account, Portfolio Advisory Programs and Alternative Investments
Advisory Programs.
The advice and guidance of your Financial Advisor is a key service
of the Programs. A pattern of unsolicited trading may indicate
that the Program you selected is no longer appropriate for you
as you are not leveraging the advice of your Financial Advisor.
This may result in the revocation of your online trading access
(for Strategic Advisor Accounts) and/or termination of your
Account from the Program. Strategic Advisor is the only advisory
program that provides clients with access to online trading. Clients
with Strategic Advisor Accounts enrolled in the IC Program are not
eligible for access to online trading.
Contributions and Withdrawals: Contributions to and
Withdrawals from your SWP and AAP Accounts will be handled as
follows:
After you have completed an unsolicited transaction and have
acquired a security on your own and without our advice, for so
long as you hold that position in your Program Account, we will
take that asset into consideration:
as part of your overall account assets,
when we give you periodic asset allocation advice,
when we value your account holdings,
when we provide you with analyses and reports on your
account’s performance, and
we may also make recommendations that you consider selling
the asset if, and when, we deem it appropriate.
As a result, we will include any security you acquire in an
unsolicited transaction as part of your account assets in
calculating your Advisory fee if you continue to hold the asset
in your account.
1. UBS Strategic Advisor Program Eligible
Assets and Non-Billable Assets in Strategic
Advisor
(i) Cash contributions will be allocated to the most under-
weighted sub-account(s), relative to the target weight of the
investment strategy selected.
(ii) If you contribute securities to your account, either UBS and/or
your SMA Manager will liquidate those securities and allocate the
proceeds to the most underweighted sub-accounts first.
(iii) If you request a withdrawal from your Account, monies will be
withdrawn from the overweighted sub-account(s) with the
greatest deviation from the Target Allocation. We will follow that
process unless those withdrawals would result in the sub-accounts
falling below their respective investment minimum. In those
circumstances, withdrawals will be made first, proportionally, from
those sub-accounts that do not have investment minimums.
Withdrawals that cause the value of any sub-account to go below
the respective investments' minimum may require that you (for
SWP) or your Financial Advisor (for AAP) change the target
weightings of your investment strategy or select new investments
in order to meet investment minimums.
(iv) If you do not withdraw the cash from the account within 35
days it will be reinvested according to the Program funding rules.
We will continue to charge the Program Fee on cash until it is
withdrawn.
G. Non-Discretionary Advisory Programs
The Section “Account Requirements Eligible and Ineligible
Assets” describes our general policies regarding eligible assets in
our Advisory programs. Strategic Advisor provides a greater level
of flexibility than other Advisory programs as it pertains to
eligible assets—i.e., those assets held in your account that are
subject to our advice.
Specifically, the Strategic Advisor program permits you to hold,
but not to purchase, certain assets deemed ineligible in
other programs such as the following:
B share class and C share class mutual funds
Depending on your Program selection, your account will be
invested in the following manner:
PACE: all mutual funds
Strategic Advisor: A combination of equities, open- and
closed-end mutual funds, ETFs, fixed-income securities,
approved unit investment trusts (UITs), options, certain
alternative investments, structured products and other
securities.
-
- Open-end mutual funds not approved for the Program
-
-
-
Both PACE and Strategic Advisor are asset allocation programs.
Please see the section “Asset Allocation Services in our
Non-Discretionary and Unified Managed Account
Programs” for information about our asset
allocation services, notification process for inconsistencies
between your Target Allocation and Risk Profile.
–
UITs not approved for the Program
ETFs and closed-end funds not approved for the program
Alternative investments not approved for the Program,
including hedge funds, hedge fund of funds, managed
futures, and restricted stock.
Private equity, private real estate funds, and private
placements are not eligible to be held or purchased in a
Strategic Advisor account even if the asset is non-billable,
except for certain REIT funds and accounts grandfathered
under prior guidelines.
Transactions for Your Strategic Advisor Account and PACE
Asset Allocation. We will execute transactions for your
Strategic Advisor account and PACE investments based solely
on your instructions; and neither UBS nor your Financial
Advisor will have any discretion over the investment of your
Program assets in the PACE and Strategic Advisor accounts.
While these assets may be held in Strategic Advisor Accounts,
and therefore subject to our ongoing advice, they are excluded
from the calculations of your Program Fees due to the
additional compensation that we receive in connection with those
investments. These “Non-billable assets” will not be included
when determining the minimum account opening requirement,
but they will be included in the performance reports for your
Strategic Advisor account.
Unsolicited Transactions. You may execute security transactions
that we have recommended to you (solicited transactions) as well
as select transactions in Strategic Advisor you execute without
consultation with, or recommendation from, us (unsolicited
transactions on eligible investment products). These unsolicited
transactions are solely your responsibility and neither UBS nor your
Financial Advisor will act as your investment adviser with respect
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Strategic Advisor Accounts holding Eligible Non-Billable
Assets may not be enrolled in UBS-CAP or the IC Program.
2. PACE—Personalized Asset Consulting
and Evaluation
discontinued Select Portfolio or fund, your Financial Advisor can
help you determine what action to take. You may decide to
replace the discontinued Select Portfolio or fund or sell your
shares. We will notify you of the removal or termination of a
Select Portfolio or fund and will indicate what action, if any, is
suggested. If we discontinue a Select Portfolio, you may incur a
tax liability.
Note: This subsection also includes a description of rebalancing
features and processes relating to the SWP and AAP Programs (see
Rebalancing Your Asset Allocation: Rebalancing Options,
Process, Thresholds and Limitations, below).
PACE Select:
You may choose from among the following fifteen (15) Select
Portfolios of the Trust:
8.
PACE Large Cap Growth
PACE Select Advisors Trust (“PACE Select”) and PACE Multi
Advisor (“PACE Multi”) Programs
1. UBS Government Money
Market Investments
9.
2.
PACE Small/Medium
Value
PACE Mortgage-Backed
Securities
10. PACE Small/Medium
3.
Growth
11. PACE International Equity
4.
PACE Municipal Fixed
Income
PACE Intermediate Fixed
Income
5.
12. PACE Global Real Estate
13. PACE International
Emerging Markets
PACE Select and PACE Multi share certain features, services and
basic requirements which are outlined below. PACE combines
our ability to evaluate your investment objectives and risk
tolerance with professional investment advice and offers the
convenience of style specific mutual funds in PACE Select, and a
broad array of mutual funds (non- proprietary and proprietary)
available in PACE Multi.
PACE Strategic Fixed
Income
14. PACE Global Fixed
Income
6.
7.
PACE High Yield
PACE Large Cap Value
15. PACE Alternative
Strategies
In PACE Select, you may choose a combination of the
investment styles and asset classes available through the PACE
Select Advisors Trust (the “Trust”), a series of proprietary mutual
fund investment portfolios (the “Select Portfolios”). In PACE
Multi, you may choose among a variety of no load and load
waived shares of mutual funds (“Funds”).
PACE Multi Advisor: You may choose shares of non-affiliated
funds and certain designated share classes of affiliated funds
and an affiliated money market fund.
Account Structure, Fund Eligibility and Impact on PACE
Multi Asset Allocation.
The PACE Select Trust is a UBS proprietary product managed by
our affiliate, UBS Asset Management. PACE Multi offers both
affiliated and non-affiliated mutual funds. We and/or our
affiliates are compensated for providing investment
management, distribution and other services to the Select
Portfolios and affiliated Funds (“Affiliated Funds”) available
through these Programs.
The PACE allocation is held as a separate investment or sub-
account in a brokerage account. As a result, you may buy and
hold assets in your account that are not invested through the
PACE Program, including mutual funds that are not eligible in
PACE (“Non-PACE Assets”).
In addition to our wrap fee services, a PACE client also receives
the following services:
Asset Allocation and Investment Selection. There are
differences in the allocations and investment options available in
PACE Multi and PACE Select. The PACE Multi default for equity
allocations is a Large-Mid-Small allocation. PACE Select only
offers a Large/SMID (“SMID” is a combination of small and
mid-cap mutual funds) asset allocation for the equity portion of
your investment.
You do not need to liquidate securities prior to your participation
in PACE because you may hold those securities in your
brokerage portion of your account. Neither UBS nor your
Financial Advisor will act as your investment advisor with
respect to your Non-PACE assets. We will execute transactions
in your Non-PACE assets as you direct, as your broker-dealer,
and will charge you our customary brokerage commissions or
other fees. The PACE Fee does not apply to these other assets or
transactions. Non-PACE assets will not be included in your PACE
asset allocation or performance report but will be included in
your account statements.
Based on your Questionnaire, we will recommend a mix of
assetclasses that are consistent with your tolerance for risk. Once
you select an appropriate asset allocation for your Program
Assets and investments from the investment styles available in
each Program, we will execute those transactions in your
Program Accounts according to your Target Allocation.
You will make all investment decisions in the Program other
than automatic service transactions, if you choose that option
(described under “PACE Automatic Investment Options”). Your
account contributions and withdrawals will be invested and
redeemed in accordance with your Target Allocation.
We review our offerings in the PACE Multi Program periodically
and make new funds eligible for the Program. If a new fund or
new share class is made eligible in PACE Multi and you already
own that fund or share in the same brokerage account in which
you hold the PACE allocation, those existing holdings will be
automatically moved to your PACE allocation when the
fund/share is made eligible. Those changes may impact your
asset allocation and risk tolerance as well as increase the
level of assets on which the PACE fee is charged. You will
need to include a target allocation for such funds in order
to avoid liquidation upon account rebalancing (see below).
These changes should be discussed with your Financial Advisor.
Please see “Classification and Availability of Investments,
SMA Managers, Mutual Funds, Alternative Investments and
PACE Select Trust Portfolios” for a description of our practices
regarding the availability of investments in our Programs.
Automatic rebalancing will consider all eligible funds
whether a target allocation is established or not. If an
eligible Fund does not have a target allocation assigned to
Removal of a fund from the Program may cause you to have a
taxable event or incur other costs. If you are invested in a
Page 34 of 94
As of the date of this Brochure, depending on your account type
and/or account ownership, the following cash sweep options from
the brokerage account that holds your PACE asset allocation are
available for the PACE auto services: UBS Bank Sweep Programs,
UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program, UBS RMA Government Money
Market Fund or UBS Liquid Assets Government Fund.
it, it will be fully liquidated. If you have a target allocation
to a fund not currently held in your PACE account, it will
be purchased. By executing the Relationship Agreement
you authorize us to liquidate and purchase those
positions, as applicable under the circumstances. We
are not responsible for the tax implications of such
liquidations.
PACE Automatic Redemptions. You may have $250 or more
of Program Assets redeemed automatically from Program Assets
in proportion to your Target Allocation. Based on your
instructions, redemptions will be processed so that cash is
available in your account on:
the 15th (or, if the 15th is not a business day, the prior
business day) of every month,
the last business day of every month, or
the last business day of every calendar quarter.
The shares will be included for performance purposes once they
are eligible regardless of how long they are held. The newly
eligible fund or share class will be included in the
calculation of the account’s average daily balance during
the applicable quarter and will be included in your
Program Assets on the last day of the quarter for billing
purposes unless the exception explained above applies.
Please see Item 5.C. Billing Practices for details. See also
Transferred Shares for a description of billing practices applicable
to Transferred Shares.
PACE Automatic Investment Options. We offer several
automatic investment options to PACE Multi and PACE Select
clients, including:
-
-
-
Automatic Rebalancing
Automatic Redemptions
Automatic Purchases
Shares will be redeemed from each fund that is currently
overweighted as compared to your Target Allocation and then
redeeming the remaining portion according to your Target
Allocation. Additional methods in which a client may redeem
shares may be introduced including offering redemptions on a
pro-rata basis. We will request redemption two Business Days
before the date you select, or such other date as may be
necessary to ensure that cash is available in your account on the
date selected. Redemption proceeds are deposited in your
account and are not automatically forwarded to you.
The investment options are administrative in nature and will
normally be done on the day or date selected by you on the
application. We may delay the processing of these services under
certain circumstances as described below.
Automatic Redemptions: If an automatic redemption causes
PACE Program Assets to be reduced below levels that impact
the management or servicing of the Account, we may ask you
to restore your Program Assets to the amount of the Opening
Date account minimum within 30 days. If you do not restore
your Program Assets to this minimum as requested, we will
have the right to terminate your participation in PACE.
Rebalancing Options. The PACE Program includes mandatory
annual rebalancing. Your PACE asset allocation will be reviewed
automatically for rebalancing on an annual basis unless you
choose to have rebalancing occur on a semi- annual basis or
quarterly basis. See: Rebalancing Your Asset Allocation for a
description of the rebalancing process, thresholds and limitations.
No automatic redemption will occur if (i) insufficient shares in
any Fund are available to process the redemption proportionately
in accordance with your Target Allocation; (ii) when the auto
redemption request is greater than the account value; and (iii)
the redemption request pertains to fund no longer eligible in the
Program.
We may delay the automatic services described above under
certain circumstances to ensure the orderly processing of services.
See “Delays in Rebalancing Process and Automatic Services.”
Rebalancing Your Asset Allocation: Rebalancing Options,
Process, Thresholds and Limitations
PACE Automatic Purchases. You may choose to have funds
automatically invested based on your Target Allocation, with an
amount between $250, an amount determined by UBS, or an
amount you specify. Depending on your selection, funds will be
invested as follows:
Monthly: on the 15th of every month (or, if the 15th is not a
business day, the next business day), or the last business day of
every month,
Quarterly: the last business day of every calendar quarter.
You may also designate the duration of your automatic
purchases or the total target investment amount on the
Application. The contribution will first buy the Funds/ Portfolios
that are underweighted, as compared to your Target Allocation
and then invest the remaining portion according to the Target
Allocation.
PACE Program: includes mandatory annual rebalancing. Your
PACE asset allocation will be reviewed automatically for
rebalancing on an annual basis unless you choose to have
rebalancing occur on a semi- annual basis or quarterly basis. and
will bring your asset allocation back to your target allocation,
overriding the Rebalancing Thresholds described below.
SWP: you must select a rebalancing option (annual, semi-annual
or quarterly) when you establish an Account in the Program.
We process this service by automatically withdrawing the
designated dollar amount from your brokerage account (either
cash balances or money market redemption proceeds) and
subsequently investing in PACE Program Assets. If there are
insufficient funds in your account on the trade date to purchase
the full amount specified in your PACE Application, no purchase
will be made.
AAP: your Financial Advisor can rebalance or reallocate the AAP
Account at any time and will also select an automated rebalancing
option (quarterly, annual or semi-annual) to help ensure the
account remains aligned with the Target Allocation.
In addition to automatic rebalancing, you have the option to
rebalance upon request at any time.
If you invest Plan assets through PACE and select the
automatic purchase option, please note that you must
carefully monitor your contributions to prevent them
from inadvertently exceeding federal limits on your
annual contribution.
Page 35 of 94
February of the following year to avoid any impact to tax
trading at the end of the year.
Your PACE, SWP and AAP Program Assets will be automatically
reviewed for rebalancing to your Target Allocation based on the
rebalancing frequency selected for the Account.
• Automatic rebalancing for any account where the risk of the
current allocation is higher (more aggressive) (or, for AAP,
also lower) than the Account’s stated risk tolerance for 6
consecutive quarters for SWP and PACE and 4 consecutive
quarters for AAP will take place during the 7th quarter for
SWP and PACE, and the 5th quarter for AAP
•
Rebalancing Thresholds: Rebalancing will occur (subject to our
minimum trade requirement) if, on the rebalancing date, your
Account is above the minimum funding requirement and the
current allocation in any one PACE eligible mutual fund or
SWP/AAP sub-account deviates from their Target Allocation by
more than 3%, 5% of the total Program Assets, or 10% for
taxable accounts (“Rebalancing Thresholds”). Taxable accounts
have the option of selecting annual rebalancing when there is a
deviation of more than 10% from the Target Allocation in any
mutual fund in PACE or SWP / AAP sub-account. For example, in
an account that rebalances annually with a +/- 5% deviation, a
mutual fund in PACE or SWP / AAP sub-account with a 30%
target allocation would trigger a rebalance if its value reached
25% or 35% of the account value.
Rebalancing will bring your asset allocation back to your
Target Allocation, overriding the Rebalancing Threshold
selected or applicable to the Account. If in the 7th quarter for
SWP and PACE or 5th quarter for AAP, the account comes
back into its risk band but is still out by the Rebalancing
Threshold selected, the account will be rebalanced according
to the option selected for the Account. Your Advisory
Account Review will show whether your allocation is no
longer within the standard deviation range for your stated
risk profile.
In addition, regardless of the Rebalancing Threshold selected,
automatic rebalancing will be conducted based on the following
program guidelines:
•
In SWP and PACE, single mutual fund or exchange traded
fund (ETF) position concentration, as applicable, of 70%. If
the concentration of a single fund exceeds this limit by 1% or
more for 6 consecutive quarters, the account will be
rebalanced. Rebalancing will take place during the 7th quarter
if the concentration continues to violate the guideline and will
bring the asset allocation back to your Target Allocation.
•
Automatic Rebalancing to the Client Target Allocation –
with updates to the Capital Market Assumptions (Available
to PACE Select clients only) – By selecting this option, you elect
to have Program Assets reviewed, and if necessary, automatically
rebalanced on a periodic basis to be consistent with the UBS
capital market assumptions. Your Client Target Allocation is
based on our proprietary capital market assumptions; those
allocations may be updated and may change periodically. Your
affirmative consent is not required to implement these changes;
however, you will receive notice and an opportunity to elect out of
automatic rebalancing when we change the Asset
Allocation. When the automatic rebalance is performed, the
rebalance will override your 3%, 5% or 10% threshold which was
elected when your PACE account was opened. Additionally, we
may re-schedule your rebalance earlier or later than your
scheduled annual, semi-annual, or quarterly rebalance if necessary
in order to rebalance your account when the Capital Market
Assumptions are updated.
In SWP, single SMA strategy concentration of 70%. If the
concentration of a single SMA strategy exceeds this limit by
1% or more for 6 consecutive quarters, the account will be
rebalanced. Rebalancing will take place during the 7th
quarter if the concentration continues to violate the guideline
and will bring the asset allocation back to your Target
Allocation.
Accounts are rebalanced as follows:
• Annual rebalancing:
o
•
o
In AAP, single mutual fund or ETF position concentrations
greater than 35% and single SMA strategy concentration of
70%. If a single fund or SMA strategy exceeds these
guidelines by 1% or more for 4 consecutive quarters, the
account will be rebalanced. Rebalancing will take place
during the 5th quarter if the concentration remains in
violation of the guideline and will bring the asset allocation
back to the Target Allocation.
PACE: Annual Rebalancing will occur on or near 13
months from the anniversary of your account
opening date, and then, subsequently, 13 months
from the previous rebalance date. Accounts
scheduled for annual rebalancing in Nov/Dec will be
rebalanced in January to avoid tax trading at year
end.
SWP/AAP: generally will occur during the week
following the anniversary of your account opening
date.
Semi-annual rebalancing:
•
Note: accounts that are evaluated as part of an Advisory Account
Group will have higher concentration guidelines.
o
o
PACE: Semi-Annual Rebalancing is generally done in
February and August.
SWP / AAP: generally will occur during the week
following each sixth month (180 day) and annual
anniversary of your account opening date.
Your SMA Manager(s) are responsible for the separately managed
portion of your SWP and AAP Accounts, while UBS will rebalance
your SWP Non-Discretionary assets and your AAP FA Discretionary
Assets.
• Quarterly rebalancing:
o
o
PACE: Quarterly Rebalancing is generally done
during the third week in February, May, August and
November.
SWP / AAP: will generally occur during the week
following each three month (90 day), sixth month
(180 day), nine month (270 day) and annual
anniversary of your account opening date.
•
SWP / AAP Accounts scheduled for rebalancing (quarterly,
annual, semi- annual or automatic) in November, December
and January, will be rebalanced in or around the first week of
Your accounts will be rebalanced by selling investments in the
overweighted mutual funds in PACE and SWP/AAP sub- accounts
and purchasing a corresponding dollar amount of investments in
the underweighted mutual funds or sub-accounts, as applicable.
Rebalancing transactions will be processed provided that the sale
and the purchase meet our trade minimums, which for PACE are
the greater of $50 or 50 basis points, not to exceed $2500. A $25
dollar trade minimum will be used if all trades during the
rebalance are below $50. The minimum trade requirement in
SWP/AAP is currently $200. We reserve the right to change the
rebalancing percentage measure or the minimum dollar amount
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of individual rebalancing transactions. Rebalancing is completed
as promptly as possible. In the event that we are unable to initiate
rebalancing as described above due to reasons beyond our
control, we will initiate rebalancing as soon as practicable.
•
•
•
portfolio level instead of individually at the account level. The
primary difference between the programs is that UBS-CAP is
designed for retail investors and IC is designed for institutional
investors. While the UBS-CAP program permits assets that are held
away from UBS to be included only on a limited basis, IC permits
clients to elect to hold at UBS or to hold away without limits. The
programs also offer differing levels of investment discretion, and
they permit different advisory programs to be included within the
respective program, (See Portfolio Based Advisory Programs in
Item 4). Finally, both programs are available only through a select
group of Financial Advisors who provide specialized investment
advisory consulting services to investors, but the eligibility criteria
for those advisors differs between the Programs. See Section
Education & Business Standards for FA Education
Rebalancing will not occur if the account:
has a pending/unprocessed trade
has a margin debit or
value is below the minimum funding required for the
target weight of the investment strategy selected;
however, reallocation/rebalancing will occur for an
account that is below the minimum funding required so
long as the reallocation rebalancing will not further
reduce the asset levels of those sub-accounts.
Rebalancing and reallocation may take up to seven (7)
business days to fully implement. However, rebalancing or
reallocation of fixed income strategies may take
significantly longer to fully implement.
In addition to being available as an overall advisory contract per
client tax ID or client identifier, UBS-CAP is also available, where
appropriate, to multiple related entities (multi-TINs) owned by or
related to the same party which based on the structure and
ownership should be managed under the same Investment Policy
Guideline ("IPG") Asset Allocation and aggregated for
performance reporting.
It is important that you understand how the portfolio
level services available to you in UBS-CAP and IC alter or
modify the services and options available in the individual
UBS advisory programs in which your Portfolio may be
invested. Those distinctions include the review and
application of certain Advisory Program guidelines to
your UBS-CAP and IC Portfolio respectively instead of
individually to each Advisory Account and, if selected, the
delegation of certain activities to UBS and your Financial
Advisor through the execution of a limited power of
attorney.
Delays in Rebalancing and Automatic Services: We will
process the automatic services and rebalancing as described above
unless market conditions, technology failures, illiquid securities,
securities with limited redemption schedules, trading volumes, the
availability of funds and orderly purchase and redemption
procedures or other matters beyond our control reasonably
preclude us from accurately processing on the required dates or
otherwise cause delays in processing, in which case we may alter
the date (day) to the next available date that such processing can
be accurately completed. In addition, we may adjust the date
on which reviews and rebalancing are done, if necessary, to
ensure accurate processing of the review or rebalancing. We
may also adjust the rebalancing date if UBS is in the process
of reviewing its proprietary capital market assumptions to
avoid duplicative rebalancing of accounts and ensure
accurate and orderly processing.
Depending on the circumstances and in order to ensure the
accurate processing of the automatic investment options,
including rebalancing, we may take any of the following actions:
- Alter or delay the rebalancing day to the next
-
-
CAP Select and IC held away are advice-only programs in which
the fee you pay is solely for the investment advice and
performance provided in the Program. Custody, trading and
execution fees are not applicable or assessed in CAP Select or
when you elect to hold your assets away from UBS in the IC
Program. While the UBS-CAP Program offers clients the ability to
hold a certain percentage of their asset allocation in alternative
investments, CAP Select is designed for clients who want 100% of
their assets in CAP Select invested in a diversified asset allocation
consisting only of alternative investment vehicles. Only alternative
investments held at UBS are eligible to be held in the Program.
You may establish a CAP Select Program Account on a stand-
alone basis or in conjunction with a UBS-CAP Account Portfolio.
-
-
available date
Change the rebalancing percentage for that
rebalancing event only or the minimum dollar amount
of the individual rebalancing transactions
Process rebalancing for accounts for PACE Select and
PACE Multi on different days
Process rebalancing for taxable and non-taxable
accounts on different days
Rebalance all accounts based on a random rotation
process
We may also suspend a rebalancing event or an automatic
service event (purchases and redemptions), if based on the
factors described above, we cannot ensure the orderly and
accurate processing of the rebalancing or the automatic
service. We will notify you of that suspension and offer you
the option to have your account manually rebalanced for
that period.
UBS-CAP, CAP Select and IC services include, but are not
limited to: 1) assistance in the development and preparation of
an investment policy guideline (in UBS-CAP and CAP Select) and
an investment policy statement in IC; 2) the preparation of an
asset allocation analysis for the allocation of your investment
assets among various asset categories or classes; 3) for UBS-
CAP and IC, selection of separate account managers, mutual
funds, ETFs and alternative investments; 4) for CAP Select the
selection of alternative investments; 5) portfolio evaluation and
review; 6 ) ongoing investment management consulting on such
items as review of the asset allocation and investment policy
and the impact of capital market developments on the overall
investment strategy.
H. Portfolio Advisory and Alternative Investments
Advisory Programs
You may establish a UBS-CAP, CAP Select, or IC relationship on a
fully non- discretionary basis (without any limited power of
attorney) or you may delegate certain activities to your UBS
Financial Advisor by selecting that option in the respective
Program’s Application and executing the Agreement, Application
and Limited Power of Attorney.
UBS-CAP and IC are "Portfolio Based Advisory Programs" which
means that they are advisory programs in which our services are
provided to you for certain eligible UBS Advisory Accounts on a
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We can also provide reports which include performance
information, comparisons and other information for a variety of
investment strategies. UBS-CAP and CAP Select will provide
quarterly performance reports to you upon request.
You are not required to provide limited power of attorney
authority to your Financial Advisor or any other UBS
employee in order to participate in the Programs. If you
provide such authority, you can terminate the limited power
of attorney at any time by notifying your Financial
Advisor in writing.
In IC, our portfolio evaluation and review may also include
investment managers or investments which you retained or
purchased without our recommendation. Our inclusion of these
investments is solely for the purpose of providing a holistic
portfolio evaluation and does not constitute an endorsement that
you continue to hold those investments or retain those managers,
and we will ask you for a written acknowledgment that UBS does
not provide recommendations regarding such investments. In
addition, assets held in other UBS programs outside of your IC
Program relationship may also be included in our portfolio
evaluation in order to provide a holistic evaluation of your
portfolio, but those assets are included for informational purposes
only and are not part of the assets for which IC services are
provided.
Asset Allocation and Investment Policy Guidelines.
The Programs provide assistance in the development and
preparation of an asset allocation and an investment policy
guideline (in UBS-CAP) or investment policy statement (in IC)
which, in the case of UBS-CAP and IC can encompass a portfolio
level review across a variety of advisory accounts held at UBS and
accounts held away, as agreed. These services typically involve
analyzing your liquidity requirements, performance goals and risk
tolerance levels based on the information you provided to us.
We will review the investment policy guidelines or statement
with you on an annual basis and will assist you in incorporating
any changes you determine are appropriate. We will monitor
your portfolio to determine if it is in compliance with your
asset allocation guidelines as stated in your investment policy
guidelines or statement and will recommend changes to you
when we determine they are appropriate. The Firm does not
provide legal, tax or actuarial advice. We will not be responsible
for ensuring that your investment policy guidelines or statement
and asset allocation choices comply with all specific legal,
actuarial or other requirements that apply to you. That
responsibility rests solely with you and you should consult with
your legal and tax advisors regarding those matters.
Investment Advisory Program Selection; Implementation of
UBS-CAP, CAP Select, and IC Services. You can implement your
UBS-CAP and IC asset allocation and the results of investment
searches through one or several advisory programs offered by the
Firm. It is important you understand that these programs are
separate and distinct and offer different services, features, fee
schedules, structure and administration, depth of research
conducted on the managers available in the programs, and
compensation to Financial Advisors. Please review the
descriptions of those programs included in this Form ADV
Disclosure Brochure carefully as you decide which programs are
appropriate for your investment needs. We will provide UBS-
CAP or IC Services described above for all Program Accounts
established under your name and social security number, TIN, or
multi-TIN or client identifier where appropriate – the eligible
Advisory Programs based on the implementation option you have
selected (i) Non-Discretionary; (ii) Non-Discretionary Limited POA
for implementation of Client Directed Investment Activities
(available in CAP and CAP Select only); and (iii) POA for Limited FA
Discretion Services.
Investment Searches. As appropriate, we will recommend and
present for your consideration eligible investment types for
each Program. For UBS-CAP and IC that includes investment
manager(s) and/or other investments, such as mutual funds,
exchange traded investments, collective trusts, and/or alternative
investments, while CAP Select recommendations are limited to
alternative investments held at UBS (eligible investments in all
three programs are collectively referred to as “investments”) that
align with your investment policy guidelines and asset allocation
strategy. Investment recommendations are limited to those which
are offered by the Firm and/or for which the Firm has
conducted due diligence or has otherwise reviewed. We cannot
assure you that we will continue to offer or review any of the
investments identified through our searches.
The UBS Advisory Programs eligible for UBS-CAP and IC as
well as the different implementation options are described
in the section "Advisory Programs; Fee Schedules, Minimum
Investments and Minimum Annual Fees; UBS Consolidated
Advisory and IC Programs".
IC Program Retirement Accounts and Proprietary Funds. For
Retirement Plan clients enrolled in the IC Program with a Limited
Power of Attorney for Financial Advisor Discretion Services, our
investment searches will not include UBS affiliated/proprietary
mutual or sub advised funds unless such investments or strategies
are eligible within the IC Program and made available at no
additional cost to client.
Unless you select the POA for Limited FA Discretion Services
option, you retain and will exercise, final decision-making
authority and responsibility for the selection of any investment
advisory program, establishment of specific accounts at UBS,
selection of alternative investments and selection and hiring of
investment managers, as well as for the implementation of any
investment plan or strategy resulting from the services provided
under UBS-CAP, CAP Select and/or IC, as applicable.
Limited Power of Attorney Implementation Options.
UBS-CAP and CAP Select offer two types of limited power of
attorney implementation options. IC offers only one limited
power of attorney implementation option. Although the activities
covered under each option are similar, the most important
distinction, and one you should consider carefully when reviewing
these options, is the level of involvement you will have, and the
discretion you grant to your Financial Advisor to select advisory
programs, investment managers, alternative investments and
establish accounts on your behalf.
Portfolio Review, Evaluation and Reporting. In addition to
individual performance reports for your individual Program
Accounts, we will provide annual portfolio evaluation and
review of all Accounts in your CAP Select Account and for UBS-
CAP Portfolio (the latter on a consolidated basis), including
reviewing performance on an absolute and relative basis. Clients
in the IC Program will not receive individual performance reports
for your individual Program Accounts. Instead, IC clients receive a
quarterly portfolio evaluation and review of all Accounts in your IC
Portfolio on a consolidated basis, including performance on an
absolute and relative basis. For accounts held at other institutions,
those reports and evaluations will be based on information
provided by your custodian. Based on your overall objectives and
performance of your investments, we will assist you in evaluating
potential adjustments and, if appropriate, we will assist you in
conducting a search for new investment managers or investments.
Page 38 of 94
Regardless of the power of attorney option you choose, if any, the
actions taken by your Financial Advisor will be based on the
Investment Policy Guidelines or IPS and asset allocation you select
and approve for your UBS-CAP, CAP Select, and/or IC Portfolios.
Neither your Financial Advisor nor any UBS employee is authorized
to change or approve your Investment Policy Guidelines or IPS, or
your asset allocation on your behalf.
equity and real estate investments in UBS-CAP and CAP Select. A
LPOA over private equity and real estate assets may be granted on
a limited exception basis in UBS-CAP and CAP Select for
unsolicited client requests for relationships that meet certain asset
thresholds. The Limited Power of Attorney executed in IC permits
discretion over private equity and real estate assets.
Core Activities Covered Under all Types of LPOA:
•
Client-Directed Option (not available in IC): You approve
your IPG and Asset Allocation; you decide, your Financial
Advisor implements.
•
Limited FA Discretion Option: You approve your IPG or
IPS and Asset Allocation; your Financial Advisor decides
how to implement your asset allocation and selects, as
applicable, the Advisory Programs, investment managers
and alternative investments without consulting you.
1. Negotiating investment management fees (only) with
affiliated and unaffiliated third party researched
investment managers in the MAC Program and executing
investment management agreements on your behalf for
your UBS-CAP or IC Portfolio.
You can terminate the limited power of attorney at any time by
notifying your Financial Advisor in writing. Termination of a power
of attorney will result in the conversion of your UBS-CAP and/or
CAP Select relationship, as applicable, to fully non-discretionary, and
you will be responsible for all activities previously delegated to UBS
and your Financial Advisor under the relevant power of attorney.
Termination of a power of attorney in IC will result in termination
of the IC relationship and conversion of IC Accounts to brokerage
accounts, unless you execute an Institutional Consulting Services
Agreement for non-discretionary services. Any Advisory Accounts
(for example, ACCESS, SWP, Strategic Advisor, etc.) that were part
of the IC relationship will remain in those Programs unless you
also terminate the Advisory Accounts in those Programs. Upon
termination, you will be responsible for all activities previously
delegated to UBS and your Financial Advisor under the power of
attorney.
Limited Power of Attorney for Implementation of Client
Directed Investment Activities in UBS-CAP and CAP Select.
This option authorizes UBS and your Financial Advisor to take
actions on your behalf to implement your program and
investment selections based on your instructions.
2. Establishing advisory accounts on your behalf in eligible
Advisory Programs (See Advisory Programs; Fee
Schedules, Minimum Investments and Minimum
Annual Fees; UBS Consolidated Advisory and IC
Programs" for details on eligible Programs). For the
Client Directed Option you will provide the Risk Profile
for each Account to your Financial Advisor. For the
Limited FA Discretion option, your Financial Advisor will
complete the Risk Profile Questionnaires for individual
Accounts based on the Program Questionnaire you
completed at the time you established your UBS-CAP,
CAP Select, or IC Relationship (or as such may be
amended throughout your relationship with us).
3. Establishing an account at UBS for billing purposes for
Assets Held Away if such assets are included as part of
your UBS-CAP Portfolio, if applicable.
4. Completing risk profiles required to establish Advisory
Accounts based on UBS-CAP or IC Portfolio
Questionnaire.
5. Executing subscription, redemption and tender
With this option, you determine how you want to implement your
asset allocation by selecting the Advisory Programs in which you
want to participate, the investment managers you want to engage,
and the alternative investments in which you want to invest. Your
Financial Advisor then implements your instructions on your behalf,
negotiates and executes agreements at your direction, and
establishes accounts in the programs you selected. If you include
assets held away from UBS, your Financial Advisor will also be
authorized to establish an additional account at UBS for tracking
and billing purposes if applicable. Under this option for CAP Select,
you will select the alternative investments in which you want to
invest and your Financial Advisor will execute the subscription
documents based on your instructions.
Power of Attorney for Limited Financial Advisor Discretion
Services for UBS-CAP, CAP Select and IC
documentation for researched alternative investments
you select in UBS-CAP or CAP Select or that your
Financial Advisor selects on your behalf in IC (proprietary
and non-proprietary hedge funds, fund of funds and,
where available as an option, private equity) to
purchase in UBS accounts, including forms for the
conversion of brokerage share classes to
advisory/institutional share classes when applicable in
UBS-CAP, CAP Select, or IC;
6. Take any actions necessary to open and maintain your
account(s) in the eligible Advisory Programs, complete
and pay for transactions, UBS Investment Advisory Fees,
and SMA Manager Fees in your account(s); and
7. Except as described below, execute any other document
or agreement which UBS considers necessary or
appropriate to carry out the intent of your UBS-CAP, CAP
Select or IC Agreement and your investment instructions.
In addition to the core POA services described above, the Limited
FA Discretion Implementation options also covers:
In contrast to the Limited Power of Attorney for Implementation
of Client Directed Investment Activities, the Power of Attorney for
Limited FA Discretion Services authorizes your Financial Advisor to
implement your asset allocation by selecting the UBS advisory
programs, investment managers and alternative investments in
which your assets will be invested without first consulting with
you. For CAP Select, this power of attorney will authorize your
Financial Advisor to select the alternative investments to
implement your CAP Select asset allocation without consulting
with you first. Financial Advisors will also have the authority, as
applicable based on the eligible assets in each Program, to replace
investment managers, redeem alternative investments, close
Advisory Program accounts, and transfer funds between Advisory
Accounts at UBS in compliance with your asset allocation and
Investment Policy Guidelines or Investment Policy Statement.
8. The selection of UBS investment advisory programs to
Power of Attorney for Limited Financial Advisor Discretion
Services including private equity and Real Estate
implement the client approved asset allocation and IPG
or IPS for UBS-CAP or IC Portfolio from the list of eligible
programs;
The Limited Power of Attorney for Discretion excludes private
9. Select, hire and fire third party investment managers in
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eligible Advisory Programs for UBS-CAP and IC, as well
as select, subscribe and redeem alternative investments
on your behalf;
10. Transfer and reallocate UBS-CAP assets between ACCESS,
required to be signed by clients, including but not limited
to, the documents and disclosures required to enroll in any
third-party options overlay SMA manager or Concentrated
Equity Solutions strategy or any structured product related
documents;
MAC, Portfolio Management Program Accounts
11. Transfer and reallocate IC assets between ACCESS,
11. Name beneficiaries for any IRA accounts.
MAC, AAP and IC Accounts.
The Power of Attorney for Client Directed Implementation
in UBS-CAP and CAP Select also excludes the following:
12. Select, hire and fire internal PMP Portfolio Managers for
UBS-CAP, inclusive of negotiating advisory fees with
internal PMP Portfolio Managers (where your Financial
Advisor is not the portfolio manager).
1. Deciding the manner in which your assets will be allocated
or the programs in which accounts will be established;
13. Authority to select, subscribe and redeem alternative
2. Designating him/herself as your portfolio manager in the
investments on your behalf for Private Equity and Real
Estate investments.
PMP Program without your consent;
3. Transferring assets between your accounts without your
instructions and consent.
In addition to the core POA services described above, the LPOA in
IC and the Limited FA Discretion including Private Equity and Real
Estate Implementation option in UBS-CAP and CAP Select also
covers:
UBS will not be required to sign or complete (i) any certificate
regarding your tax status, (ii) documentation for non-advisory
products, including brokerage account agreements for trading
accounts, (iii) trust certificates or corporate resolutions, or (iv) any
document to the extent that you ha ve not provided UBS with
sufficient current information to complete the document
accurately and completely.
The Limited Power of Attorney Options do NOT grant
UBS or its Financial Advisors the authority to:
1. Execute the Advisory Relationship Agreement;
2. Execute the UBS Client Relationship Agreement for
Brokerage Accounts;
Additional Services available in IC
3. Change Program Fees for any Advisory Account without
first discussing it with you and obtaining your consent;
4. Change account preferences (proxy voting, trade
confirmations, or investment restrictions) without first
discussing it with you and obtaining your consent;
5. Exercise investment discretion in the selection to purchase
6.
IC also offers several additional services available as part of your IC
program fee or on a project basis. IC offers oversight services
where, for a negotiated rate, we will review services performed by
third party financial advisors or consultants under parameters
agreed to in your IC service agreement. We may also consult with
you on matters related to news and developments in the capital
markets and asset classes based on information generally available
from us or our affiliates, or more specifically prepared for you
based on publicly available information. We can provide education
services. Additional services may be available as agreed to
between us.
UBS Investment Advisory Fees, Additional Fees for
Investment Management Services and Important
Information About Certain Investments.
or sell any securities in the Strategic Advisor, PACE and
SWP, ACCESS and MAC Programs or with respect to assets
held at other financial institutions;
(For the Client Directed Option and the Limited FA
Discretion Option in UBS-CAP and CAP Select) Establish
accounts in the PACE and UBS Advice Portfolio Programs.
For the Limited FA Discretion option for UBS-CAP and CAP
Select, the restriction also applies to establishing accounts
in Strategic Advisor and Strategic Wealth Portfolio;
7. Exercise proxy voting authority for your Accounts in
Strategic Advisor, PACE and the non-discretionary sleeves
in SWP;
9.
UBS Investment Advisory Fees. The annual UBS Investment
Advisory Fee is a fixed percentage of the assets in all of your
account(s) under the Programs. For UBS-CAP and IC, the UBS
Investment Advisory Fee covers the investment advice provided by
UBS and your Financial Advisor, custody, trading and execution
services for account(s) held at UBS Financial Services Inc. and
performance reporting services. Except in limited situations, all
accounts you establish, or those established on your behalf, will
be billed at the same rate selected in the Application (or as such
may be changed with your consent during the course of the
relationship established). The fees must be levelized for IC
relationships and for UBS-CAP relationships with a POA for
Limited FA Discretion Services.
8. Execute the Client Acknowledgement Form for Non-
Researched Assets on your behalf, or execute any
documents, agreements, forms or subscription or
redemption documents in connection with Non-Researched
Assets or issue any investment instructions to the custodian
of such assets;
(For Limited FA Discretion in UBS-CAP and CAP Select)
Execute subscription, redemption, tender or any other
documentation for any private equity and private real estate
investments. This applies to UBS-CAP and CAP Select. The
LPOA for Limited FA Discretion over private equity and real
estate investments is a separate document for UBS-CAP
and CAP Select available only on a limited exception basis
for clients who specifically requests such services on an
unsolicited basis and who meet certain qualification
thresholds;
10. For both the Client Directed Option and the Limited FA
UBS-CAP offers the option to have all of your accounts in
your CAP Portfolio priced at the same level such that
Financial Advisors in UBS-CAP who also act as your portfolio
manager in PMP will receive the same payout level across all
Accounts enrolled in UBS-CAP regardless of Program type or
strategy. However, based on discussions with your Financial
Advisor, you may agree to different fee schedules for different
account types. If you do so, you understand that for accounts
with higher fees, your Financial Advisor will receive higher
compensation than for other accounts in your UBS-CAP Portfolio.
Discretion option in UBS-CAP and CAP Select execute
subscription, redemption, tender or any other
documentation for any REITs and any forms for the
conversion of brokerage share classes to
advisory/institutional share classes where applicable;
Sign any complex products risk disclosure statements
–
CAP Select is an advice-only program in which the fee you pay is
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solely for investment advice and performance reporting provided
in the Program. Custody, trading and execution fees are not
applicable or assessed in this Program.
those that offer advisory/institutional share classes designed to be
purchased and held in fee-based accounts. Offering documents
for appropriate investment vehicles will be delivered
directly to you even in instances in which you have
executed a power of attorney for Limited FA Discretion
Services.
If you selected a non-discretionary or a client-directed investment
activities implementation option, you are solely responsible for
your decision to invest in an alternative investment fund.
Alternative investments are speculative in nature and the investors
bear the costs and fees of these funds, including asset-based fees,
expenses, and incentive-based compensation.
The UBS-CAP and IC Investment Advisory Fee does NOT include
the investment management fees charged by any SMA Manager
in the Programs. In addition, certain investments such as mutual
funds, ETFs and alternative investments have internal expenses
(for example, management, shareholder servicing and
performance fees) that are not included in the UBS Investment
Advisory fee. You will pay those fees separately to the managers
and sponsors of those investments (including UBS affiliates if you
have invested in UBS products) in your role as shareholder of those
funds. See "Fees / Other Charges Not Covered by your
Program Fee” for more information about other fees not
covered by the Investment Advisory Fee.
If you hold or purchase (or we purchase on your behalf) an
alternative investment fund sponsored or offered by UBS or its
affiliates, the Firm or its affiliate will receive compensation,
possibly including a share of investment advisory fees by the Fund
and performance fees, for providing various services to the
alternative investment fund that will be based, in part, on the
amount of assets you invest in the fund.
With the exception of retirement clients in IC, if in IC, if you
selected the POA for Limited FA Discretion Services, you consent
to UBS directing your Account to invest in portfolios, hedge funds
or funds of funds managed or sponsored by UBS or its affiliates
(each an "Affiliated Fund").
Assets Held Away; Custody: UBS-CAP and CAP Select are not
designed for clients who hold all or a substantial portion of their
Portfolio at other financial institutions. CAP Select is limited to
alternative investments offered on the UBS platform. Generally,
we require clients with Advisory Accounts to custody their
account assets at UBS. In limited circumstances, for UBS-CAP, we
may accept certain relationships that hold a limited portion of
their alternative investment assets or separately managed
accounts in the custody of other financial institutions t h a t
meet the definition of a qualified custodian. If you decide to
include these assets as part of your UBS-CAP Portfolio, you may be
required to establish an account at UBS for tracking of the
investments and billing purposes of these assets.
While this option is available as an accommodation to clients in
the UBS-CAP and CAP Select Programs, we do not recommend
doing so, for the following reasons:
Privately-offered alternative investment funds, such as hedge
funds, funds or funds or private equity are sold only to qualified
investors, and only by means of offering documents that include
information about the risks, performance and expenses of the
funds. Please review and consider those risks carefully before
adopting Investment Policy Guidelines or IPS that include such
investments.
•
You will incur additional costs in excess of your UBS
program fee (for example, custody costs).
•
Billing for your Account, including the accurate
processing of rebates if applicable, is the responsibility of
your custodian, not UBS.
Non-discretionary IC services are available to institutional clients
that elect to hold the assets in the IC relationship away from UBS
(“IC Held Away”). If clients elect IC Held Away, our services do not
include custody, trade execution, or any other fees imposed by the
other financial institution. Your Financial Advisor will not offer
advice about whether to hold assets away from UBS.
Alternative investment funds are speculative and involve
significant risks, performance may be volatile, and investors may
lose all or a substantial amount of their investment in an
alternative investments fund. An alternative investment may
engage in leverage and other speculative investment practices
that may increase the risk of investment loss. Interests in
alternative investments funds typically will be illiquid and no
secondary market for interests usually develops, they are long-term
investments (e.g., 10-15 years), are subject to restrictions on
transfer, may suspend redemptions, and may not be required to
provide periodic pricing or valuation information to investors. In
addition, an alternative investment fund may hold back a portion
of redemption proceeds, usually in the range of 10%, to cover
accrued expenses, contingencies and liabilities.
If you decide to implement the results of investment
searches performed as part of an IC relationship through an
account held at another financial institution, such
implementation is not part of IC services and will result in
your payment of custody, brokerage and execution fees
collected by the other financial institution.
Although only funds that offer advisory or institutional
share classes are available in UBS-CAP and IC, such
investments will be subject to the respective Program Fee.
Given the long-term nature of these investments, it may be
more cost-efficient in the long term for you to invest in the
brokerage share class and maintain these investments in a
brokerage account. We cannot, and do not, guarantee that
investing in the advisory share class plus the Program Fee is
the more cost-efficient option in the long-term. You must
review those options carefully before investing.
Because all of the assets covered by a UBS-CAP or IC Agreement
will be billed at the same UBS Investment Advisory Fee rate, if you
decide to include assets held at other financial institutions, you
will be paying for services that you are not utilizing as it
pertains to those assets, specifically, custody, trading and
execution. Your UBS Investment Advisory Fee will not be
reduced as a result of additional costs you incur as a result
of holding assets at other financial institutions.
Alternative Investments Funds. When consistent with your
investment objectives, risk tolerance and financial circumstances,
and upon your request, we may recommend to you alternative
investments approved for distribution through the Firm.
Investments presented for your consideration will be limited to
Eligible Non-Researched Investments in UBS-CAP and IC.
You may request that ”Eligible Non-Researched“ investments be
included in the asset allocation analysis and performance reports
for your UBS-CAP or IC relationship. In UBS-CAP and IC, Eligible
Non-Researched Investments are limited to hedge funds, funds of
funds and private equity investments held away from UBS and
MAC Eligible strategies only. In IC, Eligible Non-
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Researched can also include any eligible investment type for which
you sign a letter acknowledging that UBS will not provide advice
on such assets. The UBS-CAP and IC POA cannot be used for
Eligible Non-Researched investments of any kind.
Foreign entity clients: Please note that as a foreign entity, your
participation in a Discretionary, Separately Managed Account or
Unified Account Program will likely prevent you from having a
FATCA classification of Passive Non-Financial Foreign Entity. This
could result in your entity having more burdensome
documentation and reporting requirements. Please consult your
tax advisor with regard to the possible tax consequences
associated with your FATCA status.
A. Account Requirements for Establishing and
Maintaining Advisory Accounts with Our Firm
UBS's investment advice in UBS-CAP and IC as it pertains to
Eligible Non-Researched Investments is limited to asset allocation,
IPG or IPS development, and performance reviews. Specifically,
the inclusion of these investments in an asset allocation analysis
does not constitute a recommendation that you continue to hold
or add to those investments. Financial Advisors and any other
UBS employees are prohibited from making specific
investment recommendations to buy or hold these
investments on an ongoing basis as UBS does not perform
initial or ongoing due diligence on these investments or
strategies. Inclusion of Eligible Non-Researched Investments is an
accommodation only and they cannot represent a significant
portion of the portfolio. High levels of these investments may lead
to termination of the relationship.
Please see Section 4(B) above "Advisory Programs: Fee
Schedules, Minimum Investments and Minimum Annual
Fees" for a description of the minimum investments required to
establish an Account in the Programs described in this Brochure.
Generally, accounts with balances of $1000 or below will be
terminated from the Programs. However, we reserve the right,
in our sole discretion, to change account minimums for new
accounts, impose higher account minimums for certain
strategies or portfolios that may be offered from time to time,
to terminate accounts that fall below certain thresholds that
may impact the management or servicing of the Account, or
require that additional monies or securities be deposited in the
Account in order to remain in the Program.
B. Your Investment Advisory Agreement
Non-Researched investments. Non-Researched Investments are
not subject to the Firm's due diligence or research process or
otherwise approved for sale, solicitation or recommendation by
UBS and its Financial Advisors and employees. Only Eligible Non-
Researched Investments for which there is a written
acknowledgement on file may be included in UBS-CAP or IC
services and for purposes of calculating the UBS-CAP or IC
Program Fee.
Because the value of such Eligible Non-Researched Investments will
be included for purposes of calculating your Program Fee, you
should carefully consider that, as it pertains to those non-
researched assets, you will be incurring costs and not fully utilizing
the benefits and services offered in UBS-CAP or IC. We reserve
the right to accept or decline these requests. Non-researched
assets may not constitute a significant portion of the UBS-CAP or
IC Portfolio.
With the exception of Held Away IC clients and Cash Advisory
Investment Management (CAIM, which is a Portfolio Management
Program) clients, we will provide you with an Advisory
Relationship Agreement and Application which, when signed by
you, will apply to all future Advisory accounts you establish with
our Firm. After we receive and accept your signed Application
and Agreement, you may establish advisory accounts with us
by contacting your Financial Advisors and providing verbal or
written instructions, or for some Programs, by signing a new
Application and Agreement. The IC Program and CAIM each
require an additional contractual relationship outlining the IC
services.
Your decision to include non-researched assets in UBS-CAP
or IC is against our recommendation and doing so will
result in additional costs to you and higher compensation to
UBS and your Financial Advisor.
See Asset Allocation & Investment Policy Guidelines; Asset
Allocation for information about Implementing your Asset
Allocation
Item 5. Account Requirements and Types of
Clients
Types of Clients
The Advisory Relationship Agreement and our Form ADV
Disclosure Brochure apply to all of your Advisory accounts at
UBS, including any Advisory accounts you may open in the future
and those accounts established on your behalf by your
Financial Advisor under the terms and conditions of UBS-CAP
and CAP Select. We will notify you when there are updates and
amendments to your account agreements. We will not provide
another copy of the Form ADV Disclosure Brochure when you
establish new Advisory accounts unless there is a new version or
material changes to the document we originally provided to you.
In addition, annually we will provide you with a copy of our
updated Form ADV Disclosure Brochure or a summary of
material changes.
Because the Agreement and the Form ADV Brochure apply to
all the different types of Advisory accounts you can establish
with us, some of the information in those documents and the
other disclosures we send you may not apply to you now, but
may apply in the future as you or, for UBS-CAP, IC or CAP
Select, your Financial Advisor establish other accounts with us.
Please retain all these documents for future reference as
they contain important information if you decide to add
services or open new Advisory accounts with our Firm.
When you establish an Advisory account with us, you will be
required to execute both an investment advisory agreement (the
Advisory Relationship Agreement) and a brokerage account
We provide Investment Advisory services to individuals, banks,
thrift institutions, mutual funds and other investment
companies, pension and employee benefit plans, trusts, estates,
charities, corporations and other business and government
entities. Generally, the majority of our clients in the Advisory
programs (except IC) are individuals. Registered and private
investment companies, and other types of pooled investment
vehicles are generally not eligible to participate in the Advisory
Programs described in this Brochure. The IC Program is designed
to provide advisory services to sponsors of qualified retirement
plans, corporations, endowments and foundations, municipalities,
Taft-Hartley plans, and religious and charitable organizations.
Legacy retail clients and trusts for the benefit of retail clients can
receive the IC services described in this Brochure. IC services are
not offered to new retail clients or trusts for the benefit of retail
clients.
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agreement (if you have not done so already). The brokerage
agreement allows your account to have trading capability and
custody services. Once executed, the brokerage agreement
supplements your advisory agreement, and all, collectively,
govern your relationship with us. Accounts established under
the Advisory Relationship Agreement are designated as
”Advisory“ and our obligations to you as they pertain to that
account will be that of an investment adviser as described in
that Agreement.
materials carefully and report any discrepancies to your Financial
Advisor as soon as possible. Updates to existing Accounts are
confirmed to you in writing and your investment objectives are
reflected in your monthly account statements. Information for
new Advisory Accounts is confirmed and sent promptly after
account acceptance. It is your responsibility to inform us of any
material changes in your objectives, financial condition or other
changes that could affect how your Program Assets are being
invested.
In addition, changes you make to Advisory Accounts, such as
target asset allocations or investment selections (for example,
replacement of SMA strategies in your ACCESS or SWP
Accounts), can be implemented without requiring additional
documents from you, and we will confirm these changes to you
in writing.
Termination of your advisory Account will end our fiduciary
relationship with you under the Investment Advisers Act as it
pertains to that Account and will cause your account to be
converted to, and designated as, a brokerage account. Your
investment advisory agreement and our advisory services will
no longer apply to that account and it will be governed solely by
the terms and conditions of your brokerage account agreement.
Participation in our Programs, our obligations to you under the
Programs, and your ability to hold shares that, in some cases,
are available exclusively through our Programs are contingent
on you returning an executed Advisory Relationship Agreement
to us. Failure to return the signed Application and Agreement
to us will result in your investments being deemed and charged
as brokerage and the liquidation of investments that may be
held exclusively in our Advisory Programs, for example, PACE
Money Market fund shares.
You are responsible for providing us with your current address.
If we are unable to contact you by mail, we will be required to
terminate your Account from the P rogram(s). Upon
termination, the assets will continue to be invested in the
existing positions when permissible given the nature of the
securities, and will be held in a brokerage account. Your
Advisory Relationship Agreement and IC agreement with us will
no longer apply to those accounts or our relationship with you.
Any securities that cannot be held in a brokerage account will
be liquidated.
Some of our Programs permit you to delegate proxy voting
authority to your SMA Manager or a third party, a n d / o r
suppress your receipt of daily trade confirmations in your
account(s). We ask you to provide these instructions when you
establish your first Advisory account under the relationship
Agreement. We will apply your preferences (where those
features are available) to all Advisory accounts you establish
under the Agreement, unless you provide different instructions
for specific accounts.
Ownership of Securities and Investment Discretion. You
are the beneficial owner of all securities in your Account and,
other than as specifically delegated to us in your Agreement,
you retain all rights related to the ownership of those
securities. You retain trading authority for Accounts in Non-
Discretionary Programs and SWP Non- Discretionary Assets. All
transactions in those Accounts and sub-accounts will be executed
by UBS based on your instructions to us. Neither UBS nor your
Financial Advisor will have any discretion with respect to the
investment of those Program assets.
Please note that securities transactions in your Account(s),
liquidations, redemptions, rebalancing and other portfolio
changes may result in you incurring gains or losses for income
tax purposes. Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. nor its
employees provide legal or tax advice. Please consult with your
legal and tax advisors regarding this matter.
Opening Advisory Accounts on Verbal Instructions After
Execution of the Advisory Relationship Agreement: You
may decide to open additional Advisory accounts or take
advantage of new services and account features in the future
without signing additional documents or agreements. When that
happens, we will confirm your instructions in writing and
provide any relevant agreements and disclosures you have not
already received. For certain accounts and services, you may be
required to sign additional documents and agreements. All of
the confirmations, agreements and disclosures we send you are
considered part of the Advisory Relationship Agreement.
ACCESS/MAC/SWP/AAP/IC. Based on the authority you
delegate to us in your Agreement, and as applicable given
your Program selection, we will engage the SMA Managers to
manage your Accounts. You also authorize UBS to take any
actions necessary to open and maintain your Accounts or to
complete and pay for transactions for your Accounts.
Account Risk Profile Questionnaires: To become a Program
client you must complete an application that includes an
Account Risk Profile Questionnaire (the ”Questionnaire”) to
determine your investment needs, objectives and risk tolerances
for the assets being invested in each Account. For UBS-CAP
and IC, your Questionnaire will define the risk tolerances and
objectives that you have for all your eligible assets included in the
UBS-CAP or IC Portfolio as a whole. However, a Questionnaire
needs to be completed for each account, based on the holdings of
that account, in your UBS-CAP or IC relationship. The
Questionnaire forms the basis of your selection of an
investment strategy or asset allocations for your Program
account. Questionnaires do not apply to the MAC Program.
Discretionary Programs. If you select one of our Discretionary
Programs in your executed Advisory Relationship Agreement or IC
Agreement, you authorize and delegate to UBS investment
discretion over those Program accounts. For the Discretionary
Programs and UBS-CAP and IC with POA for Limited FA
Discretion Services, your signature also authorizes us to delegate
investment selection for your accounts to sub-advisors. With that
authority, we may delegate the selection of all or a portion of
the securities for your Account to sub-advisors/model providers,
including engaging SMA Managers, or Overlay Managers for
inclusion in the portfolio.
Transactions in your SMA Programs, Discretionary
Programs and your SWP and AAP SMA Manager Sub-
accounts; Tax planning. After your Account is accepted for a
Discretionary, SMA or Unified Managed Account Program, you
Confirmation of Your Account Record: After a new Advisory
Account is opened or whenever your investment objectives or
risk tolerance is updated, we confirm your personal information
and/or responses to the Questionnaire to verify that our records
and our understanding of your objectives and risk tolerance for
the assets in that Account are correct. Please review those
Page 43 of 94
can no longer place orders to trade those Discretionary or SMA
Accounts or sub-accounts.
However, we may accept your instructions for transactions
associated with tax planning (i.e., tax gain and loss sales), if your
instructions are consistent with your Portfolio Manager/SMA
Manager’s strategy.
-
billed at the same UBS Investment Advisory Fee rate. If you
decide to include assets held at other financial institutions
in UBS-CAP or IC, you will be paying for services that you
are not leveraging as it pertains to those assets,
specifically, custody, trading and execution. Your UBS
Investment Advisory Fee will not be reduced as a result of
additional costs you incur as a result of holding assets at
other financial institutions. You also agree to
establish an account at UBS for billing purposes of
these assets if applicable and requested by UBS.
Except for accounts enrolled in UBS-CAP or IC, you will
not receive a Performance Review from us.
- Quarterly Fee Adjustments (explained in Billing Practices), do
not apply to assets not custodied at UBS.
For accounts held at other financial institutions, you agree to use
only a qualified custodian that is a bank, a U.S. registered
broker-dealer, a futures commission merchant or a foreign
financial institution. This custodian must meet the definition of a
“qualified custodian” that is established in Rule 206(4)-2 under
the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
In addition, neither UBS nor Institutional Shareholder Services Inc.
will act as proxy voting agent for DVP accounts in Discretionary
Programs (for details, see Voting of Client securities (Proxy Voting).
We will send you periodic account statements reflecting the
transactions in your Account. We urge you to compare those
statements with the ones you receive from your custodian.
Except for the PMP Program and the UBS Advice Portfolio
Program, if you selected tax loss harvesting services, neither UBS
nor your Financial Advisor exercises any discretion over the
selection of securities or tax lots to fulfill tax planning requests.
Currently, in the ACCESS P rogram, and the SMA sub-accounts
of SWP and AAP, you can work with your Financial Advisor to
submit requests for tax harvesting trades to the SMA
Managers.
You may make requests to raise a specific dollar amount of
gain/loss, which will be submitted through an automated
process that systematically reviews the equity positions in a
separately managed account/subaccount to identify the least
number of trades needed to fulfill the request.
You can make requests to raise maximum gains/losses from the
equity positions in separately managed accounts/subaccounts
and an automated process systematically identifies transactions
to maximize gains/losses, depending on your request.
You can also work with your Financial Advisor to identify specific
securities (equity or fixed income) in the separately managed
accounts/subaccounts that can be sold for tax planning purposes.
You may request tax harvest requests using long-term then short-
term or vice versa.
1. Funding Your Account.
You may fund your Advisory Account by depositing cash and/
or eligible securities designated as “eligible” for the specific
Program; funding Accounts with UBS securities is permitted only
for certain programs.
A combination of these options may be used to maximize total
gain/loss requests. The automated process is subject to minimum
gain/loss thresholds and managers may also have their own tax
sale policies. The SMA Manager may fulfill, reject or modify the
request. In addition, to ensure orderly processing of requests,
tax sales should be requested before November 30 of
each calendar year.
Tax loss harvesting requests apply to the individual specific
account for which a request is made. If you buy or sell securities
in an account that overlaps with the securities sold for tax
purposes in another account, the tax loss may be disallowed under
IRS wash sale rules.
If you sold mutual funds, unit investment trusts or alternative
investment securities either before entering into an Advisory
Program or while in a Program (for example, funding your
account with B or C shares), you may have paid either
upfront or back-end charges, or redemption fees depending on
the share class. When proceeds of those sales are used in an
Advisory Program, you will incur our Program Fees, in addition
to the operating fees and expenses charged by the mutual
funds.
We cannot accept requests to halt or freeze trading in an
Account at any time as a way to prevent additional gains or
losses, or for any other reason.
Custody. Generally, the programs described in this brochure
require your account assets to be held in custody with UBS.
However, we may, on an exception basis, accept certain accounts
whose assets are custodied with other financial institutions who
meet the definition of a qualified custodian. Those accounts are
referred to as delivery versus payment (“DVP”) accounts. For UBS-
CAP and IC, we may accept certain relationships that hold their
assets in the custody of other financial institutions who meet
the definition of a qualified custodian.
Class A shares, and for PMP and Strategic Advisor accounts,
Class C shares (that are not subject to a contingent deferred
sales charge (CDSC)) used to fund accounts subsequent to the
Share Class Conversions will be automatically converted, on a
tax-free exchange basis (subject to availability of that service by
the mutual fund sponsor), to the new share class available for
the relevant fund when free of the CDSC period. We will
undertake this action on your behalf based on your
authorization in the Advisory Relationship Agreement or IC
Agreement, or, if you already have an agreement on file, by
continuing to accept the services in the Program after receipt of
notice of these changes. Class C shares are not eligible for
funding Strategic Wealth Portfolio or Advisor Allocation Program
accounts.
However, we do not recommend doing so, for the following
reasons:
-
-
You will incur additional costs in excess of your Program
Fee (for example, custody costs).
Billing for your Account, including the accurate
processing of rebates if applicable, is the responsibility of
the financial institution holding your assets, not UBS.
- Generally, all of the assets covered by UBS-CAP or IC will be
If you fund your Account with securities, you authorize and
direct UBS and/or your SMA Manager, as applicable, given the
terms of your program, to liquidate those securities on your
behalf and to allocate the proceeds in accordance with your
selected investment style. We will not advise you regarding
the liquidation of these securities. We will execute those
transactions free of commission charges; however,
depending on the type of security involved, those
Page 44 of 94
according to your Target Allocation.
liquidations may result in you incurring redemption
charges and taxable gains or losses. You should review the
potential tax consequences of these liquidations with your tax
advisor before funding your Account with securities.
When liquidating these securities for purposes of establishing
your Account, we will be acting as your broker, not your
investment adviser. Liquidations will be effected promptly after
acceptance of your Account at the then prevailing market prices.
Your initial SWP and AAP Program Fee will be based on the
Target Allocation you selected in SWP, and selected by
your Financial Advisor in AAP, rather than on your actual
asset allocation, as in certain circumstances, one or more
Investment Managers may not be fully funded for a
limited period of time and your Target Allocation may not
be fully implemented.
2.
Investment strategies; Eligible and Ineligible
Assets
We will not be responsible for the liquidations and any
consequences due to your failure to notify us of other existing
security holdings, the overall effect of liquidations once effected,
or the loss of potential gains due to movements in the market
prices or changes in market conditions.
We employ a variety of investment strategies in connection with
our wrap fee and other Investment Advisory services, depending
upon:
The type of client involved
The Program chosen
The objective selected by the client
Securities that are ineligible for an Investment Advisory
program should be transferred to a brokerage account.
If immediately prior to funding an Advisory A ccount, you
choose to liquidate eligible and/or ineligible securities to fund
an A ccount with the cash proceeds, those liquidations will not
be subject to commission charges or if charged, commissions
will be reversed.
For SWP and AAP Accounts Only—Funding Multiple
Investment Managers.
These strategies may involve the use of proprietary models or
research blends, long-term and short-term investments and
covered option writing. In special circumstances, these strategies
may rely on short sales, options or other hedging techniques.
We may, in our discretion, expand the offerings in our programs
to include multiple style accounts and investment strategies that
include, but are not limited to, margin and short sales, leveraged
and option strategies, complex products and concentrated
strategies.
We may impose special suitability and investment requirements
with respect to these portfolios.
Eligible Assets and Ineligible Assets
We require that you hold and purchase only eligible assets in
your Advisory accounts. Generally, with respect to most of the
Programs described in this brochure, you or your SMA Manager
or Portfolio Manager may purchase and sell securities of any
kind which may include the following eligible assets:
U.S. and foreign stocks
Bonds
Options (in
certain programs)
Closed-end funds
American Depositary
Receipts
Exchange traded notes
Collective trusts
Open-end mutual
funds (in certain
programs)
Eligible UITs (in
certain programs)
ETFs
Public REITs
Money market funds
(in certain programs)
Offshore Funds and
ETFs
Publicly Registered Non-
Traded REITs (in certain
programs)
Eligible Structured
Products (PMP
and Strategic
Advisor programs
only)
Small Business
Administration
Loans
If the Target Allocation for your SWP or AAP accounts has two or
more SMA Managers either at the time you initially open the
Account, or upon reallocation when changing SMA Managers,
funding will occur as follows:
If funding with cash alone, UBS will fund the SMA sub-
accounts in the order that would result in the least amount of
cash being left uninvested. For instance, if there are two
Managers, the Manager with the highest minimum investment
will be funded first and then the additional Managers.
If two Managers have the same minimum funding
requirements, UBS will use a random selection methodology to
identify the Manager to be funded.
Cash that remains after the maximum number of Managers are
funded, will be invested in mutual funds and/or ETFs according
to your Target Asset Allocation. Or the cash may be
invested/swept depending on the sweep option for the account.
If you fund your SWP or AAP accounts with securities (either
completely or partially):
Fixed income securities: all fixed income funding securities will
be allocated to the fixed income SMA Managers first in order
to determine whether they should be held or sold—even if the
total value of the fixed income securities used to fund your
Account exceeds the value that is allocated to the fixed income
investment managers. If securities are sold, the proceeds will
be allocated to your other SMA Managers and/or other
investments as described above.
Equity securities will be allocated to the SMA Manager whose
investment strategy comprises the greatest amount of equity
funding securities, based on dollar value.
Equity securities that are not part of the equity SMA Manager’s
portfolio will be sold as described in the “Funding Your
Account” section above, to the extent necessary to meet the
SMA Manager’s investment minimum. If additional SMA
Managers can be funded based on available funds, they will be
funded in order of highest to lowest match of equity funding
securities to securities in the SMA Managers’ respective
investment strategies.
Hedge Funds, Funds of
Funds and Private
Equity, Private Real
Estate, Private Credit,
Private Infrastructure (in
certain programs) –
limited to only to
Advisory/Institutional
Share classes.
Therefore, certain sub-accounts will not be funded if there is not
sufficient cash and/or securities to fully fund the account
UBS Bank USA Core
Savings Accounts “Core
Page 45 of 94
Ineligible Assets. The following products are not eligible
(“Ineligible Assets”) for our Advisory Programs:
Savings Account” (in
PMP and Strategic
Advisor only).
Insurance and annuity
products
Limited partnership
interests (excluding
Master Limited
Partnerships in certain
programs)
UBS Bank USA Core Savings Accounts “Core Savings Account” (in
PMP and Strategic Advisor only). Core Savings Accounts are
standard savings accounts on deposit at our affiliate, UBS Bank
USA. These savings accounts became eligible in IC, PMP and
Strategic Advisor and provide an additional option for your short-
term cash or uninvested cash holdings.
Private
Placements
(excluding hedge
funds, and other
alternative
investments
listed as eligible
above)
IPOs
Non-Publicly Traded
REITs
Syndicate
offerings (in
certain
programs)
UBS securities (in
certain programs)
Alternative
Investment funds that
do not offer an
Advisory or
Institutional Share
class.
All other Non-Daily
Traded Alternative
investments including,
but not limited to,
brokerage share classes
of Hedge Funds, Funds of
Funds, Real Estate and
Private Equity
Auction-rate securities (in
certain programs)
Floating-rate
securities
Listed or OTC
index warrants
Commodities and futures
(in certain programs)
Class B and class C
share mutual funds
(not available for
purchase but may
be held in Strategic
Advisor accounts and
are not subject to
the Program Fee)
Certain
Institutional
mutual fund
share classes if
the Advisory
share class has
been selected as
the eligible
share class for
the Program.
While you will receive interest on the assets deposited in
the Core Savings Accounts, the overall return will be
reduced by the Program Fee you will pay on those assets.
You can access Core Savings Accounts through your brokerage
accounts in a more cost efficient manner without incurring the
investment advisory fees imposed in IC, PMP and Strategic
Advisor. As such, you should carefully consider the costs and
overall return of the Core Savings Accounts in brokerage versus
advisory accounts and whether the Core Savings fits within your
IC, PMP or Strategic Advisor strategy or investment plan before
you decide to hold the Core Savings Account in an advisory
account.
Core Savings Accounts have limitations on the number of
withdrawals that can be made during a calendar month. If you
make more than five (5) withdrawals from a Savings
Account in any calendar month, at the sixth withdrawal,
your entire UBS Bank USA Core Savings position will be
liquidated in full (principal plus accrued interest). UBS Bank
USA will not impose withdrawal fees on Core Savings Accounts
held in IC, PMP and Strategic Advisor. Please review the “UBS
Bank USA Core Savings Disclosure Statement” carefully for
important information regarding the features, deposit and
withdrawal processes, fees and compensation related to Core
Savings. Transfers between your Securities Account and your
Savings Account can only be made on business days.
Letters of Credit
Participant loans
Penny Stocks, microcaps,
and other high risk-
securities as defined by
OTC Markets
Virtual Currency
Inverse and leveraged
ETFs (except for those
ETFs eligible in PMP)
Special Purpose
Acquisition
Companies (SPACs)
Core Savings is a UBS proprietary product and, as such, UBS
Financial Services Inc., its Financial Advisors and our affiliate, UBS
Bank USA, benefit from and receive compensation in connection
with the assets you deposit in Core Savings Accounts. Please see
“Additional Compensation” Section for additional details.
UBS Bank USA Core Savings is not intended for clients who
need to have frequent access to the funds in their Savings
Account.
UBS, at its discretion, can make particular securities or issuers
ineligible for the Programs or place a “hold” on further trading for
certain investments at any time.
The list above describes the products which are usually
(but not always) eligible or ineligible in our Programs.
The list can change at any time in our discretion.
Eligibility of investments can vary by Program and
strategy type. Please contact your Financial Advisor for
the list of eligible investments in your specific Program.
In the IC Program, SMA Manager and strategy eligibility is
determined in accordance with IC eligibility requirements,
regardless of whether an SMA Manager or strategy is available in
ACCESS, MAC, SWP, or AAP.
Our Advisory Programs do not offer the ability to conduct
principal trades. As such, in these Accounts, you may not hold,
purchase or sell securities that trade only on a principal basis.
Currently, you have access to principal execution in your
Advisory account only for tax loss sales transactions in
worthless securities in all Programs.
UBS, also in its discretion, may limit investment allocations to
particular mutual funds, ETFs, closed end funds, UITs and other
registered investment companies (“Funds”), including where
additional investments may adversely impact the ability of one or
more of our affiliates to trade with such Funds due to regulatory
restrictions. In these circumstances, such Funds will be placed on
“hold”, thereby restricting additional purchases of such Funds in
Advisory Accounts, and a different Fund will then be selected for
investment in order to increase exposure to a particular strategy or
asset class for such Accounts. These limitations cause a conflict of
interest because UBS is taking into consideration the potential
impact on trading relationships and business of its affiliates in
making decisions on the availability of investments for Advisory
clients. UBS mitigates this conflict by ensuring the availability of
alternative Funds that can provide exposure similar to the initial
Fund where additional purchases were restricted.
UBS Stock. Subject to the exception described below, our
Advisory Programs do not offer UBS stock or UBS securities,
except for the UBS mutual funds and money market funds
(including money market funds used as cash sweep
Page 46 of 94
vehicles) in the Programs and UBS Exchange Traded
Notes in certain programs. Advisory Accounts may not be
funded by depositing UBS stock.
may stop offering its securities through or participating in the
Program. Depending on the circumstances, those investments
may be sold, transferred to a brokerage account or registered
directly in your name with the issuer’s transfer agent. This may
result in additional costs or be a taxable event for you.
SMA Managers in the ACCESS, MAC, AAP and SWP Programs
who are not affiliated with UBS may be able to purchase UBS
securities for your Accounts (this is limited to the common stock
of UBS AG and certain money market funds for retirement
accounts). We may expand this option to other Programs in
the future. UBS securities are issued by UBS Group AG, the
parent company of UBS, or another UBS affiliate under common
control. As a UBS Group AG subsidiary, we have a control
relationship (we are either controlled by or under common
control) with the issuer of such securities.
UBS, also in its discretion, may limit investment allocations to
particular mutual funds, ETFs, closed end funds, UITs and other
registered investment companies (“Funds”), including where
additional investments may adversely impact the ability of one or
more of our affiliates to trade with such Funds due to regulatory
restrictions. In these circumstances, such Funds will be placed on
“hold”, thereby restricting additional purchases of such Funds in
Discretionary Program accounts, and a different Fund will then be
selected for investment in order to increase exposure to a
particular strategy or asset class for such Discretionary Program
accounts. These limitations cause a conflict of interest because
UBS is taking into consideration the potential impact on trading
relationships and business of its affiliates in making decisions on
the availability of investments for Discretionary Program clients.
UBS mitigates this conflict by ensuring the availability of
alternative Funds that can provide exposure similar to the initial
Fund where additional purchases were restricted.
Impact of Ineligible Assets in Your Accounts: Neither UBS,
your SMA Manager nor your Financial Advisor will act as your
investment advisor with respect to Ineligible Assets, including
investments and securities that UBS makes ineligible after your
Account is enrolled in a Program. If you hold such products,
investments or securities in your Advisory Account and you also
have a separate UBS commission-based brokerage account, we
may transfer those assets from your Program Advisory Account
to your UBS commission-based brokerage account in order to
facilitate our billing and performance reporting. However, you
understand that we are not obligated to transfer those assets
and you remain responsible for monitoring and moving these
assets from the Programs. The transfer of Ineligible Assets from
your Advisory A ccount to your brokerage account will not
result in liquidation of your securities or taxable events,
commissions or any other compensation either to UBS or your
Financial Advisor. It may also lead to termination of your
Account.
Share Class Conversion: Advisory/Institutional Share Classes
of Mutual Fund, Offshore Funds, and Alternative
Investments Eligible in (certain) Programs. For Programs
that offer mutual funds and alternative investments, the offering
includes affiliated and non-affiliated investments. We will
provide you with mutual fund prospectuses, the offering
documents for alternative investments and other fund
information as you may reasonably request to assist you in
completing appropriate forms for purchases, redemptions,
account designations, address changes and other transactions
involving these investments.
If you do not have a separate UBS commission-based brokerage
account and you decide to hold Ineligible Assets in your
Advisory A ccount, you do so against our recommendation and
with the understanding that the value of those securities may
impact a variety of services offered in the Programs and be
included for purposes of calculating and reporting the
performance of your account, and calculating the Program Fee
and other account billing events, resulting in a higher fee to us.
It may also cause a trade error(s) due to overinvestment and may
lead to termination of your Account.
Institutional and/or Advisory share classes are the primary
eligible domestic and offshore mutual fund share classes for
proprietary and non-proprietary mutual funds available for
purchase in Advisory Programs, although not all Programs offer
mutual funds or offshore funds. Your Financial Advisor can
provide additional information. Class A shares are available for
mutual funds that do not offer Institutional or Advisory share
classes or that declined to make those shares available in the
Programs.
Classification and Availability of Investments, SMA
Managers, Mutual Funds, Alternative Investments and PACE
Select Trust Portfolios.
If you hold Institutional Shares in your Advisory Account and the
Advisory share class becomes the share class eligible for
purchase, your Institutional shares will become “hold only”
(even if, in the case of offshore funds, you elect not to convert
your Class A shares to Advisory shares.). That means you may
sell but you may not add to those positions in the Advisory
Accounts.
We categorize all eligible SMA strategies, mutual funds, ETFs,
alternative investments and other pooled investment vehicles into
asset categories. These categories are defined by UBS. We may
add or remove asset categories at any time. We also may
change an investment’s asset category, based on various factors,
including, for example, a mutual fund’s portfolio holdings. In
assigning each mutual fund to an asset category, we may rely
solely on third-party vendors or on the fund’s prospectus and
other information that is publicly available or provided to us
by the fund’s agents.
In the event of these changes, you will be required to accept
such changes to the Advisory P rogram, investment, and/or the
funds. If you choose not to accept such changes, you will no
longer be eligible to participate in the Advisory Program.
If you transfer Class A shares of mutual funds to your Advisory
Account, or use such shares to fund your Account, we will
automatically convert the Class A shares to the advisory or
institutional share class if available for purchase in the Programs,
including Class C shares that are out of the CDSC period, except
in PACE Multi, where such conversion will convert only upon
Financial Advisor request. Class A and C shares of interval funds
and Class A shares of offshore funds are not automatically
converted to the advisory share class. If you hold Class A shares of
offshore mutual funds, you may elect (but you are not required) to
convert those positions to advisory share classes upon reviewing
your Account and providing an attestation regarding your
understanding of tax consequences that may occur as a result of
the conversion.
Class A shares normally impose a shareholder servicing fee,
There can be no assurance that any of the investments that are
available or eligible in our Advisory Programs will always remain
available for purchase through the P rogram. We may add or
remove securities or issuers at any time, or an issuer or sponsor
Page 47 of 94
basis are eligible and billable in the Programs.
commonly referred to as a 12b-1 fee, which you pay directly
to the fund company. As a distributor of mutual funds, we
receive the 12b-1 fees for services we provide.
The Class A shares available in the Advisory Programs do not
impose a load or sales charge at the time of purchase but include
12b-1 fees. Because most Institutional or Advisory share classes
do not impose a 12b-1 fee shareholder servicing fee, these share
classes are usually more cost effective than the Class A shares.
Unlike mutual funds where the conversion of share classes is
automatic, the tax-free conversion of share classes is subject to
additional documentation and may take up to 120 days to
complete. These assets will not be approved for the Advisory
Programs until the Share Class Conversion is complete. UBS and
our Financial Advisors will continue to receive a portion of the
management fee and other compensation until the effective date
of such conversion. See "Additional Sources of Compensation
in Connection with Investments in Advisory Accounts"
The treatment of 12b-1 fees and offshore fund trails varies by
Program. While some fees are rebated or offset against the
Program fee in certain Programs, others are retained by the Firm.
See “Offsets, Credits and Rebates and Billing Exclusions
Available in Certain Programs” for a description of applicable
billing practices.
Transferring Mutual Funds and Alternative Investment
Shares and other Assets into Your Advisory Accounts. We
may accept the transfer of certain assets and shares of mutual
funds and alternative investments purchased outside of our
Advisory Programs at UBS or at other financial institutions into
Advisory Accounts. Assets transferred into your Advisory Accounts
are referred to as “Transferred Assets.” Transferred Assets may
have been assessed a sales load, sales charge or distribution
fees previously and, once transferred, you will be assessed the
Program Fee based on the value of those assets except in certain
instances.
Availability of Institutional Shares of Mutual Funds in
Brokerage Accounts: For both domestic and offshore mutual
funds you may be able to purchase and hold Institutional
shares and/or Advisory shares in your brokerage account and
exclude these assets from your Program Fee. Other share
classes, including some that may be more cost effective and for
which we receive no revenue sharing compensation, may be
available to you in brokerage accounts or through advisory
programs designed primarily for institutional clients.
If your Transferred Assets were purchased in a UBS brokerage
account and were assessed a:
front-end sales load,
placement fees, or
syndicate/underwriting fees
those assets will not be charged the Program Fee until 12 months
has elapsed from the date of initial purchase.
If your transferred mutual fund or alternative investment shares
(for example Class A shares of mutual funds or where
applicable the brokerage share class of an alternative
investment purchased with a sales charge) are converted to an
Institutional or Advisory share class on transfer to the Advisory
Program, the new share class will be designated as a “Transferred
Asset” and will be excluded from the Program Fee until 12
months have elapsed from the initial purchase date of the Class
A share or brokerage share class.
Single Share Class Mutual Funds: We offer a single share class
of mutual funds with no front-end loads, back-end loads or 12b-
1s for purchase in our brokerage platform subject to a per-
transaction commission, with certain limited exceptions including,
but not limited to, offshore funds, interval funds and money
market funds. This share class is, in most instances, the same
share class available in our Advisory Programs. Clients who hold
A, B, C or other share classes in their brokerage accounts may
continue to hold those assets. Financial Advisors will continue to
receive 12b-1s until late 2025, at which point, subject to certain
exceptions, the 12b-1 fees will be retained by the Firm. Clients
may continue to incur CDSCs and other fees associated with such
share classes so long as clients continue to hold them. However,
new purchases of mutual funds (other than the limited exceptions
referred to above) will be limited to the commission-based single
share classes.
However, if you transfer mutual fund shares purchased
under the new Single Share Class offering to an Advisory
Account, those shares will be subject to the UBS Investment
Advisory Fee upon transfer and any commissions charged
within a certain period prior to such transfer will be rebated
to your Account.
The difference in compensation structure between the
single share class and previously offered share classes as
well as the planned changes for 12b-1 compensation
create a conflict of interest since Financial Advisors have
an incentive to recommend alterative solutions to A, B, C
or other share class holdings ( “Legacy Shares”) such as a
commission-based investment product, or an advisory
account.
Additional Compensation: To the extent permissible by
applicable law, UBS receives revenue sharing for Advisory shares
in Eligible Advisory Programs. This additional compensation
presents a conflict of interest and is an incentive to designate
as "eligible" the share class for which we receive higher
compensation.
Transferred Assets purchased at other financial
institutions will be assessed the Program Fee immediately.
Because the exceptions are not available for assets and mutual
fund shares purchased at another financial institution, the overall
cost to you of transferring these assets into the Programs will be
higher for assets you purchased at another financial institution.
Please review the costs carefully before making a decision to
transfer assets into your Advisory Accounts. If you sold
mutual fund shares or alternative investment funds prior to
entering into, or while in our Programs, you may have paid
certain fees with respect to that sale or incurred charges on the
initial purchase of certain share classes. You will now incur the
Program Fee on eligible shares held in your Accounts, in addition
to the operating fees and expenses applicable to mutual funds
and alternative investments.
Termination of your Advisory Account and Impact on Share
Classes: Generally, you may continue to hold most Institutional
and/or Advisory share classes after you terminate your
Advisory/Institutional Share Classes of Alternative
Investments: Certain Programs (UBS-CAP, CAP Select, IC and
Strategic Advisor) permit you to hold advisory/institutional share
classes of certain alternative investments (proprietary and non-
proprietary) as part of your Advisory Account or UBS-CAP, CAP
Select, or IC Relationship. Generally, and subject to limited
situations, only funds that offer advisory/institutional share classes
and permit conversion of the brokerage share class on a tax-free
Page 48 of 94
Advisory Account. However, in certain limited cases, mutual fund
companies and alternative investment fund sponsors require that
Institutional and/or Advisory share classes that have been created
for use or are eligible exclusively within wrap fee a dvisory
programs be converted to the respective brokerage share
class of the fund (for example, Class A shares for mutual
funds) on termination of the Advisory Account. When required
by the prospectus for mutual funds, on termination of your
Advisory Account, we will convert your Institutional and/or
Advisory share classes to Class A shares of the same fund on a
tax-free basis unless you are terminating your account to
establish another one in a separate program where the same
share class is eligible. Unless the issuer requires automatic
redemption of these investments, you can continue to hold
them in your brokerage account. Single share class holdings
that move from Advisory to Brokerage accounts will be subject to
commission charges on buys, exchanges and sells. Please see
“Automatic Liquidation or Exchange of Certain Assets at
Account Termination” for more information.
purposes of imposing restrictions may differ from the information
available from other sources and other areas within UBS. The
category restrictions we offer may be overly or less inclusive,
depending on the methodology used to define the categories
for example, considering factors such as a company's
direct/indirect involvement in an industry or activity or the
proportion of a company's revenue derived from an industry or
activity. Although we believe this information to be reliable, we
do not independently verify or guarantee the accuracy. The
change of the classification of a company, the grouping of an
industry or the credit rating of a security may force UBS, your
Portfolio Manager, Financial Advisor, or the SMA Manager, as
the case may be, to sell securities in an account at an
inopportune time, possibly causing a taxable event. In addition,
due to corporate actions at an issuer, including but not limited
to mergers, spin-offs and other types of reorganizations, new
securities may be issued and/or certain securities will no
longer exist following the corporate action and we may or may
not restrict the security owned following a corporate action
depending on the classification of those securities by the vendor.
3. Investment Restrictions & Investment
Policy Statements
Although your SMA Manager or Portfolio Manager is responsible
for complying with the investment restrictions they accepted for
your Accounts if you have selected the POA for Limited FA
Discretion Services in UBS-CAP or IC we will periodically review
your U B S - CAP or IC Portfolio to determine whether such
managers are complying with the restrictions.
Investment Restrictions. Our Discretionary and SMA Programs
offer you the ability to impose reasonable investment restrictions
on the management of your Accounts including restrictions as
to permissible securities, industries, industry sectors, maturity or
credit ratings depending on program selected.
Investment restrictions will apply only to those assets over which
we or your SMA Manager have discretion. Investment
restrictions are not applicable to, and may not be imposed on,
the non-discretionary portion of your SWP Account, “ineligible”
assets you may hold in Advisory Accounts, the alternative
investment sleeve in UBS-CAP, IC non-discretionary Program or
Options Overlay / Concentrated Equity Solutions Strategy
Accounts.
Investment Restrictions for MAC and IC Program. Clients
in the MAC and IC Program must communicate investment
restrictions directly to the MAC SMA Manager and SMA
Managers that are approved only for use in IC (unless we serve
as your SMA Manager). It is also the client’s and the SMA
Manager’s responsibility to monitor compliance with specific
investment restrictions. Neither UBS nor your Financial Advisor
will monitor such compliance. If you have selected the POA
for Limited FA Discretion Services option in UBS-CAP or IC, your
Financial Advisor will communicate investment restrictions for
your MAC Account to the MAC SMA Manager. In those
instances, and where our Portfolio Managers serve as your
MAC SMA Manager, we will seek to comply with reasonable
restrictions you place on your accounts and will review your
MAC SMA Manager's adherence with such restrictions.
Investment related restrictions are limited in options overlay
investment strategies (including iron condor and broad index
option writing strategies) because the accounts generally will trade
and hold only option contracts tied to broad indices (e.g. S&P 500
index) or concentrated stock positions selected and deposited by
the client. Clients must communicate such requests directly to the
MAC SMA Manager.
These preferences will apply only to the account you designate
and vary by type of program, account or strategy. When you
establish your accounts in these Programs, we will ask you if
you want to impose any investment restrictions on the
management of your Account. Depending on the structure of
the program you selected, we or your SMA Manager, as the
case may be, will seek to adhere to these restrictions on a
reasonable basis. However, if the strategy utilizes commingled
vehicles (for example, mutual funds, exchange traded funds or
alternative investments), any restrictions you place on your
account will not flow through to the securities held in the
commingled vehicles. Also, given the structure of most
pooled investment vehicles, strategies composed of 100%
mutual fund/ETF portfolios and the FA Discretionary sub-
accounts in AAP can accommodate restrictions only on
individual investment vehicles (for example, by fund or ETF
name or CUSIP).
We or your SMA Manager may refuse to accept an account for
management in cases where we find the restriction to be
onerous. In this circumstance, you, or your Financial Advisor if
they have discretion over SMA Manager selection, would need to
select a new SMA Manager (or other investment). This may delay
investment of the entire account.
Investment Policy Statements. Since an Advisory A ccount is
generally only one component of a client’s overall portfolio, we
will not approve or otherwise monitor compliance with
investment policy statements (IPS) when provided in connection
with the opening of an Account in the Programs described in
this brochure, at account conversion (for acquisitions) or
otherwise. Except for UBS-CAP, IC and CAP Select, the Programs
described in this Brochure do not provide IPS services. In
connection with accounts covered by UBS-CAP, IC and CAP
Select, our review is limited to assessing whether your UBS-
CAP, IC or CAP Select Portfolio is consistent with your Investment
Policy Guidelines (or IPS in IC) at the broad asset class level (i.e.,
equity, cash, fixed income). We will not be responsible for
ensuring that your Investment Policy Guidelines (or IPS in IC) and
asset allocation choices comply with all specific legal, actuarial
or other requirements that apply to you. That responsibility
rests solely with you and you should consult with your legal and
Accounts with investment restrictions may perform differently
from accounts without restrictions and performance may be
lower. To comply with your investment restrictions, we obtain
and rely on information about company and industry
classifications, credit ratings, maturity, and industry groupings
from third parties. The information we obtain and use for
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tax advisors regarding those matters.
4. Performance Reporting for Your Account
the option of receiving your trade confirmations monthly instead
of as the transactions take place. Simply check the box labeled
“TRADE CONFIRMATIONS” on the Program Application. If you
are enrolled in the IC Program and you hold assets in an IC
Account, you will elect to receive trade confirmations monthly on
your firm account statement as provided in the IC Program
agreement. Unless you provide different instructions, we
will deliver your trade confirmations the same way for
Advisory Accounts you establish now and in the future.
Doing so will waive your right to receive immediate trade
confirmations for those Accounts and any future Advisory
Accounts you establish with us and will instruct UBS to send
immediate trade confirmations to your SMA Manager.
For the Programs in this brochure other than IC, we provide you
with an annual performance review once your Account is
enrolled in our Program(s) for one full calendar quarter. In the
IC Program, we provide you with a quarterly performance review
once you are enrolled in the IC Program for two calendar quarters.
The performance review summarizes the performance of your
Account during the preceding quarter as well as historical
periods, if applicable. We use our best efforts to ensure timely
delivery of these reports, but reserve the right to delay
delivery to ensure accuracy and completeness. You are
responsible for reviewing these materials and reporting any
discrepancies to your Financial Advisor as soon as possible. With
limited exceptions (such as relationships established through our
UBS-CAP or IC programs), performance reporting is not
available for accounts whose assets are not custodied with us.
You are not required to select this option in order to
participate or continue to participate in our Programs, nor
will you pay additional fees if you choose to elect this
option. You may change this instruction for all or
individual accounts at any time by notifying UBS in
writing. All trade confirmations for mutual funds and ETFs
purchased or sold in your AAP or SWP Accounts will be sent
to you immediately following the transaction.
You may, at your discretion, request quarterly or more
frequent performance reports by contacting your Financial
Advisor. Accounts enrolled in a MAC-Eligible strategy and
accounts enrolled in Options Overlay Strategies will receive
performance reporting on a quarterly basis instead of annual.
Please see “Portfolio Management Selection and Evaluation—
Performance Reviews of SMA Managers, Portfolio Managers
and Financial Advisors in our Advisory Programs” for a
description of our performance evaluation process and our
selection of indices in the various Programs.
Trade Confirmation for Automatic Transactions in the
PACE Program: Automated services in your PACE Account
include automatic rebalancing, purchases or redemptions. Trade
confirmations for transactions resulting from those services will
be provided to you, as well as for transactions completed in
order to debit your PACE Program Fee, on a monthly basis with
your account statement. You will not pay or incur additional fees
by opting to receive monthly trade confirmations. You may
change this instruction at any time by contacting your Financial
Advisor. Changes will be effective with your next scheduled
automatic service. For any other transactions effected in your
PACE asset allocation outside of the automatic services, you will
receive immediate confirmations following the transaction.
6. Electronic delivery of documents
If you are enrolled in the IC Program, you may not receive the
performance review for your individual MAC, ACCESS or other
Advisory Program Accounts. Instead, you will receive a portfolio
review according to the guidelines you established under your
IC Program agreement. The option to suppress the performance
reports for your individual Advisory Accounts and to have a
tailored performance review is only available when your IC
Program consolidated reviews and agreement cover those
accounts. The Program Fee you pay in the ACCESS, MAC and
other Advisory Programs will not be reduced as a result of the
receipt of performance reporting services under the IC
Program.
To the extent permissible by applicable law, we may, with your
prior consent, deliver trade confirmations, Form ADV Disclosure
brochures, performance reports, prospectuses, offering
documents and other documents and notices related to your
Accounts, trades and relationship with us via electronic format.
Impact of ineligible assets on performance reporting: Since
ineligible assets are not considered Program Assets, the
inclusion of such securities will impact the actual performance
of the Program Assets in your Account and, therefore, we may
exclude the Account from receiving an annual performance
review and/or remove it from the Program until the ineligible
assets are removed.
UBS offers certain communications through electronic delivery.
Examples include: statements, trade confirmations and notices;
shareholder communications, including fund reports,
prospectuses and proxies, and all account documents related to
Advisory Accounts and fee-based financial planning services;
performance reports; tax reporting documents; client and
account information documents; other firm documents that may
be available now or in the future.
Aggregating Accounts for annual performance reviews.
Related Accounts may also be aggregated for performance
reporting. Please contact your Financial Advisor to have your
related Accounts aggregated for performance reporting.
Accounts with a negative value will not receive an annual
performance review, for instance, certain specialized
strategies that utilize margin or collateral from other accounts.
5. Trade Confirmations and Account Statements
Documents related to Advisory Accounts will be delivered
electronically when you enroll in electronic delivery of
Shareholder Communications. The documents related to
Advisory Accounts include, but are not limited to, Form ADV
disclosure brochures, account enrollment and change
confirmations, manager profiles, asset allocations, performance
reports, and other disclosures, reports and notices related to
advisory accounts and your advisory agreement. These reports and
notices contain information relating to your accounts and
investments, such as account attributes, account profile,
investment elections and preferences, investment strategy and
fees. We may deliver documents relating to Advisory Accounts
as a link to a UBS website or as an attachment to an email.
We will send you confirmations of transactions for your
Accounts, as well as periodic account statements. For our
Discretionary Programs (for AAP accounts this applies to the SMA
sub-accounts), SMA Programs, UBS-CAP, and the SMA Manager
assets in your Strategic Wealth Portfolio Account, we offer you
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8. UBS Sweep Programs and Cash Balances in your
Advisory Accounts
When sending attachments to emails, for your protection, we
will exclude and/or mask certain personal information such as
name, address, and account number. We may also include
important notices, disclosures and updates relating to your
Advisory Accounts in or with your monthly account statements
or performance reports.
This section describes important information and conflicts of
interest that arise in connection with UBS sweep programs,
and specifically, those in connection with cash sweeps in
Advisory Accounts. It is not a full description of the
requirements, account type eligibility criteria or other
processes and requirements related to the sweep programs.
For more detailed information on the sweep programs,
including sweep money market funds, please contact your
Financial Advisor for a copy of the money market fund
prospectus(es) and the disclosure statements (Program
Disclosures) for the UBS Bank Sweep Programs and the UBS
FDIC-Insured Deposit Program.
By signing the Advisory Relationship Agreement, you confirm
that 1) your Electronic Delivery elections apply to your Advisory
Accounts, and 2) your enrollment in electronic delivery of
Shareholder Communications authorizes UBS Financial Services
Inc. to electronically deliver all reports, disclosures and notices
related to your Investment Advisory accounts. Based on that
authority, we will automatically enroll you in electronic delivery
for your Advisory Accounts if you select the electronic delivery
of Shareholder Communication option in your brokerage account
agreement. If you are enrolled in UBS Online Services, you
may change your delivery preferences at any time by
logging into UBS Online Services at:
http://www.ubs.com/edelivery. You may also change your
delivery preferences by contacting your Financial Advisor.
You may obtain the prospectuses and Program Disclosures and
view current yields on available sweep options online at
www.ubs.com/sweepyields.
We may change or discontinue the sweep feature, sweep
programs or specific sweep options at any time in our sole
discretion. We will notify you of material changes to this account
feature.
Mutual Fund Prospectus(es): When a new prospectus is
available, we will send you an e-mail notification to the e-mail
address you have provided to us. The e-mail will include a link
that will take you directly to where the prospectus can be viewed
and downloaded. Prospectuses contain important information
regarding your investments. We recommend that you read
them carefully and consider investment objectives, risks, charges
and expenses before investing, and maintain them in your files
for future reference. If you have any questions, please contact
your Financial Advisor.
If your e-mail address becomes outdated or we receive
messages that a document sent to you is not deliverable to the
e-mail address you provided, we will send the document to you
via regular mail.
Generally, a portion of your Advisory Account(s) may be held in
cash, cash equivalents or money market funds as part of the
overall investment strategy for the account. When permitted by
applicable law and subject to eligibility requirements (see below),
the cash in your Advisory Account automatically sweeps into bank
deposit accounts through either the UBS Bank Sweep Programs or
the UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program (collectively, UBS Deposit
Sweeps). For certain account types, cash balances are invested in
money market funds (Sweep Funds) managed by our affiliate,
UBS Asset Management.
7. Valuation and Other Information
To determine the value of securities in your account, we
generally rely on third party quotation services. If a price is
unavailable or believed to be unreliable, we may determine the
price in good faith and may use other sources such as the last
recorded transaction. When securities are held at another
custodian, we will generally rely on the value provided by that
custodian.
Uninvested cash in our sweep program is used to generate
revenue for us and our affiliates. These cash balances earn a
lower rate of return on that cash than might otherwise be
obtained. We also charge the advisory fee on your uninvested
cash balances in advisory accounts. The advisory fee exceeds the
amount you will earn on those balances. There is an incentive to
maintain a program where uninvested cash is swept to our
affiliate and to keep uninvested cash balances in advisory
accounts. UBS Bank USA is an affiliate of UBS and uses the cash
balances in the deposit accounts to fund new lending and
investment activity. The bank profits by the difference between
the interest paid to clients and the costs associated with its
deposits, and the interest and other income earned by the bank
on its loans, investments and other assets. UBS Bank USA
improves profits when it pays lower interest rates on deposits.
You may hold cash in your brokerage account without incurring
the Program Fee.
If your investment strategy includes mutual funds, in computing
the value of your Program A ssets, shares of UBS mutual funds
will be valued at their respective net asset values on the
valuation date calculated in accordance with the fund’s current
prospectus. Shares of non-affiliated funds will be valued at their
net asset values on the valuation date as provided by pricing
sources that we believe to be reliable. This pricing information
may not be accurate, complete or provided in a timely manner.
If the net asset value for particular shares is not available for the
valuation date, the most recent available net asset value will be
used. Similarly, valuation data for certain private or illiquid
investments may not be provided to us in a timely manner,
resulting in valuations that are not current in your statements
and Performance Reports.
Balances with FDIC-insured banks are eligible for insurance
provided by the FDIC up to applicable FDIC insurance limits. See
“FDIC Insurance Coverage and Limitations” below for details.
FDIC deposit insurance only covers the failure of an insured bank.
UBS-FS is not an FDIC-insured bank. Certain legal conditions must
be satisfied for deposit insurance coverage to pass through to
clients’ funds placed by UBS-FS at FDIC-insured banks. Shares in
money market funds are securities protected by SIPC coverage.
They are not insured by the FDIC, are not deposits, and may lose
value.
We will generally rely on the value provided by you (through
your custodial statement), the custodian or issuer of that
security, when (i) securities are held at another custodian and
security-specific detail is not provided to UBS to value them; (ii)
investments you hold in your accounts are not available through
UBS or that our systems do not recognize.
Opting Out of the UBS Deposit Sweeps: You may opt out of
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Coverdell education savings accounts, and (ii) employee
benefit plans qualified under Section 401(a) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or under any other
employee retirement or welfare plan subject to the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended
including individual participant accounts under a defined
contribution plan.
the sweep programs at any time and maintain your cash
balances in your brokerage or advisory account without
earning any yields or FDIC insurance. Cash held in your
brokerage or advisory accounts for the purchase of
securities is protected by SIPC up to $250,000. You are solely
responsible for deciding whether or not your account will
have a sweep feature. If you wish to opt out, please
contact your Financial Advisor.
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The Deposit Program and the Business Program are
legacy sweep options that are available respectively, to
retail and business accounts. These programs do not
accept new accounts except as follows:
Retirement Accounts in the following programs will enroll in the
Deposit Program: Discretionary Programs, SWP, CAP, Institutional
Consulting, and Separately Managed Account Programs (ACCESS
or MAC) managed by a UBS affiliate. Individual participant
accounts under a defined contribution plan in these programs will
sweep to the Business Program.
UBS Bank USA is the only bank available in the Deposit Program
and the Business. Cash balances for these programs sweep to UBS
Bank USA without regard to FDIC insurance limit.
1. UBS Deposit Sweeps; Sweep Features for your Brokerage
Account(s) and Conversion to Advisory Program(s)
UBS-FS makes available to its brokerage and advisory clients at the
time of account opening a default account feature that
automatically sweeps their free credit balances to bank sweep
deposit accounts at UBS Bank USA and other banks participating
in UBS Deposit Sweeps. Unless you have opted out of the UBS
Deposit Sweeps, in your agreements with UBS you authorize UBS-
FS to automatically sweep cash balances your account as
described below. Certain account types are not eligible for UBS
Deposit Sweeps and instead sweep to an affiliated money market
fund.
The sweep options available in UBS-FS accounts are determined by
client type and account type.
If you are invested in an Options Overlay Strategy, accounts only
sweep in excess of the margin debits.
Sweep Program Default Feature. As it is a default feature,
when you establish a brokerage account with us and unless your
opt out of the sweep programs, one of the sweep options will be
automatically assigned to your brokerage account depending on
the account type (individual, business, trust, etc.) and client type
without the recommendation or advice of your Financial Advisor
either under Regulation Best Interest, or as a fiduciary under the
Investment Advisers Act.
-
Account Types Sweeping to Money Market Funds: An
account is not eligible for any of the UBS Deposit Sweeps
(Ineligible Account) if the account is (1) owned by a financial
institution (insurance companies, broker-dealers, investment
advisors, fund companies, hedge fund companies, private pension
funds, public retirement funds, state and federal chartered banks,
state and federal chartered credit unions, state and federal
chartered savings associations, and state and federal chartered
trust companies), (2) is a Qualified Plan pool account, (3) plans
established under Section 403(b)(7) of the Internal Revenue Code,
or (4) a corporate cash management account. Ineligible Accounts
sweep to Sweep Funds, specifically the UBS Liquid Assets
Government Fund (for retirement accounts) or UBS RMA
Government Money Market Fund (for non-retirement accounts).
Shares in Sweep Funds are not insured by the FDIC, are not
deposits and may lose value. Please see the “Alternative to the
UBS Deposit Sweeps – Sweep Funds” section below. UBS-FS and
our affiliates receive compensation in addition to the Program
Fees you pay us for investments in Sweep Funds. UBS at its
discretion will consider a client to be ineligible if UBS becomes
aware that the entity is prohibited as a matter of law from holding
funds at any bank.
Sweep Options and Eligibility: UBS offers two main UBS
Deposit Sweeps options – (1) the FDIC-Insured Deposit
Program and (2) the UBS Bank Sweep Programs, which
consist of three sub-programs: (i) the UBS Deposit Account
Sweep Program (Deposit Program), (ii) the UBS Business
Account Sweep Program (Business Program), and (iii) the
UBS Insured Sweep Program (UBS-ISP).
•
Accounts for Puerto Rico residents are eligible for the UBS Deposit
Sweeps but will not be assigned a default sweep option. Clients
may enroll in a program by contacting their Financial Advisor.
The UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program and the
UBS-ISP are “multi-bank” programs in which cash
balances sweep to UBS Bank USA and to other FDIC-
insured banks participating in the programs
(collectively Program Banks) that have entered into
an agreement with UBS. The order in which deposits
sweep to UBS Bank USA and other Program Banks in
the UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program and the UBS-
ISP is described in the Priority List applicable to your
Account available at ubs.com/bankprioritylists.
The UBS FDIC-Insured Program is only available as a sweep
option if you are a U.S. resident and your Account is owned
by a revocable or irrevocable trust where our records indicate
that all beneficiaries are either individuals and/or not-for-
profit organizations.
Converting a Brokerage Account to an Advisory Program
and Impact on Sweep Options: When you convert your
brokerage account into an Advisory account, the original default
sweep option for your brokerage account will remain the same
unless your brokerage account is a retirement account, (including
Individual Retirement Accounts, individual participant accounts
under a defined contribution plan, and Qualified Plans) and you
are enrolling the account in one of our Discretionary Programs,
SWP, UBS-CAP, Institutional Consulting, or Separately Managed
Account Programs (ACCESS or MAC) where your advisory account
will managed by a UBS affiliate. The default sweep option for
Retirement Advisory Accounts those accounts in the Advisory
Programs will be the Deposit or Business Program.
If cash balances in your brokerage account were sweeping to the
UBS-ISP, the change to the Deposit Program will mean you will
lose the benefit of receiving FDIC insurance for balances above the
deposit limit of $250,000 per depositor insurable ownership
category offered by the multi-bank structure of the UBS-ISP. See
The UBS-ISP is currently the default sweep option for most
eligible retail and business accounts including most brokerage
retirement accounts. For purposes of UBS Deposit Sweeps,
“Retirement Accounts” mean (i) individual retirement
accounts including traditional, Roth, SEP, and SIMPLE, and
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period. If the advisory rate for your tier is higher than the
brokerage rate, we will credit your account for the difference at
the beginning of the next interest period.
“UBS Deposit Sweeps – FDIC Insurance Coverage and
Limitations” below for important information on FDIC insurance
coverage limitations.
Determination of Sweep Programs Interest Rates. UBS-FS
does not set the interest rates for the sweep programs. UBS Bank
USA reviews the rates payable to clients on a daily basis in the UBS
Deposit Sweeps versus other sweep programs available through
broker-dealers to ensure such rates are aligned with the industry
and market.
Cash balances in brokerage accounts ineligible for the UBS
Deposit Sweeps will continue to sweep to the Sweep Funds upon
enrollment in an Advisory Program. For qualified plans with a
pooled structure and 403(b)(7) accounts, our affiliate's
compensation from the money market fund will be limited to
reimbursement of its direct costs and expenses for providing
services to the fund. All fees and reimbursements for direct costs
and expenses paid to our affiliate by such a fund are in addition
to the fees you pay us.
These rates of interest paid on sweep deposits are determined by
a UBS Bank USA interest rate committee that considers prevailing
business and economic conditions, as well as interest rates paid by
competitors’ bank deposit sweep programs. The committee is
comprised of employees of UBS Bank USA, including those who
also undertake activities on behalf of UBS-FS in managing the
sweep programs. The interest rate is determined prospectively not
retroactively. In addition, on an annual basis, the UBS-FS Board
reviews the interest rates with the Head of Deposits of UBS Bank
USA. The unaffiliated banks in the UBS-ISP and UBS FDIC-Insured
Program set their rate for UBS-FS accounts using the rate
established by UBA Bank USA. Those same banks may offer
different or higher interest rates for deposits placed directly with
their institution or through sweep programs offered by other
broker-dealers.
Financial Advisor Compensation and Advisory Program Fees
Financial Advisors are compensated on brokerage assets in the
UBS Deposit Sweeps or the Sweep Funds under qualifying
conditions as described in the Program Disclosures. When your
brokerage account is converted into an Advisory Account those
same assets, cash and cash alternatives, including assets deposited
in UBS Bank USA Core Savings, are subject to the Program Fee
charged in the investment advisory programs which reduces the
value of any interest you receive on those assets. Your Financial
Advisor receives a portion of the Program Fee you pay in the
Advisory Programs. This creates a conflict of interest and an
incentive for your Financial Advisor to recommend that you hold
your cash assets in an Advisory Account. See “Billing on Cash
and Cash Equivalents in Your Advisory Accounts” for a
description of the practices in place to address these conflicts of
interest.
Employees involved in the business of UBS-FS as a registered
investment adviser are not involved in setting the rate of interest
for the sweep programs or in determining the sweep options for
UBS-FS brokerage or advisory accounts.
Your Financial Advisor does not currently receive compensation
over and above your Program Fee in connection with UBS Deposit
Sweep in Advisory accounts. UBS reserves the right to pay a fee to
your Financial Advisor in connection with UBS Deposit Sweep at
any time without prior notice. Upon request, UBS will provide you
with information about UBS’s compensation arrangements with
respect to its sweep options.
The default options for your Accounts will not be changed based
on differences in yields between the UBS Deposit Sweeps, the
Sweep Funds or any other cash alternatives. For example, if
Sweep Funds yield a higher interest rate than the UBS Deposit
Sweeps, and the default option for your account is the bank
sweep, that will remain unchanged. Please see “UBS Deposit
Sweeps - Interest rates” for information on interest rates
applicable to UBS Deposit Sweeps.
See “Financial Conflicts of Interest: Benefits to UBS and its
Affiliates” for a description of the compensation received by
UBS in connection with this program.
FDIC Insurance Coverage and Limitations: Deposit balances
in the UBS Deposit Sweeps are eligible for deposit insurance
provided by the FDIC at each bank up to a total of $250,000
including principal and accrued interest for each depositor per
each insurable ownership capacity (e.g., individual, joint, IRA) ,
provided that the requirements for deposit insurance have been
met. Deposit balances in the UBS Deposit Sweeps are not
eligible for protection by SIPC. Qualified Plan accounts are
eligible for FDIC insurance up to a total of $250,000 per plan
participant based on each participant's non-contingent interest
in the employee benefit plan. Please see FDIC coverage
limitations below:
•
Deposit Programs - Interest Rates: Interest rates on the
deposit accounts in the UBS Deposit Sweeps are tiered based on
your total eligible deposits in a Marketing or Qualified Plan
Relationship as defined in the “General Terms and Conditions”
of the Agreements and Disclosures booklet, which is available
at ubs.com/accountdisclosures or by contacting your Financial
Advisor.
Interest rates for sweep programs may be higher or lower than
interest rates available on other cash alternatives, such as money
market mutual funds. Interest rates are generally lower in a high
interest rate market cycle but may be higher in low interest rate
market cycles. In addition, interest rates may be higher or lower
than interest rates available to depositors making deposits directly
with a Program Bank in the UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program or
the UBS-ISP, or other depository institutions in comparable
accounts.
The interest rates in all UBS Deposit Sweeps programs are
generally the same but may differ by account type (advisory and
brokerage accounts). As of December 31, 2024, for Advisory
Accounts, the annual percentage yield on the lowest tier of the
UBS Deposit Sweeps was 0.25% and 2.30% for the highest tier,
while the seven-day current yield on the Sweep Funds ranged
from 3.71% - 4.34%.
•
Deposit sweep balances in advisory accounts established after the
5th business day of the month will accrue interest at the brokerage
rate assigned to their tier until the beginning of the next interest
If your Advisory Account is enrolled in the Deposit Program or
the Business Program (after November 2019), cash in all
Advisory Accounts will be swept into deposit accounts at
UBS Bank USA without any limit, which means your
deposits can exceed FDIC coverage
If you are enrolled in the UBS-ISP or the UBS FDIC-Insured
Deposit Program, cash balances up to $249,000 per account
($498,000 for accounts with two or more joint owners)
(Deposit Limit) will be swept into deposit accounts at UBS
Bank USA and each Program Bank in the order in which the
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For more information about any of the money market funds
available as a sweep option, including all charges and expenses,
please contact your Financial Advisor for a prospectus or go to
ubs.com/sweepyields.
Non-U.S. residents are not eligible for any of the money
market funds available as sweep options.
banks are listed in the Priority List applicable to your account.
UBS Banks USA is the first bank in any Priority List. Once
funds equal to the Deposit Limit have been deposited for you
through the UBS-ISP or the FDIC-Insured Deposit Program at
each Program Bank, any additional cash balances will be
swept to the deposit account at UBS Bank USA without
regard to the FDIC insurance limit. Please note that FDIC
insurance covers deposit balances at UBS Bank USA up to
$250,000 per depositor per insurable ownership capacity.
UBS Asset Management (US) Inc. is the distributor for the
Sweep Funds.
Other sweep options may be available from time to time, and you
should discuss your options with your Financial Advisor. You may
also choose to maintain any cash component of an asset
allocation strategy outside of your UBS Advisory Accounts.
As of the date of this Brochure, the total amount of deposits
eligible for FDIC insurance in each program (Program Deposit
Limit) is as follows: Program Deposit Limit for (1) the UBS-ISP
offers insurance coverage is up to $3.735 million for individual
accounts ($7.47 million for accounts with two or more joint
owners), $3.735 million for retirement accounts, and $3.486
million for business accounts; and (2) the UBS FDIC-Insured
Deposit Program offers insurance coverage up to $2.49 million
($4.98 million for accounts with two or more joint owners). The
Program Deposit Limits are subject to change depending on the
number of Program Banks participating in each program. For the
current list of Program Banks, please see the Priority List applicable
to your program and Account available at
ubs.com/bankprioritylists. See “Conflicts of Interest: Benefits
to UBS” for a description of the compensation received by
UBS in connection with this program.
You could lose money by investing in a money market fund.
Although each of the money market funds named above
seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per
share, it cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in a
money market fund is not insured or guaranteed by the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other
government agency, is not a deposit, and may lose value.
Each money market fund's sponsor has no legal obligation
to provide financial support to the fund, and you should not
expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the
fund at any time.
Conflicts of Interest and Benefits to UBS and its Affiliates:
UBS Bank USA and UBS-FS receive substantial financial benefits for
activities related to the deposit accounts and investments in the
money market funds.
For all UBS Deposit Sweeps, assets eligible for FDIC
coverage include all of your deposits with UBS Bank USA,
or any Program Bank in the UBS-ISP or the UBS FDIC-Insured
Deposit Program as applicable. For your deposits with UBS
Bank USA, those balances, including cash swept through
eligible UBS-FS accounts or through a third-party broker-
dealer sweep program, any certificates of deposit issued
by UBS Bank USA and any UBS Bank USA Core Savings
deposits you own in the same insurable ownership
category, will be aggregated for purposes of the FDIC
coverage limit which, depending on the total amount, may
exceed the maximum limit covered by FDIC insurance.
UBS Deposit Sweeps - Benefits to UBS-FS: Your Program Fee
applies to the cash and cash equivalents in your Advisory Account,
including cash that is swept into the various sweep options. You
can hold cash in a brokerage account without incurring the Advisory
Program Fee. Please see section “Billing Practices—Billing on Cash
and Cash Equivalents in Your Program Accounts" for details. UBS
Bank USA pays UBS-FS an annual fee of up to $50 per securities
account that sweeps to UBS Bank USA through the UBS Deposit
Sweeps.
In addition, the amount deposited at UBS Bank USA and
other Program Banks may exceed the amount covered by
FDIC insurance if you have more than one Account that
sweeps through the UBS Deposit Sweeps or hold other
deposits at the banks in addition to the sweeps.
You are responsible for monitoring the total amount of
deposits that you have with UBS Bank USA and each
Program Bank to determine the extent of FDIC deposit
insurance coverage available to you. FDIC deposit insurance
only covers the failure of an insured bank. UBS-FS is not an FDIC-
insured bank. Deposit balances in the UBS Deposit Sweeps are
not eligible for protection by SIPC. Please refer to the Program
Disclosures for the UBS Deposit Sweeps for more detailed
information regarding FDIC insurance. You may obtain a copy of
each Program Disclosure by contacting your Financial Advisor. It
is also available at ubs.com/accountdisclosures.
UBS Deposit Sweeps - Benefits to UBS Bank USA: UBS Bank
USA uses deposit balances in the UBS Deposit Sweep Programs to
fund new lending and investment activity. Its profitability is
determined largely by the difference between the interest paid and
costs associated with deposit balances, and the interest or other
income earned on its loans, investments and other assets. UBS Bank
USA improves its profitability when it lowers the interest rates paid
and the costs associated with deposit balances. The yield UBS Bank
USA provides is based on industry comparables (selected by UBS
Bank USA) such as the yields of other banks, as well as prevailing
business and economic conditions; it is not based on the yields
provided by other cash or cash equivalents such as money market
funds and treasuries. Having more assets sweeping to UBS Bank
USA provides significant economic benefits to UBS as a whole.
2. Alternatives to the UBS Deposit Sweeps – Sweep Funds
Investors who are not eligible to participate in the UBS Deposit
Sweeps – such as financial institutions, qualified plans with a
pooled structure, 403(b)(7) accounts and corporate cash
management accounts – will be assigned an available money
market fund as their sweep option. UBS RMA Government Money
Market Fund and UBS Liquid Assets Government Fund are the
funds currently available for non-retirement accounts and
retirement accounts, respectively.
Compensation to UBS Bank USA in the UBS-ISP and to UBS in
the UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program: Third party banks that
benefit from the cash deposited with them pay UBS Bank USA in
the UBS-ISP and UBS-FS in the UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program a
percentage-based amount based on a stated index, typically the Fed
Funds rate plus a spread, known as the Total All-in Cost of Funds
rate (“TACF”). The TACF includes an accrual for both (i) interest on
deposit balances that is accrued and credited to client’s deposit
account and (ii) a custodial agent fee that is payable to UBS Bank
Page 54 of 94
hold in a particular capacity. Investments in the sweep money
market funds are not deposits and are not protected by the
FDIC. However, money market funds, are protected by SIPC as
securities and are covered by the excess SIPC insurance that we
have obtained for the benefit of our clients. The maintenance of
a given share price value (e.g., $1.00 per share) by the funds is not
insured or guaranteed. See the Account Information Booklet
and the Disclosure Statement for more information
regarding SIPC protection.
C. Billing Practices
USA or UBS, as applicable. The TACF as of the date hereof averages
approximately 0.22% annually on the deposit accounts. A portion
of the TACF is also paid by UBS Bank USA or UBS-FS to a third party
administrator and the balance is retained by UBS Bank USA or UBS-
FS, as applicable. The compensation to UBS Bank USA or UBS-FS
significantly exceeds the amount paid to clients as interest on their
deposit account balances at the third party banks. Also, because
the yields for both the UBS Bank Sweeps Program and the UBS
FDIC-Insured Deposit Program may vary over time, the amount
retained by UBS Bank USA or UBS will fluctuate. Clients with
Advisory Accounts will earn the same interest rate in all of the UBS
Deposit Sweep Programs, regardless of which banks their cash is
deposited in.
The billing process described below is subject to change upon
prior written notice to you.
1. Relating Accounts for Billing Purposes
In the UBS-ISP, UBS Bank USA receives additional deposits from
these non-affiliated banks and financial institutions in the network,
which provides additional benefits to UBS Bank USA. Deposits
received by UBS Bank USA through the network are less costly for
UBS Bank USA because the deposits are fully insured. This lower
cost should allow UBS Bank USA to increase its earnings on its loans,
investments and other assets.
You may request to have two or more eligible Advisory Accounts
be treated as related accounts for purposes of taking their assets
into consideration in order to calculate the Program Fee. This
means that all eligible assets in those accounts will be
considered together when determining breakpoints, if
applicable, in the fee schedule.
Relating Advisory accounts can provide the opportunity for price
reductions at certain breakpoints. Advisory Accounts that are
part of UBS-CAP will be automatically related for billing purposes
unless prohibited by applicable rules or regulations (for example,
ERISA).
Conflicts of Interest: To address the conflicts of interest associated
with the UBS Deposit Sweep we have program guidelines designed
to promote diversification and limit the maximum percentage of
cash held in an Advisory Account. Accounts that exceed the
maximum cash threshold over a specified period of time in the
PACE, Strategic Advisor, and PMP Programs will be removed from
the programs and converted to brokerage accounts. In addition,
money market funds may be available for purchase as an alternative
to the UBS Deposit Sweep Programs.
Our monitoring of cash in Advisory Accounts does not include a
review of cash balances being swept to deposit accounts at UBS
Bank USA through the UBS Deposit Sweep to determine if there are
cash balances sweeping in excess of the FDIC insurance limit. You
are responsible for monitoring the total amount of deposits
that you have with UBS Bank USA and other participating
banks to determine the extent of FDIC deposit insurance
coverage available to you on those deposits.
If you choose a breakpoint fee schedule for your Account, you
should review and consider the potential benefits of relating
advisory accounts. Beginning January 2021, the Program Fee for
Advisory Accounts outside the IC Program with a breakpoint fee
schedule that are terminated prior to the quarterly billing process
will be based on the relationship rate for that Account, not the
contractual rate as previously done. Please contact your Financial
Advisor for more information on the definition of eligible
accounts and how to choose this billing option. Retirement
Accounts may not be linked where a prohibited transaction under
ERISA or the Internal Revenue Code may result.
2. Minimum Annual Fees
Clients seeking higher yielding cash equivalent investments
should consider the several cash alternatives we have
available, including the aforementioned money market
funds, short-term certificates of deposit (CDs) and treasuries.
With the exception of IC, our Programs do not impose a
minimum annual fee. In IC, the minimum fee is $10,000 or the
maximum program fee with respect to services selected and the
value of Eligible Investments, whichever is less.
We may change or discontinue the sweep feature, sweep programs
or specific sweep options at any time in our sole discretion. We will
notify you of material changes to this account feature.
3.
Initial Program Fee
3. Important Information about Your Sweep Options for
PACE Investments Only:
PACE is an asset allocation program that is fully invested and
does not have a cash sweep feature. However, since your PACE
investment is held within a UBS brokerage account (e.g., RMA,
basic investment account, etc.), available cash balances in the
brokerage portion of the basic investment accounts and RMA
accounts are automatically swept in accordance with the terms
of your brokerage account agreement which differ from those
available to Advisory Accounts.
Generally, we will deduct your Initial Program Fee from your
Account during the same month in which your Account is
accepted for the Program. The fee is calculated on the market
value of the eligible assets on your billing start date or the
following day, pro-rated to cover the period from the date your
account is accepted through the end of the calendar quarter.
However, if the Account is opened in the last four business days
of the calendar quarter, billing includes those days plus the next
full calendar quarter. Thereafter, the fee will be based on the
value of your Account on the last business day of each
calendar quarter. The Initial Fee is then adjusted in the following
quarter based on the average daily value of the account, as
described below in Quarterly Fee Adjustment.
To enhance internal billing processes, initial billing for accounts
that enroll during the last four days of the prior quarter will
change in the future. This update is an administrative change only
4. SIPC Protection: Please note the following:
UBS-FS is a member of SIPC. SIPC provides protection for
securities in your accounts with us up to $500,000, including
$250,000 for free cash balances in the unlikely event that we
fail financially. For details please see www.sipc.org. The SIPC
asset protection limits apply, in total, to all accounts that you
Page 55 of 94
Program Fee Billing for Options Overlay Strategies
and will not impact the total account fees paid by clients. Initial
billing for these accounts will no longer use the enrollment date
account value to calculate a Program Fee for the final four days of
the prior quarter plus the subsequent quarter. Instead, the
Program Fee will consist of two calculations, aggregated to a
single fee: 1) the actual daily account value will be used to
determine the Program Fee for the last four days of the quarter
using the fee rate(s) included in the program application; and 2)
the account value on the last business day of that quarter will be
used to determine the Quarterly Fee for the subsequent quarter
(see 4. Quarterly Fee below for more details) details).
4. Quarterly Fee
Generally, Program Fees for Advisory Accounts are calculated
based on the value of eligible assets in your Account. As the value
of the assets in your Account changes due to appreciation,
depreciation, contributions or withdrawals, those changes impact
the actual Program Fee charged on the Account. The billing
practice for Options Overlay Strategies is different from the
standard process described in the Advisory Relationship
Agreement and Form ADV. In order to enroll in an Options
Overlay Strategy, you will be required to select a "Mandate" for
the Strategy. The Mandate amount is the amount of collateral you
are willing to put at risk. For example, you have accounts with $10
million in assets and decide to commit $3 million out of the $10
million as collateral for the Options Overlay Strategy, the Mandate
amount is therefore $3 million.
After the assessment of the Initial Program Fee, your subsequent
Program Fees will be assessed quarterly based on the net asset
value (i.e., fair market value of the eligible assets including
dividends and, where applicable, accrued interest, the value of
margin loans) in the Account on the last business day of each
calendar quarter. Fees will be charged directly to your account in
the month following the close of a calendar quarter unless you
have either designated another eligible UBS account to pay the
Program Fee or elected to have your fee invoiced to you (non-
IRA qualified plans only). Your fee is an annual percentage of
your account assets, and you will pay the fee quarterly in
advance, pro-rated according to the number of calendar days in
the billing period. The Quarterly Fee is then adjusted in the
following quarter based on the average daily value of the account,
as described below in Quarterly Fee Adjustment.
Unlike other advisory strategies where your Program Fee is
typically determined on the value of eligible assets in an account,
billing for Options Overlay Strategies is based on the Mandate
amount of the strategy (which in the above example, is $3
million). However, the Options Overlay Strategy account may have
significantly less than $3 million in actual asset value (the value of
the options/calls/puts/cash in the account). While the actual value
of assets in your account will fluctuate over time, the Mandate
remains constant unless you change it by notifying your Financial
Advisor or UBS lowers the Mandate. In cases where UBS lowers
the Mandate, we will notify you in writing of the change.
Depending on the value of your Options Overlay account, this
practice of billing on the Mandate amount will result in higher
compensation to UBS, your Financial Advisor, and the strategy
manager than if the Program Fee was based on the value of
eligible assets in your Options Overlay Strategy account in MAC.
Account statements display a total account value less any margin
loans or short positions held in your Account. Generally, because
the billing calculation does not deduct the value of short
positions, the amount on which we calculate your fee may be
higher than the account value displayed on your account
statement.
For MAC and IC, certain assets are considered ineligible for billing
purposes. For example, option securities, and the value of those
assets will not count toward the billable value of the assets in your
MAC or IC Account. Both long options positions and short
positions are not taken into consideration for billing purposes.
Number of Contracts and Market Exposure: Options Overlay
Strategies employ a varying number of contracts at any point in
time. While your mandate will determine the maximum amount
at risk and maximum market exposure, it also indicates to the
Portfolio Manager a maximum number of contracts at any point
in time. The actual number of contracts in your account will vary
and can be significantly less than the maximum. Regardless of
the number of contracts employed, you will still be billed on your
selected mandate.
5. Quarterly Fee Adjustment
Since short positions reduce the overall value of the account, to
the extent the short positions in your account exceed the value of
any long positions, the billing for your account will be higher than
would be the case if option positions were considered for billing
purposes. Because the billing calculation excludes options
positions, the amount on which we calculate your fee may be
higher or lower than the account value displayed on your account
statement.
Below is an example of how an annual fee for an account
would be calculated:
Quarterly fee = Account Value x Annual Fee % x (Billing
days/Number of days in the year)
We will adjust the Quarterly Fee that was charged in advance
based on the account’s average daily balance during that quarter.
At the end of each quarter we will recalculate the Quarterly Fee
using the account’s average daily balance during the quarter. Any
difference greater than $25 from the quarterly fee assessed in
advance will be debited from or credited to the Account. Using
the average daily balance to adjust the fee captures both
contributions/withdrawals and changes in market value
during the quarter. If the market value of the Account increases
during the quarter, the fee you pay will increase (unless offsetting
withdrawals are made from the Account). Similarly, if the market
value of the Account decreases during the quarter, your fee will
decrease (unless offsetting deposits are made to the Account).
Adjustments will be due and payable within the first month of the
new quarter and will be reflected on your monthly account
statement as a Prior Quarter Fee Adjustment. This process will also
be applied to adjust the Initial Program Fee.
For example:
-
Value of account on the last day of the prior calendar quarter:
$250,000
For example:
A typical second quarter period begins on April 1st.
Possible account net asset value on March 31 = $100,000 (or the
last business day of the first quarter)
The annual fee percentage = 2.5% (the maximum fee in our
Advisory Programs)
Billing days = 91 (i.e., April 1 – June 30)
The quarterly fee = $100,000 x 0.025 x (91/365)
= $623.29
Page 56 of 94
-
Annual Advisory Fee Rate: 1.5%
- Quarterly Fee charged in advance = $945.21 - calculated as
result, the Program Fees charged originally are based on the value
of the alternative investment fund inclusive of the value of the
alternative fund pending redemption. Proceeds from "hold back"
promissory notes are usually received within 18 months of
issuance.
follows ($250,000 (quarter end value) x 1.5% (annual fee
rate) X (92 days (days in the quarter) / 365 days (days in the
year) = 945.21).
-
You will receive a credit of the Program Fee imposed on
alternative investments you redeem in whole or in part while you
hold these investments in Advisory Programs. Credits will be
based on the effective date of redemption.
Avg. Daily Balance Adjustment: Following the end of the
calendar quarter, the Quarterly Fee will be re-calculated and
adjusted based on the average daily balance during that
quarter.
Example for illustration purposes only.
If the average daily balance of the account during the quarter was
$265,000, the recalculated fee would be $1,001.92 and the
difference between the original fee and recalculated fee of $56.71
would be charged to your Account.
Fund ABC has a quarterly redemption period. Notice of
redemption is due 9/30 and processed 12/31 (the "effective
date"). Although the redemption is processed by the fund on
12/31, UBS may not receive the proceeds of the redemption for
up to 120 days after the effective date of 12/31. Once received
by UBS, the cash proceeds due to client will include a promissory
note if the fund imposes a "holdback."
The quarterly adjustment fee = $265,000 x 0.015 x (92/365) =
$1,001.92
$1001.92 - $945.21 = $56.71
Program Fees will be imposed on the value of the alternative
investment only until the effective date of redemption (in this
example: 12/31). Thereafter, the Program Fee may not include the
investment proceeds until such time as the cash proceeds are
received which could be 120 days later. Fees previously imposed
will be credited to your Account.
In addition, Program Fees may not be imposed on any promissory
notes received as a result of a holdback.
This Quarterly Fee Adjustment does not apply to assets held away
from UBS (including DVP accounts). Advisory Assets not held at
UBS are invoiced and billed quarterly based on the value of the
eligible assets in the account at the end of the prior quarter as
reported by the custodian to UBS. Assets held away from UBS in
the IC Program are billed quarterly in arrears while assets held
away for the other Programs described in this Brochure are billed
quarterly in advance. Fees for assets not held at UBS are not
adjusted for contributions or withdrawals or changes in market
value during the quarter.
7. Additional Billing Practices.
6 . Impact of Alternative Investments Valuation and
Redemptions on your Program Fee.
SMA Manager Fees: We calculate SMA Manager Fees for
ACCESS, SWP and AAP accounts/sub-accounts, and for MAC and
IC Accounts where the SMA Manager fee is deducted directly
from the Account, in accordance with our billing practices
described above. The SMA Manager Fee is included in the
Quarterly Fee and Prior Quarter Fee Adjustment reflected on your
account statements. We pay the SMA Manager Fees on your
behalf based on all activity (i.e., initial billing, quarterly billing, prior
quarter fee adjustment) and assets in their strategies.
The valuation of alternative investments held at UBS, or at other
financial institutions, reflects the records of the issuers and
administrators of those funds. UBS does not guarantee the
accuracy of the information. The value shown is not necessarily
the value you would receive from the issuer if you sold the assets.
Funds actively sold by UBS are subject to ongoing due diligence,
although the level performed may vary. In very limited
circumstances, a closed fund may be subject to no ongoing
diligence. A fund that you purchased elsewhere may never have
been subject to UBS FS diligence.
Withdrawals from ACCESS, SWP and AAP Programs: We will
liquidate securities to raise sufficient funds to satisfy withdrawal
requests. The cash will be subject to the Program Fee until it is
withdrawn from the account. Cash pending withdrawal will be
reinvested in the account if not withdrawn within 35 days of the
request in ACCESS, SWP and AAP Programs.
The NAV is primarily based on estimated portfolio values
provided by the underlying fund sponsor. Reported estimates may
not reflect resale, liquidation or repurchase value, if any, and may
not reflect distributions of capital until the next valuation is
reported, generally on an annual or semi-annual basis. These
valuation practices are important because we calculate the
Program Fee for alternative investments you hold in
Advisory Accounts based on these estimates.
There may be instances when available funds to satisfy
withdrawal requests are unavailable due to differences in the
settlement dates of traded securities. In those instances, available
funds may be delayed for up to two days. Because of the funding
and withdrawal rules in SWP and AAP, and depending on the
overall allocation of the account, raising funds to fulfill a withdrawal
request may take additional time.
Billing Practices in the UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio
program (SWP) and Advisor Allocation Program (AAP)
The Strategic Wealth Portfolio and Advisor Allocation Programs
have a “Blended Program Fee” that includes: the UBS Investment
Advisory Fee that is applicable to all assets in the Account and
fees for the portfolio management services in the SMA sub-
accounts.
Fees for your sub-accounts and SMA Managers will vary
depending on the strategy selected. Please consider the
following information about fees and discuss any questions with
For purposes of calculating the Program Fee, we will use the
valuation of alternative investments available/reported to us as of
the billing date. Valuation for alternative investments is often
delayed, sometimes significantly, and is not provided to us in a
timely manner. As a result, the valuation we use for purposes of
calculating the Program Fee may not be current with the actual
value of your investments at the time billing is processed and,
depending on the circumstances, may result in a higher Program
Fee. You should carefully consider the impact of these valuation
delays on the Program Fee you pay to us.
Redemptions and "Hold Back" Promissory Notes: For
Program Accounts holding eligible alternative investments,
proceeds from redemptions are not to be received into the
Advisory Account for a period that can extend over several months
after a redemption request is submitted and is effective. As a
Page 57 of 94
your Financial Advisor:
–
The authorization to bill the other account will be terminated and
your Advisory Account will revert back to direct debit if the Bill To
account is deemed no longer eligible or is terminated. However,
the Bill To feature is not automatically terminated when there is a
title/ownership change, or new authorized parties are added to
the Bill To account. It is your responsibility to contact your
Financial Advisor in order to update your billing features. There
may be tax consequences associated with the selection of a Bill To
account to pay the advisory fees of another account, and,
therefore, you should discuss this option with your tax adviser.
IRAs and ERISA Qualified Plans cann ot pay the managed
account fees for another account.
Qualified employee benefit plans may choose to be invoiced for
the Program Fee by directing us to do so in writing. Payment
will be due within 30 days of the mailing of the invoice. If the
fee is not received within 30 days, the Account may be debited.
Failure to pay invoices in a timely manner may result in a loss of
the feature and your account will revert back to a direct debit
status. All other account ownership types are not eligible for
invoicing. From time to time and in our sole discretion, however,
we may make the invoicing feature available to select IRA or IC
Accounts for the invoicing of the Program Fee.
MAC and IC SMA Manager Fees: When requested by the
SMA Manager UBS will deduct the SMA Manager’s fee directly
from your Account. Otherwise, the SMA Manager in the MAC
and IC Programs will bill you directly. When the Manager's fee is
deducted directly from the account, the fee billing will be done in
accordance with UBS's billing practices which in some cases may
be different from those described in the Investment Management
Agreement you signed with your MAC or IC Manager. This could
result in Manager fee billing that is higher or lower than if the
Manager were to bill you directly.
PACE and Program Fee Payment Hierarchy: You may choose
to have your PACE Program Fee paid from assets within your
PACE investment or non-PACE participating assets that are held
in your Account. The PACE program automatically defaults
to deducting your Program Fee out of your non- PACE
assets unless you instruct us otherwise. Payments from
your PACE assets will be processed by selling shares of PACE
Money Market Investments. If sufficient funds are not available,
then Program Assets in your account will be liquidated by selling
shares of the mutual funds or Multi Funds/Select Portfolios in
your account. The specific order (i.e., first to last) for redeeming
shares for this purpose is listed below. Sales will be made first
from the largest fund position in the first asset.
PACE Select Advisors:
(8) PACE Large Cap Growth
- Because each sub-account may be subject to different fees,
your Blended Program Fee will change depending on a variety
of factors, including, the value of the assets in each sub-
account, market movements, your contributions and
withdrawals, any changes to your allocation or the selection
of a new SMA strategy. As a result, the Blended Program Fee
may be more or less than the Blended Program Fee shown in
your account application or confirmation letters. Changes to your
Target Allocation and/or investments will be confirmed to you in
writing.
- The Initial Program Fee for the Strategic Wealth Portfolio and
Advisor Allocation programs will be calculated based on the
value of the assets on the date your Account is accepted and
the Target Allocation selected by you in SWP and by your
Financial Advisor in AAP (even if the Target Allocation is not
fully implemented at that time). Thereafter, the Blended
Program Fee will be based on the net asset value and the actual
allocation across sub-accounts on the last business day of each
calendar quarter and will cover the next calendar quarter.
However, if your Account is pending a change to the
investment selection(s) to the target allocation at or about the
time the Program Fee is calculated, the Blended Program Fee
will be based on the Target Allocation.
- When SMA sub-accounts are included, the Blended Program Fee
rate is calculated at the time of the billing event based on the
allocation as described above, and is rounded to three decimal
places. Future changes to your fee and/or asset allocation made by
you and/or your Financial Advisor will also be calculated in this
manner and you will receive a letter reflecting these changes.
- If sufficient funds are not available in your Account to cover the
fee, then assets from each sub-account in your account will be
liquidated to pay the portion of the fee attributable to that sub-
account. Bear in mind that your Target Allocation may not be
fully implemented when you initially open your Account or if
you, or your Financial Advisor in AAP, happen to reallocate your
assets, for reasons that include the time lag in receiving
proceeds from transactions or a lack of funding to completely
fund multiple SMA Managers. See the section “Account
Requirements and Types of Clients—Funding Your Account—
SWP and AAP Programs: Funding Multiple Investment
Managers” for additional information.
- During the quarter, if you (for SWP), or your Financial Advisor
(for AAP), add an investment to or remove an investment from the
target allocation, we will make the fee adjustment at the end of
the quarter based on the account’s average daily balance (and the
balance of each sub-account) during the quarter, as described in
Quarterly Fee Adjustments above. This adjustment includes any
charges or refunds to your SMA Manager Fees (see SMA Manager
Fees above) and will be reflected on your monthly account
statement as a Prior Quarter Fee Adjustment.
(1) UBS Government Money
Market Investments
(2) PACE Mortgage-Backed
(9) PACE Small/Medium Value
(3) PACE Municipal Fixed
10) PACE Small/Medium Growth
(4) PACE Intermediate
(11) PACE International Equity
(5) PACE Strategic Fixed
(12) PACE Global Real Estate
(6) PACE High Yield
(13) PACE International Emerging
(7) PACE Large Cap Value
(14) PACE Global Fixed Income
15) PACE Alternative Strategies
PACE Multi Advisor:
(13) REITS – US Equity
(1) UBS Government Money
Market Investments
(2) Mortgage Back Securities
(14) REITS – Medium Cap
Debiting/Invoicing Program Fees. Program Fees are debited
from your Account unless you have designated another eligible
UBS account to pay the Program Fee, or you have chosen to
have your fee invoiced. Payment of your Program Fee will be
reflected on the monthly account statement of the account
that is paying the fee. If you direct us to automatically debit
your Program Fees from another UBS account (referred to as a
“Bill To” account), at the time billing is processed, we will
confirm that the UBS Bill To account has sufficient funds to
cover your Program Fee. Failure to maintain sufficient funds to
satisfy the Program Fee from the other account you designated
will result in deduction of the Program Fee directly from your
Advisory Account. If you wish to revert to direct debiting the
Program Fees from the Advisory Account, please contact your
Financial Advisor.
(3) Municipals
(15) REITS – Small Cap
Page 58 of 94
(4) US Fixed Income
(16) Global Equity
(5) High Yield Corp
(17) International Equity
(6) Global Fixed Income
(18) Develop Markets
and is based on the amount by which the Fund Advisory Fees paid
to UBS Asset Management (the “Fund Advisory Fee”) exceeds
twenty basis points (0.20%) after payment by UBS AM of the fee
to that Proprietary Fund's sub-advisor(s).
(7) Balanced
19) Emerging Markets
(8) Large Cap Equity
(20) Emerging Mkts Fixed Income
(9) Medium Cap Equity
(21) Hedge Funds
(10) Small Cap Equity
(22) Non Traditional
(11) US Equity – Other
(23) Commodities
(12) Convertibles
(24) Other
Portfolio Management Program and Advisor Allocation
Program Retirement Account Credits Related to UBS
Proprietary Funds. Plan and IRA Accounts invested in a UBS
Proprietary Fund in our Discretionary Programs will receive a credit
to the account of a portion of the Advisory Program Fee. The
credit varies by Fund and corresponds to the portion of the net
Fund Management Fees that UBS AM earns from a Proprietary
Fund after payments to third-party service providers or sub-
advisor(s).
If you instruct us to deduct the Program Fee from non-PACE
assets, we will do so by debiting first any available cash or non-
PACE eligible money market funds in your brokerage account. If
sufficient funds are not available, we will debit the fee from the
PACE assets as indicated above.
The credits for Plan and IRA Accounts in PACE Select and in
Discretionary Programs described above may change in the event
that: (i) UBS AM waives some or all of the Fund Management Fee
or UBS AM reimburses other expenses paid by a Proprietary Fund,
these credits may be reduced or eliminated; and/or (ii) UBS AM
receives any expense recoupment from a Proprietary Fund, these
reduction factors may be increased.
Debit balances in your accounts: We charge interest according
to our firm’s usual credit practices if payment of the Program
Fees result in a debit balance in your account. These charges
may include:
-
-
-
Compound interest
Increases in interest rates that reflect adjustments in the
base loan rate (as defined in our Statement of Credit
Practices)
Charges to cover the cost of the firm’s facilities and extra
services
Payment of the fees and any interest may be made at any UBS
office. Please refer to the UBS Statement of Credit Practices
for more information.
Transferred Shares of Mutual Funds and Alternative
Investments. You may have previously purchased mutual funds
and alternative investments with upfront sales charges through
UBS. If you decide to transfer and convert those shares to your
Advisory Accounts, we will exclude those shares from the
Program Fee for up to 12 months after you initially purchased
them. See section “Account Requirements and Types of Clients—
Mutual Fund Share Classes Available in the Programs—
Transferring Mutual Fund Shares and other assets into Your
Advisory Accounts” for more information.
Offsets, Credits and Rebates and Billing Exclusions Available
in Certain Programs
If the credits remain in your Account at the time of billing,
they will be subject to the Program Fee charged to your
Account; they are also included in the account’s average
daily balance for purposes of calculating quarterly fee
adjustments.
12b-1 Fees Offsets for Accounts in Discretionary Programs
and IC Accounts. In Discretionary Programs and in IC Accounts,
w e will reduce your Program Fee by the amount of any trailers
or 12b-1 fees associated with those Class A mutual fund shares
in your Account by depositing the 12b-1 fees and trailers into
your Account to reduce your Program Fee.
Billing on Cash and Cash Equivalents in Your Advisory
Accounts; Cash Concentration. Cash and cash equivalents in
your Advisory Accounts—including deposit balances in our UBS
Deposit Sweeps and money market funds, including the UBS
RM A Go ver nment Money Market Funds as well as the UBS
Government Money Market Funds, and deposits in the UBS Bank
USA Core Savings are subject to the Program Fees.
Treatment of 12b-1 Fees in Non-Discretionary Programs. In
PACE, Strategic Advisor and SWP, the 12b-1 fees for Class A
shares of domestic funds that remain in the Programs are retained
by UBS and are not paid to Financial Advisors. However, these
amounts are allocated to the individual branch offices as "non-
compensable revenue" (revenue that is not paid out to
Financial Advisors or Branch Office Managers) but are
considered as part of the overall profitability of the branch,
and as one of several components used in determining Branch
Office Manager compensation.
Treatment of Offshore Fund Trails: For offshore funds, trails
on the Class A shares are credited to clients in Strategic Advisor
and SWP. Clients in Discretionary Programs continue to receive a
credit of 12b-1 fees and trails for Class A shares held in
those Accounts.
Advisory Programs are not appropriate for clients who want to
maintain a high level of cash for extended periods of time. If you
hold high levels of cash in your Advisory Accounts, then you do so
against our recommendation and with the understanding that the
value of those investments, securities, deposits or sweep balances
will be included for the purposes of calculating the Program Fee,
resulting in a higher fee to UBS, our Financial Advisors as well as
additional compensation to our affiliates that sponsor or manage
such products or use those assets for other business purposes
including lending. You may hold excess cash in a brokerage
account without incurring the Program Fee.
The different treatment of 12b-1 fees for domestic funds and
offshore fund trails in the various Advisory Programs means UBS
receives higher compensation in connection with Class A shares of
domestic mutual funds held in Non-Discretionary Advisory
Accounts.
PACE Select Retirement Account Credits. Plan or IRA Accounts
in PACE Select receive a credit of a portion of the advisory
Program Fee. The credit varies among the PACE Select Portfolios
PACE, Strategic Advisor, PMP, IC, SWP and AAP have maximum
cash concentration guidelines. Those guidelines are for the
purpose of managing our conflicts and fiduciary obligations. They
are not the Firm’s recommended cash allocations for your
Account(s) and differ significantly from the cash allocation
percentages recommended by our CIO Research team and our
Strategic Asset Allocations. Instead, the guidelines are meant to
set a maximum cash threshold that, if not resolved within a
specified period of time, will result in termination of your
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Accounts from PACE, Strategic Advisor, PMP, IC, SWP and AAP.
For UBS-CAP only, US Treasury Bills are treated as cash. All other
advisory programs treat US Treasury Bills as fixed income
securities.
D. Trading and Execution Practices
Programs described in this Brochure do not permit principal trades
except in limited circumstances. For orders requiring agency
execution, UBS Securities LLC routes the orders to unaffiliated
execution centers for execution. In some instances, however, for
certain securities, we place OTC orders directly with unaffiliated
market makers for execution. All routing decisions are in
accordance with the principles of best execution. When principal
execution is permitted, the orders will be executed by UBS
Securities LLC as principal when there is an opportunity for
execution at a price equal to or superior to the price quoted on
the primary exchange. If that is not the case, the order will be
routed immediately to a different execution center for execution.
UBS Securities LLC may have a profit or loss when executing
orders as principal.
This section is a general summary of our execution practices as
they relate to Advisory accounts. You should note that in
order to comply with principal trade restrictions, orders for
most of our Advisory Programs are routed for agency execution.
Where permissible by applicable law, and after complying with
applicable regulatory requirements, we may route orders for our
Advisory clients for execution as principal.
If your account is managed by a third-party investment
manager, your manager is responsible for meeting its best
execution obligations to you, and you should review carefully
the manager’s trading for your account. UBS does not analyze
or evaluate whether your manager is meeting its best execution
obligations on trades executed for your account.
If we (or another investment manager managing the portfolio)
execute securities transactions through other broker-dealers, we
may choose brokers who provide us with research services if the
commissions charged by these broker-dealers are reasonable in
relation to the value of the brokerage and/or research services.
We do not try to place specific dollar value on the research or
brokerage services of any broker-dealer or to allocate the
relative costs or benefits of research, because we believe that
the research we receive is beneficial in fulfilling our overall
responsibilities to clients. Accordingly, research received for a
particular client’s brokerage commissions may not be used for
that client’s account or may be useful not only for that client
but for other clients’ accounts as well. Similarly, some clients
may benefit from the research received for the commissions of
other clients.
Best execution; Step Out TradesThird party investment
managers in meeting their best execution obligations may
determine that this can only be achieved by executing order flow
for the UBS Advisory Accounts they manage away from UBS
trading platform and then having the executing broker "Step
Out" the transactions to UBS for clearance & settlement purposes.
All trading in your accounts is at your risk including risks of
illiquidity and market volatility. In executing transactions for your
accounts, we will not be liable for losses caused directly or
indirectly by government restrictions, exchange controls,
exchange or market rulings, suspension of trading, acts of war,
strikes or other conditions beyond our control, including but not
limited to, extreme market volatility or trading volumes. Order
delays can create system capacity challenges for UBS
Financial Services Inc. and other market participants to
which we route orders. As a result, clients may suffer
market losses during periods of volatility in the price and
volume of a particular security when systems problems
result in the inability to place buy or sell orders. During
volatile markets UBS Financial Services Inc. will process
transactions unless market conditions, technology failures,
trading volumes or other matters beyond our control
preclude us from accurately processing transactions on the
order entry date. In those circumstances, we will process the
transactions as soon as practicable.
SMA Managers typically place transactions through UBS on an
unsolicited basis, as your SMA Manager deems appropriate. This
means that neither UBS nor our Financial Advisors provide advice
or recommendations to the SMA Managers regarding the
securities transactions they execute for your Advisory Accounts.
Execution Practices for transactions in your Advisory
Account(s)
In ACCESS, SWP and our Discretionary Programs, we provide all
managers in the programs with trading systems to administer,
maintain, reconcile and place orders with UBS for accounts
managed in those Programs.
In MAC and IC, SMA Managers have access to and utilize a
trading system we make available or elect to establish electronic
connectivity with their own trading system in order to
administer, maintain, reconcile and place orders with UBS for
accounts managed in the P rogram. Some MAC and IC managers
trade through our branch offices and place orders directly with
the Financial Advisor for your MAC or IC Account.
For the majority of our advisory orders for Advisory Accounts, we
use automated systems to route and execute orders for the
purchase and sale of securities for all Advisory Accounts.
Generally, an order is routed to an execution center that we
believe will provide the best execution. Certain large orders that
may require special handling may be routed to a market center
for execution via the telephone or in the case of large ETF
orders, an Authorized Participant for that ETF. We regularly
monitor existing and potential execution venues and may route
orders in exchange listed or OTC securities to other venues if
we believe that such routing is consistent with best execution
principles.
In order to fulfill our best execution obligation and help reasonably
determine the best market for a security (for non-step out flow)
we consider several factors, including, but not limited to (1) the
speed and certainty of execution, (2) the price and size
improvement, and (3) the overall execution quality.
Regardless of the Program or trading system used for investing,
your SMA Manager has the option to trade through us or with
other financial institutions, in accordance with the manager’s
obligation to achieve best execution on all trades for your
account. Although use of our trading systems is not required for
a manager to participate in our programs, doing so streamlines
trading and may encourage an SMA Manager to place trades for
program accounts with UBS instead of with other financial
institutions. However, since your Program Fee covers the costs of
trades executed with UBS but not any additional costs of trades
executed elsewhere, trading away from UBS may result in
increased trading costs to you. “Step out” trades refers to trades
Exchange-listed securities, NASDAQ and OTC Securities
We route the vast majority of our exchange-listed securities and
over- the- counter (OTC) orders to our affiliate, UBS Securities
LLC, for execution either principal or as agent, depending on
the circumstances and type of program involved. The Advisory
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AAP, we may batch orders for multiple AAP accounts, including
those of the Financial Advisor assigned to your Account and the
Financial Advisor’s related accounts.
executed by your SMA Manager away from UBS and on which we
are not the executing broker. These transactions are generally
traded from broker to broker and are usually cleared net,
without any commissions. However, under certain
circumstances, if your SMA Manager trades with another firm,
you may be assessed commissions or other trading related costs
(for example, mark-ups) by the other broker-dealer, which are
embedded into the price of the security allocated to your
account. Those fees are in addition to your Program Fee. For this
reason, your SMA Manager may find that placing trades with
UBS is often the most favorable trading option for you.
However, your manager may direct transactions to other broker-
dealers (for additional fees or sometimes, commissions) if your
manager decides that its best execution obligations so require.
Some managers have historically directed 100% of their trades
to outside broker- dealers.
Allocation of Securities and Opportunities Across Advisory
Accounts. Portfolio Managers and Financial Advisors in our
Discretionary Programs and SMA Managers have broad discretion
to trade their Advisory Accounts. There can be no assurance that
they can purchase or sell the same securities for all such Accounts
at the same time, or that they will aggregate your orders with
those of other clients and charge an average price per share or
unit and, when applicable, a pro-rata share of any fees. As a
result, you may receive different prices and executions for the
same securities as compared to other clients investing in the same
strategy, or, in the case of AAP, the same Target Allocation. In
addition, although we monitor performance and other
characteristics of Accounts, investment opportunities will not
necessarily be allocated among participating Accounts
proportional to their overall amount invested.
We request information from SMA Managers regarding step-out
details at least annually, but typically in the first quarter of each
year. We rely on the information provided by our SMA Managers
in preparing an annual client disclosure notice regarding step-outs.
Aggregation of trades for Advisory clients
Your SMA Manager is responsible for meeting its best
execution obligations to you, and to ensure that any
additional commissions or mark-ups assessed to you when
they decide to step-out trades to other broker- dealers are
consistent with their best execution obligations. If your
SMA Manager will not be executing transactions with UBS,
our SMA programs may not be an appropriate option if
your SMA Manager does not take action to ensure that
you do not incur additional costs.
We may aggregate transactions for Advisory clients for execution
under appropriate circumstances. This practice will not ordinarily
affect or otherwise reduce fees, commissions or other costs
charged to clients for these transactions but may provide price
improvement. Partial fill of a block security transaction may be
allocated among Advisory clients’ accounts randomly, pro rata,
or by some other equitable procedure adopted by the investment
manager. In certain cases, investment managers may use a
computer system that allocates purchases and sales transactions
either on a random or pro rata basis. In any case, clients may
pay higher or lower prices for securities than may otherwise
have been obtained.
UBS does not analyze or evaluate whether your SMA
Manager is meeting its best execution obligations on
trades executed for your account. See the description of our
execution and order routing practices above.
Account rebalancing and reallocations
Trade Allocation Practices in Discretionary Programs
Financial Advisors in the PMP, AAP and IC Programs are not
required to aggregate orders across the different strategies or
accounts they manage. However, in an effort to reduce market
impact and to obtain best execution, Financial Advisors in PMP
may purchase or sell securities in bulk (or orders may be
"batched") on the same day for some or all of the Program
accounts in the same strategy they manage.
Market conditions, technology failures, illiquid securities,
securities with limited redemption schedules, trading
volumes, the availability of funds and orderly purchase
and redemption procedures, and client imposed investment
restrictions may cause a delay in the processing and/or
completion of the rebalancing or reallocation. In addition,
we may adjust the date on which reviews and rebalancing
are done, if necessary, to ensure accurate processing of the
review or rebalancing. We may also adjust the rebalancing
date if UBS is in the process of reviewing its proprietary
capital market assumptions to avoid duplicative rebalancing
of accounts and ensure accurate and orderly processing.
Payment for order flow
Financial Advisors in AAP may process account changes and
reallocations for multiple accounts with the same Target
Allocation and investments at the same time. Orders for ETFs in
AAP are executed in four intervals per day. Orders for the same
ETFs processed at the same time will be aggregated and clients
will receive, or be charged, an average price per unit and, when
applicable, a pro-rata share of any fees.
Financial Advisors will not trade Accounts in the PMP Program
with Accounts in the AAP Program and orders for the same ETFs
across the Programs will not be aggregated.
Financial Advisors in PMP and AAP are permitted to trade in the
same securities they purchase for client accounts as long as they
trade their personal and related accounts in the same batch as
client accounts. Therefore, when executing orders in PMP, we may
batch orders for your Account with orders entered for other
Accounts in the same PMP strategy, including those of the
Financial Advisor assigned to your Account, and the Financial
Advisor's related accounts. Similarly, when executing orders in
At this time, we do not direct the order flow from our Advisory
Programs to specific destinations in exchange for payment for
that order flow. Payment for order flow is defined to include
any monetary payment, service, property or benefit that result
from remuneration, compensation or consideration to a broker-
dealer from another broker-dealer in return for routing customer
orders to that broker-dealer. We may route orders to electronic
communication networks (ECNs) or similar enterprises in which
we may have a minority ownership interest. If we direct orders
for our Advisory Program accounts to such a trading network,
we may receive indirect compensation from the ECN with
respect to these trades due to our ownership interest. These
arrangements will not cause you to pay additional fees directly
to us. We believe that, in the course of executing trades for
our clients, we may be able to obtain best execution through
other exchanges or trading networks. We may direct order flow
for these programs to trading networks in which we have an
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interest in the future if we determine that it is in the interest of
our clients and consistent with our obligations under applicable
laws.
We will notify you in writing of our decision to close any or all of
your accounts. We may close your accounts in our discretion,
including if you fail to adhere to program requirements.
Ending your participation in these programs as well as our
Advisory relationship is effective promptly after receipt
and processing of your request. Requests to terminate
your participation in a program (i.e., closing an account)
may be made in writing or verbally to your Financial
Advisor. We will confirm your instructions in writing and
notify you when we have terminated you from the program
and/or closed your account.
Transaction Reviews and Impact on Timing of Execution for
SWP, UBS Advice Portfolio and Advisor Allocation Program:
All account changes, including transactions in SWP’s Non-
Discretionary assets and AAP, and strategy and risk category
changes for the UBS Advice Portfolio Program are subject to a
systematic administrative review to ensure consistency with your
Target Allocation in SWP and AAP or your risk profile in the Advice
Portfolio Program. We will also ensure that any required
paperwork is complete. As a result, transactions are not executed
until after the administrative review is completed and allocation
changes may take several days to fully implement. Because prices
fluctuate during the trading day, the prices you receive at the time
the orders are executed may be better or worse than the prices at
the time you authorized the changes to your Advisory Accounts.
Termination of the Limited Power of Attorney in the IC Program
will terminate your IC relationship. However, if you are also
enrolled in the ACCESS, MAC, SWP, AAP, or Strategic Advisor
programs at UBS, termination of your IC relationship will not
automatically terminate your ACCESS, MAC, SWP, AAP, or
Strategic Advisor relationships.
Upon termination, you are responsible for the assets in your
account, and neither we nor your SMA Manager will have further
obligations to act or advise with respect to these assets.
Due to limitations in the trading system used to execute orders in
ETF shares in AAP, the purchase and sale orders in ETF shares
placed by Financial Advisors on behalf of unrestricted, discretionary
accounts enrolled in AAP will be executed on an aggregated basis
during intervals each trading day, generally expected to be
approximately four times each trading day. Although this interval
trade execution process may mean that an individual client may not
receive the very best execution of each and every trade in ETF
shares, this process is designed to ensure that clients are treated
equitably and fairly under the circumstances over time. As a result,
you may receive different prices and executions for the same
ETFs as compared to other clients following the same Target
Allocation.
E. Closing your Advisory Accounts;
Terminating your Agreement
Automatic Liquidation or Exchange of Certain Assets at
Account Termination
In certain cases, your assets may be invested in securities, special
mutual funds or shares of mutual funds or alternative investments,
including in some instances, Advisory share classes of mutual
funds or alternative investments that have been created for use
or are eligible exclusively within wrap fee Advisory Programs.
Some of these investments contain restrictions that limit their
use exclusively in wrap fee Advisory Programs, and may be
unavailable for purchase or holding outside of wrap fee
programs. When you end your participation in those strategies,
for any reason, that termination results in the automatic
redemption of such mutual fund shares or investments held by
or on your behalf—which, except in instances of tax-free
exchanges of Advisory share classes for another share class, will
have tax consequences for you. Unless the issuer requires
automatic redemption of these investments, you can
continue to hold them in your brokerage account.
When you select one of these types of strategies or
investments for your portfolio, you agree to the automatic
sale of the investments upon termination of your account and you
direct us to execute these sales. The compulsory conversion of
alternative investments may require additional documentation
from you. We recommend that you consider the potential impact
of such sales and restrictions carefully before participating in
these types of strategies.
PACE Program: Unless you direct us to sell your other
holdings, all other assets will continue to be invested in the
existing positions and will be held in a brokerage account, subject
to prospectus rules.
The Advisory Relationship Agreement is effective and deemed to
be accepted by UBS on the date your Account is coded as
"advisory" or for UBS-CAP and IC, the date the Agreement is
approved by the program manager for that Program. We will
send you confirmation of our acceptance and provide you with
a copy of our Form ADV Disclosure Brochure. You may cancel
that Agreement within five (5) business days from the day it is
accepted by UBS and receive a full refund of Program Fees.
Thereafter, either we or you may terminate the Advisory
Relationship Agreement at any time. Each time you establish a
new Advisory account with us, you may terminate that account
and receive a full refund of Program Fees within five (5)
business days from the day we send you confirmation of your
instruction. Closing one or more of your Advisory Accounts does
not terminate the Advisory Relationship Agreement if you
continue to have other types of Advisory Accounts with us. You
may terminate the Agreement only by notifying us in writing.
In addition, the Agreement will terminate if we receive
instructions to deliver all your Advisory assets to another firm,
effective promptly after receipt of those instructions.
Transactions in your Accounts Prior to Receipt of your
Termination Request: We are not responsible to you for the
purchase or sale of a security by your SMA Manager or your UBS
Portfolio Manager/Financial Advisor prior to our receipt of your
request to close your Advisory account. Any transactions
initiated by your SMA Manager and/or your UBS Portfolio
Manager/Financial Advisor on the day your account is closed will
be processed, if practicable.
For MAC and IC clients, termination of the Agreement with UBS
does not result in the termination of your agreement with your
MAC or IC investment manager. For MAC Accounts enrolled in
UBS-CAP with Limited FA Discretion Services we will notify
your MAC Manager of the account and investment
management agreement termination. However, for any other
MAC Account that is not part of Limited FA Discretion
Services UBS-CAP, you are responsible for terminating
your agreement with the MAC investment manager and
we do not assume responsibility for notifying the investment
manager.
Liquidation Requests: As part of your instructions to withdraw
from a P rogram, you may request us to liquidate your
securities. If you select or discontinue use of an SMA strategy
without consulting us, you are solely responsible for that
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decision. We do not restrict your access to the SMA strategy
during the selection process or thereafter.
We will liquidate the securities held in your Program account if
you specifically instruct us to do so when you tell us to close
your account. Liquidation of your account will depend upon
market conditions at the time and, absent unusual circumstances,
generally will be processed by the end of the next business
day after instructions have been received by us. However,
certain managers may take longer to liquidate securities for
terminated accounts, including high yield securities, convertible
securities and other less liquid securities.
made or, if no fees have been paid, a pro-rated fee will be
charged. If you terminate your account prior to the calculation of
a quarterly fee, a pro-rated fee based on the average daily balance
for the days the account was enrolled in the program will be
charged. If you terminate the account after the quarterly fee has
been charged, a pro-rated fee adjustment based on the average
daily balance for the period the account was enrolled in the
program will be assessed. If you provide liquidation instructions
when you terminate your Account, the refund will be
processed once liquidations are complete which is generally,
depending on market conditions, two to three business days
after receipt of your request.
If we are unable to obtain an agency bid on small bond or
illiquid fixed-income positions, after a number of attempts, we
will seek to sell the position on a principal basis if a bid is
available. This will allow us to comply with your liquidation
request in an expeditious manner.
Margin. For accounts with strategies that use margin, we may,
at our discretion, choose to cover all existing short positions
when you close your account. Those liquidations will be
executed in our capacity as broker-dealer and creditor and may,
as permitted by law, result in executions on a principal basis
in your Account.
Item 6. Portfolio Management Selection
and Evaluation
Security sales will be executed free of commission charges. Trade
confirmations for liquidating transactions executed on an agency
basis (i.e., by a third-party on behalf of UBS) will be sent to you
monthly or “bulked” if you selected that option for your
account.
A. Alternative Investments Due Diligence,
Review and Approval and Allocation of
Investment Opportunities
Unified Global Alternatives (UGA) is a new business unit
established in January 2025 through a collaboration between the
Global Wealth Management and Asset Management divisions of
UBS.
If your Account includes securities with limited liquidity or
redemption schedules, such as alternative investments, we may
be unable to sell those securities upon your request. When
processing your liquidation request in such cases, we will sell
readily marketable and otherwise unrestricted securities in your
account, leaving any securities that we are not able to sell in
your account. Once the account is closed, you may have to
wait for specific liquidity windows and process your liquidation
request through procedures that are specific to the illiquid
investment you own. In addition, an alternative investment
fund may hold back a portion of redemption proceeds,
usually in the range of 10%, to cover accrued expenses,
contingencies and liabilities.
UGA combines the Global Alternatives Investment Solutions teams
within Global Wealth Management with Asset Management’s
Hedge Fund Solutions, Real Estate and Private Markets Multi-
Manager businesses along with their respective sales and
distribution support teams. UGA is designed to serve the needs of
clients from both divisions.
UBS Financial Services Inc. the sponsor of the advisory programs
described in this Brochure is part of the Global Wealth
Management (GWM) Division.
Brokerage Relationship: You should note that terminating
your account from an Advisory Program will end our
investment Advisory relationship with you as it pertains to that
account and will cause your account to be converted to and
designated as a brokerage account only. Your Investment
Advisory Relationship Agreement will no longer apply to that
account and it will be governed solely by the terms and
conditions of your brokerage account agreement.
Closing your account will not affect your obligation to pay
balances due on the account.
Prior to the creation of UGA, GWM (including UBS-FS) managed
an open architecture platform of alternative investments, while
the AM areas which are part of UGA, structured and managed
proprietary alternative investments that could be offered to
brokerage and advisory clients on the UBS-FS Platform. AM funds
underwent investment and operational due diligence on an arm’s-
length basis and the respective business units operated separately
without common revenue targets. Not approving an AM fund for
the UBS-FS platform had no impact on the overall goals or
compensation of the GWM team.
The creation of UGA gives rise to new conflicts of interest as it
brings together the formerly independent teams with a common
goal to grow the alternative investment franchise, increase
revenues and gain better value for clients. GWM has delegated
initial and ongoing due diligence responsibilities, negotiation of
placement agreements and onboarding of alternatives investments
for the GWM platforms to UGA.
Estate Administration Instructions: Upon our receipt of
notice of your death, we will cease management of the Account
without liquidating the investments (except for assets that can
be held only in wrap fee advisory programs as explained in the
section titled Automatic Liquidation of Certain Assets at
Account Termination). Your account will no longer be enrolled
in the Program while instructions from a court appointed
executor/ administrator regarding the disposition of your assets
is pending. However, for trust accounts, the death, removal or
resignation of a trustee—including the settlor/trustee of a
revocable living trust—will not result in termination unless the
substitute fiduciary/trustee requests termination. For the MAC
program, we do not assume responsibility for notifying the MAC
SMA Manager of the client’s death and we do not require the
SMA Manager to follow any particular procedures.
Program Fees for Closed Accounts:
Upon termination, a pro-rated refund of any prepaid fees will be
To address the conflicts of interest, UGA has adopted policies,
procedures that require (1) the consistent and objective
application of due diligence requirements for all funds approved
for the GWM platforms; (2) revenue targets for the business teams
to be product type neutral so as to not favor proprietary products
vs. non-proprietary products; and (3) the allocation of capacity and
investment opportunities among GWM and AM clients to be
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subject to a fair and reasonable process that complies with
fiduciary obligations. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in instances
in which the fund capacity allocated to UBS is limited (for
example, private markets), fiduciary portfolios will be given priority
access versus non-fiduciary accounts.
B. Selecting an SMA Manager; Our Investment
Manager Evaluation Process
Manager Research Process
We select investment managers and strategies to participate in
UBS programs in order to offer our clients the choice among a
range of investment styles and products, such as:
IMA Review of CIO Research Based Investment Strategies.
We may work with an established investment manager, either
third-party or affiliated within UBS, to construct an
investment strategy to fulfil a specific investment objective. The
strategy may be developed for purposes of fulfilling a platform
need or other demand, such as the implementation of a UBS Chief
Investment Office (CIO) research theme. The research conducted
for UBS CIO based strategies will take into consideration the CIO
influence within the strategy. To the extent a strategy is specifically
based on UBS CIO content, a CIO model, or UBS Strategic Asset
Allocation Models (SAAs) we will not conduct research on the CIO
content or the Asset Allocation process, as that research is
conducted and provided by UBS CIO or the UBS Wealth
Management USA Asset Allocation Committee, respectively. For
example, to the extent the strategy is based on SAAs or other
sector allocation guidance, the research would include focus on
the manager's security selection expertise. To the extent that CIO
provides guidance regarding specific security selection in the
strategy and the manager's goal is to implement the CIO strategy
primarily as published by CIO, the research may be focused
towards other aspects, such as the manager’s execution and
implementation expertise, rather than security selection.
Value
Growth
Growth and income
Income
Contrarian
Tactical asset allocation
Strategic asset allocation (through multi-style accounts)
Municipals
Global
International
Convertible bonds
Long/short investing
Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
Preferred Securities
MLPs
IMA Review of Models and Model Providers. We may work
with an established manager, either third-party or affiliated within
UBS, to construct an investment model (Model Provider) to fulfill a
specific investment objective. In these instances, we also will work
with an Overlay Manager to develop a separately managed
account (SMA) strategy based on an investment model maintained
by the Model Provider. It is expected that the Overlay Manager will
generally follow the model, however, the Overlay Manager will
have ultimate discretion regarding selection and timing of SMA
strategy trades.
Our Investment Manager Analysis Group conducts a thorough
review of each SMA Manager that participates in our ACCESS,
SWP, AAP, IC and MAC Researched programs. The Investment
Manager Analysis Group may first identify a pool of potential
candidates by using public and proprietary databases and
industry contacts of the Investment Manager Analysis Group or
others at UBS (including Financial Advisors). We also consider
those investment managers who approach the Investment
Manager Analysis Group directly on an unsolicited basis.
General screens such as assets under management, portfolio
manager longevity, investment style, and risk- adjusted
performance are often used to narrow the initial pool of
candidates.
Research will be conducted on the Model Provider investment
strategy as well as the Overlay Manager identified to construct the
SMA strategy for our programs. The Model Provider will often
utilize only their proprietary products, such as mutual funds or
exchange trades funds, when selecting investments for the model.
The Model Provider receives compensation for investments in their
proprietary products and therefore has an incentive to include
them in their model(s). By doing so, the Model Provider oftentimes
is not considering alternative products from other firms that may
have features including cost and fee structures that may be
preferable as compared to the Model Provider’s proprietary
products.
The Model Provider may also have trading or other policies that
favor the Model Provider’s proprietary products and strategies
they manage on a discretionary basis over the SMA strategy on
the UBS platform. The respective Form ADV disclosure brochures
for the Overlay Manager and the Model Provider will provide
additional important information regarding these
arrangements.
As of the date of this brochure, our selection procedures include
an examination of performance, performance drivers,
investment philosophy and process, and may include interviews
with portfolio managers, principals and key staff members, a
review of trading practices and portfolio performance, and other
criteria. We may also use third parties to help gather and
analyze information used in the review process. We review
SMA Managers on a periodic basis to confirm and validate our
earlier conclusions. That process may include contact with the
portfolio managers and key staff members as well as ongoing
performance monitoring.
MAC Eligible Investment Strategies
Some SMA Managers in turn, delegate their management
responsibilities to affiliated and non-affiliated sub-advisors. All
SMA strategies and associated strategies in our programs and
their sub-advisors, with the exception of those managers
categorized as Managed Accounts Consulting (MAC) Eligible,
are subject to the initial and ongoing due diligence process.
We provide different levels of SMA Manager due diligence and
reviews in our MAC program. The level of due diligence and
review we undertake varies depending on whether the
Manager's strategy is considered MAC Researched or MAC
Eligible.
Our review process leverages resources of third party research
firms and data providers to gather and analyze information
regarding the SMA Managers and strategies. The final review
and decision to include the Manager/Strategy in the UBS
researched programs continues to be conducted by the UBS
Investment Manager Analysis Group.
Unlike the MAC Researched universe of SMA Managers
strategies that are subject to the review process outlined above,
MAC Eligible strategies are used as an accommodation for either
newly recruited Financial Advisors whose clients use managers
not on our researched list; or clients who wish to join the MAC
program and may want to retain a previously hired manager's
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SMA Manager Searches. To help you select an SMA Manager,
at your request, we may provide information from third party or
proprietary databases regarding different strategies. We do not
verify or guarantee this information, including past performance
information, which may not be calculated on a uniform or
consistent basis. Our inclusion of an SMA strategy in the
database or in a manager strategy search report is not an
endorsement or recommendation of that SMA strategy by us.
strategy not on the investment researched list (unsolicited
strategies). The Investment Manager Analysis Group's review of
MAC Eligible strategies is very limited in scope and does not
provide enough information for us to express an opinion
regarding the investment capabilities of those strategies. The
limited review is performed once and provides a broad
overview of the manager’s organizational structure and history,
together with information about their assets under
management, net worth and regulatory record, and is not
updated. UBS does not make initial or ongoing
recommendations on MAC Eligible strategies to existing
and/or prospective clients.
Selecting an SMA Manager
SMA Manager Terminations from our Researched List and
Program Offerings: We retain the authority to remove any
SMA Manager, Model Provider or Overlay Manager or strategy
from our programs and from the researched list at any time.
Circumstances under which we may terminate or discontinue a
manager or strategy include (but are not limited to) persistent
underperformance, significant departure from the Manager’s
stated investment discipline, or material changes in the
Manager’s organization.
With the exception of MAC Eligible strategies (see above), our
SMA Programs, AAP and Unified Managed Accounts Program
offer you the portfolio management services of a select, pre-
screened group of SMA strategies, Model Providers and Overlay
Manager. Our role is to identify managers that have been
examined and deemed suitable for your investment needs.
If you participate in our ACCESS, MAC, AAP and Strategic
Wealth Portfolio programs, we will notify you in advance
if your SMA strategy or Model strategy is terminated from
the program and/or from our researched list. In AAP, your
Financial Advisor is authorized to hire, change and remove
SMA strategies on your behalf. If you have selected the
POA for Limited FA Discretion Services option in UBS-CAP
or an LPOA in IC, your Financial Advisor is authorized to
hire, change and remove strategies in the ACCESS and
MAC Programs on your behalf.
Your Financial Advisor will review the results of the Risk Profile
Questionnaire with you (in the MAC program, your Financial
Advisor will review with you the information provided in your
account application)—after which, in ACCESS, MAC, IC and SWP,
you will select your SMA strategies for your accounts from a
group of SMA strategies and model portfolios approved for
the SMA, AAP and/or Unified Managed Accounts Program by us.
During your selection process, you have the option of
choosing managers who may or may not be affiliated with us.
In AAP, or if you have selected the POA for Limited FA
Discretion Services option in UBS-CAP or an LPOA in IC, your
Financial Advisor is authorized to undertake these actions on your
behalf.
SMA Managers, Model Providers and Overlay Managers in our
Advisory programs are asked to contribute to our overall training
and education costs for Financial Advisors in our managed
accounts programs. Neither contribution towards these
educational expenses, nor lack thereof, is considered as a
factor in analyzing or determining whether a Manager should
be included or should remain in our Advisory programs.
See ”Participation or Interest in Client Transactions— Additional
Sources of Compensation from SMA Managers or Vendors
whose products we may recommend to Our Advisory Clients—
Contributions to Training and Education Expenses.”
Standards Used to Calculate Portfolio Manager
Performance.
While we offer a number of different investment strategies for
your wealth management needs, we do not offer every
investment manager or strategy available in the marketplace.
Instead, we provide you with access to those managers who
have been approved by our firm and, in our professional
judgment, are appropriate to help you pursue your financial
goals. We cannot guarantee, however, that the managers
presented will be the best available managers either in the
industry or the best available managers among the managers
included in our firm-sponsored programs.
Performance Composites. We may make available profiles of
selected investment strategies that include past performance
information. Profiles are not available for every Portfolio
Manager, SMA Manager or strategy available in the Programs.
We believe that composite performance information is
meaningful. Composites that we provide may be prepared by
us, or, in the case of SMA Managers, by the managers.
If we decide, in our sole discretion, that circumstances make a
change necessary or appropriate, you authorize UBS to delegate
management discretion of your account to a Model Provider or
Overlay Manager and/or to remove or replace your SMA Manager,
for all or a part of your ACCESS or SWP Account, and to hold the
existing assets in your Account until we receive instructions from
you. We will notify you in advance of any change in your SMA
manager, Model Provider or Overlay Manager unless the change is
in your AAP account or you have granted discretion to us to hire,
fire and change such strategies under the terms of UBS-CAP or IC.
Your continued acceptance of services under the Account
Agreement will constitute your approval and agreement of any
replacement SMA Manager, Overlay Manager or Model Provider.
For the PMP Program, we calculate a strategy’s composite
performance based on standards drawn from industry sources—
taking the following into account:
A return calculated using an asset weighted methodology in
PMP
Cash flows into and out of the accounts
Monthly valuations
Income accrued on individual fixed-income securities
For strategies that are billed based on the mandate amount, the
returns are calculated based on the net yield generated in relation
to the mandate amount and not the actual account value.
Diversification. Unless the asset allocation or investment
strategy you selected is identified as a fully diversified strategy
(for example, diversified across all asset classes), your
investment in a particular strategy should only be viewed as a
portion of your overall portfolio. It should not, however, be
considered as a diversified asset allocation plan either overall or
within a single asset class/style.
The performance reflected in the composite information includes
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Managers that we have researched, based on our understanding
of their strategy, their investment style and our research. Those
benchmarks are used for researched SMA Managers in ACCESS,
AAP, MAC, IC and SWP. MAC Eligible strategies are assigned
broad equity, fixed income, or a blend of both broad equity and
fixed income market indexes (e.g., S&P 500, Russell 1000 Value,
etc.) that are readily recognized, but cannot be used for direct
performance comparisons against your Accounts and the SMA
Manager’s investment strategy.
all accounts managed in the relevant style at least one full
calendar month for the PMP Program. We eliminate accounts
that impose restrictions. For this reason, and because past
performance is not indicative of future results, you should not
consider the performance shown in the composite as
representative of the historical performance of the manager or
the performance you should expect in the future for either a
restricted or unrestricted account. Accounts may be excluded
from the composite if there appears to be a discrepancy in the
report or if they contain material client directed constraints.
The performance comparisons for SMA Managers may differ
from those presented by your SMA Managers in their materials.
In the IC Program, your performance report may reflect an
additional benchmark, as selected by you in consultation with your
Financial Advisor.
For SMA Managers, we use the managers’ performance
information in strategy profile(s) and in investment proposals for
the ACCESS, AAP and SWP programs. Strategy profiles for the
MAC Researched universe of managers are available upon
request. We do not provide strategy profiles for strategies that are
available solely in the IC Program. Details regarding the
performance composites and the sources of performance
information are included in the profiles we make available.
Discretionary Programs: We also assign comparative
benchmarks to the strategies managed by Portfolio Managers in
PMP and Advice Portfolio. In AAP, performance reviews will
illustrate a benchmark that is reflective of the account’s Target
Allocation.
Non-Discretionary Programs: Due to the non-discretionary
nature of the Strategic Advisor program, performance reviews
will also illustrate the historical performance of certain broad
equity and fixed-income market indexes (e.g., S&P 500,
Russell 1000 Value, etc.).
While we believe that information provided by managers is
accurate, we do not independently verify or guarantee it. While a
manager's investment process for a strategy is consistently
applied across all UBS Programs where the strategy is offered,
performance results achieved in each UBS Program will differ
among programs, and from the performance shown. In
addition, we cannot assure you that any performance
information provided has been calculated on a uniform or
consistent basis. As such, the performance shown should not be
considered actual UBS Program account performance and
should not be relied upon in making a decision to select a
strategy or continue to have an account managed in a strategy.
As with other investments, past performance does not
guarantee or indicate future results.
Depending upon the composition of your portfolio and your
investment objectives, the broad market indexes used with
MAC Eligible strategies and i n Strategic Advisor may not be an
appropriate measure for comparison purposes, and as such, are
represented for illustration only. Your portfolio holdings and
performance may vary significantly from the index.
In the PACE and SWP programs, performance reviews will
illustrate a benchmark that is reflective of your Target Allocation.
a. Performance Reviews of SMA Managers,
Portfolio Managers and Financial Advisors in our Advisory
Programs
We provide annual performance reviews for Accounts in our
Programs whose assets are held at our firm (we provide
quarterly performance reviews for accounts enrolled in IC, MAC-
Eligible strategies and Options Overlay Strategies). The
performance reviews display the performance of your Account,
Portfolio Manager and/or SMA Manager compared to certain
indices. These benchmarks are shown for informational purposes
only.
SMA Managers in our SMA, Unified Managed Account and
AAP Programs: The performance of SMA strategies is part of
the ongoing due diligence performed by the Investment
Manager Analysis Group. Performance for the SMA strategies is
calculated as described above. We do not review or evaluate
performance for MAC Eligible strategies.
The standards applied to the performance review of third
party managers varies significantly from the review of
performance applicable to Financial Advisors in the Portfolio
Management Program. Those differences can result in
situations in which an SMA Manager is placed on hold or
terminated from participating in our Programs, while
Financial Advisors in the PMP Program remain available for
investment. The different standards of review create a
conflict of interest in our recommendation of the strategies
managed by our Financial Advisors.
The comparisons relate to the historical performance of market
indexes (e.g., S&P 500, Russell 1000 Value, etc.) and not the
performance of actual investments. Our selection and use of
benchmarks for comparison purposes is not a promise or
guarantee that your Account will meet or exceed the stated
benchmark. UBS identifies benchmark references from among
indexes for which the firm has licensing rights and does not
consider the entire universe of potential indexes. The benchmarks
we use can differ from those listed in the prospectuses and other
offering or marketing materials used by the funds/managers.
Please note that the investment strategy in your Account(s) is
not restricted to the securities in the benchmark. Also, indexes
are not available for direct investment and represent an
unmanaged universe of securities that does not take into
account advisory or transaction fees, all of which will reduce
overall return.
UBS Asset Management Portfolio Managers in UBS Advice
Portfolio. Until the closure of the UBS Advice Portfolio Program
on or about June 13, 2025, the UBS Asset Management team
continuously oversees the UBS Advice Portfolio Program
investment portfolios for many metrics, including performance.
On an ongoing basis, UBS Financial Services, as sponsor of the
Program, will provide an annual review of the performance of the
portfolios managed by UBS Asset Management. The review will
include a review of performance, identified issues, and any other
relevant information, including information provided by the
Investment Manager Analysis Group regarding any material
change that may arise in connection with their review of Asset
Management.
Benchmark Selection for Performance Evaluation
SMA Programs: We assign index benchmarks to those SMA
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Portfolio Managers in the PMP Programs: On a quarterly
basis, local branch management reviews PMP account
performance and risk as compared to its assigned benchmark.
They can manage assets on a discretionary basis in the PMP,
AAP and IC Programs.
They can assist clients with the development of asset allocations
offered in the Advisory Programs, or create an asset allocation on
clients’ behalf in AAP.
They can recommend specific securities on a non-discretionary
basis in PACE, Strategic Advisor and the Non-Discretionary
Assets in SWP.
Financial Advisors in the AAP Program: We do not calculate,
review or publish the performance of individual Financial
Advisors in AAP. We calculate the performance of your Account
in the AAP Program and provide those reviews to you on an
annual basis.
Generally, we require our personnel who provide investment
Advisory services to clients to have a college degree or securities
industry experience.
Financial Advisors in our Non-Discretionary Programs and
SWP: Given the non-discretionary nature of the PACE,
Strategic Advisor and SWP programs, we do not calculate,
review or publish the performance of individual Financial
Advisors in those Programs. We calculate the performance of
your Accounts in those Programs and provide those reviews to
you on an annual basis.
C. UBS or UBS Affiliates and Employees Acting as
Portfolio Managers.
UBS Affiliated Managers and UBS Financial Services Inc.
investment portfolios and research exceptions for
proprietary strategies.
Most of our Financial Advisors are registered as broker- dealer
and investment adviser representatives. With the exception of
the PMP, AAP and IC Programs, we do not impose special
requirements such as education or qualification requirements
(other than the required registrations) for Financial Advisors
who participate in our Programs. Some Programs require that
Financial Advisors fulfill certain internal training requirements in
order to undertake certain activities. In addition, all FAs are
required to complete a mandatory web-based training course on
UBS Advisory Solutions in order to familiarize them with the firm's
advisory offerings, as well as some of the key risks associated with
the business.
We offer the services of UBS affiliated managers. We also offer
the services of Financial Advisors as portfolio managers in PMP
and AAP, and UBS Asset Management in the UBS Advice Portfolio
Program.
While we seek to apply the same review criteria to all
researched managers available in our SMA and Unified Managed
Accounts Programs, certain UBS affiliated strategies and UBS
discretionary investment portfolios, may not have been screened
or approved as researched strategies at the time they were
initially included in the SMA Programs.
We will provide to you a Brochure Supplement which includes
information regarding your Financial Advisor’s education,
business experience, disciplinary history, outside business
activities, their compensation and supervision. You may also
obtain information about your Financial Advisor, their licenses,
educational background, employment history, and if they have
had any problems with regulators or received serious complaints
from investors through the FINRA BrokerCheck service available
from FINRA at http://www.finra.org or from the Securities and
Exchange Commission at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
You can also contact your state securities regulator through the
North American Securities Administrators Association‘s website
at http://www.nasaa.org and request information about our firm
and your Financial Advisor.
You may receive Brochure Supplements and other disclosure
documents for your SMA Managers and their investment
management personnel directly from your SMA Manager.
Portfolio Manager Nomination Criteria for the PMP, AAP
and IC Programs.
For example, for our discretionary investment portfolios, while
the Firm itself would satisfy the general research screens, an
investment portfolio on its own, may fail to meet several
research screens, including: total assets under management,
length of a performance track record with client assets, and a
requirement of having a minimum number of accounts that are
normally imposed on third- party managers. In these cases,
however, we may either research these managers subsequent to
being included in our SMA Program or we may monitor them
periodically to ensure that they meet specific criteria.
The manager research process described above does not
apply to our Financial Advisors participating in our
Advisory Programs, including AAP; UBS Asset
Management as sub-advisor in the Advice Portfolio
Program; and the PMP Program Portfolio Managers.
Financial Advisors are nominated for participation in the PMP, AAP
and IC Programs by members of their Branch management team.
The respective Program Management team reviews each
nomination and ensures applicants meet minimum stated criteria
before being admitted to the Programs.
To the extent PMP Portfolio Managers will promote a PMP
strategy as sustainable (see “Important information about
sustainable investments” section below), the Investment Manager
Analysis (IMA) group conducts a limited review of the strategy
solely to determine whether it meets our standards and criteria for
sustainable investments.
PMP Program: Applicants are generally required to have at
least f i v e years of industry experience (for PMP), meet certain
asset thresholds, and hold either the Chartered Financial
Analyst designation, the Certified Portfolio Manager
designation, or have completed the firm’s PMP’s Portfolio
Management Training requirement. These requirements are
waived under certain circumstances including recruitment
situations where a waiver of the educational requirement is
granted if the Financial Advisor has approved portfolio
management credentials from a major competitor firm or
relevant professional experience.
Education and Business Standards for Financial Advisors
Participating in Our Advisory Programs.
Our Financial Advisors can participate in our Advisory Programs
in a variety of ways:
They can assist clients in the selection of SMA strategies in
ACCESS, MAC, SWP, and IC non-discretionary Programs or select
strategies on clients’ behalf in AAP and the discretionary version of
IC.
AAP: AAP financial advisors must complete the AAP Portfolio
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Management Training requirement prior to using the program.
These requirements are waived for existing PMP Portfolio
Managers, Financial Advisors with the CIMA designation, or under
certain circumstances including recruitment situations where a
waiver of the educational requirement is granted if the Financial
Advisor has approved credentials from a major competitor firm or
relevant professional experience.
corporation. UBS Americas Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of
UBS Americas Holding LLC, which in turn is a wholly owned
subsidiary of UBS AG, a Swiss stock corporation whose business
purpose is the operation of a bank, with a scope of operations
extending to all types of banking, financial, advisory, trading and
service activities in Switzerland and abroad. UBS AG is in turn a
wholly owned subsidiary of UBS Group AG, the holding company
of the UBS Group.
2. Advisory Services
The advisory services we offer are described in Item 4 “Services,
Fees and Compensation” of this brochure. We also offer:
IC Institutional Consultant Nomination Criteria. Financial
Advisors who provide Institutional Consulting services are given
UBS firm designations as either Institutional Consultants or Senior
Institutional Consultants. Senior Institutional Consultants and
Institutional Consultants are typically required to have at least five
years of industry experience and meet certain client asset
thresholds at UBS. Senior Institutional Consultants have either the
CIMA4 designation from the Investments & Wealth Institute or the
CFA5 designation from the CFA Institute, while Institutional
Consultants have either the CIMA, the CFA, or both the
Investment Management Essentials certification and the
Endowment and Foundation Consultant certification, both of
which are issued by Investments and Wealth Institute (IWI).
Waivers of the education requirements may be granted for
Financial Advisors who have sufficient industry experience. The
timeframe to meet the requirements may be extended under
certain circumstances including recruitment situations. Certain
Financial Advisors holding other firm designations may also
provide institutional consulting services.
Financial Planning Services: We offer financial planning for a
fee as an investment advisory service. These services are
separate and distinct from our brokerage services and other
investment advisory services. Our Financial Planning Services are
tailored to each client to provide a comprehensive review of
client goals and financial planning topics, which may vary based
on a client’s level of wealth and the complexity of their
planning needs: Our financial planning services do not include
initial or ongoing advice regarding specific securities or other
investments, or implementation of the financial plan. For more
information, please discuss with your Financial Advisor and
request the Form ADV Disclosure Brochure for our Financial
Planning Services.
Retirement Plan Consulting Services and Retirement Plan
Guided Solutions. We offer advisory services to defined
contribution retirement plans for an asset- based, or fixed fee, or
a combination thereof. Services may include, but are not limited
to, helping a client establish or amend investment policies and
objectives; assistance determining the number and type of
investment alternatives to be offered to plan participants;
developing criteria to select and evaluate service providers;
providing performance evaluations; and providing education
consulting, which can include a variety of educational seminars
with subjects such as investing, saving for retirement, distribution
planning and transition, and enrollment seminars. Unless a
discretionary mandate is agreed to, all investment decisions are
made by the client. For more information, please discuss with your
Financial Advisor and request the Form ADV Disclosure Brochure
for our Retirement Plan Consulting Services and Retirement Plan
Guided Solutions programs.
Recommendation of Affiliated/proprietary SMA Managers,
Securities and Investments: We may, after a review of your
investment needs and available options, recommend, or in our
Discretionary Programs select or purchase on your behalf,
affiliated/proprietary money managers or securities.
Affiliated/proprietary managers are not subject to the same
research standards as third-party managers. Recommending or
selecting proprietary or affiliated products and managers raises
a conflict of interest, because retaining those entities or
purchasing those securities will result in increased compensation
to UBS and/or a UBS affiliate. If you or we select SMA
Managers, funds, products or other investment vehicles that are
managed or sponsored by us or our affiliates, the management
fees will be payable to either UBS or the affiliated entities. Your
Account’s actual investment return will be reduced by those
fees, plus any related expenses and the Program Fees. Please
review the applicable prospectus and offering documents
carefully for a detailed description of the additional fees
associated with these products.
3. How we tailor accounts for clients.
We address the conflicts of interest presented by the
recommendation of affiliated managers and application of
different research standards by disclosing our practices to you to
ensure you make fully informed decisions in your selection of
investment strategies.
See “Services, Fees and Compensation—Advisory Programs—
Compensation to Financial Advisors and UBS Portfolio Managers
in Our Discretionary Programs”
D. Advisory Business
1. Corporate Structure
We tailor Advisory accounts to the specific investment
objectives, risk tolerance and investment preferences of our
clients in the following ways:
Investment strategies offered in our PMP program, MAC
Researched and ACCESS programs are assigned a risk category
rating. The responses to Questionnaires in each of these
Programs are used to determine an appropriate manager or
strategy that aligns to the client's stated risk tolerance. The risk
category ratings were developed to approximate investor
expectations of risk and reward, and to reflect the preferences
of a range of investors from conservative to aggressive.
Investment strategies within a particular risk category may
employ a variety of investment approaches but are expected to
share similar return and volatility characteristics over the long
term. There can be no assurance that the stated investment
UBS Financial Services Inc. was organized as a Delaware
corporation on June 30, 1969. UBS Financial Services Inc. became
a registered investment adviser on January 22, 1971. It is a
wholly owned subsidiary of UBS Americas Inc., a Delaware
5 CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are trademarks owned by the
CFA Institute.
4 CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investments & Wealth
Institute in the United States of America and worldwide.
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All investments carry the risk of loss. Please review the
documents, profiles and investment proposals we provide to you
when you establish accounts in the Programs for a description
of the specific risks associated with the investment strategy you
selected.
We obtain information from various sources, including:
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objectives of the investment strategies will be realized.
Non-Discretionary, Unified Managed Accounts Program and
AAP: Our asset allocations are based on a proprietary process
which offers several possible asset allocation models. As in the
case of our other Programs, a client’s responses to their
Program Questionnaire are used to determine an appropriate
asset allocation. Clients with the advice of their Financial Advisors
in Non-Discretionary Programs and Unified Managed Accounts
Program, may tailor their allocations to their needs from the
recommended asset allocation as long as they are within the
internally determined risk bands. Financial Advisors in AAP
establish an asset allocation aligned with the internally determined
risk bands based on the client’s risk profile.
Financial publications
Company press releases and securities filings
Research and due diligence material prepared by UBS
Financial Services Inc., our affiliates and third parties
Rating or timing services
-
Regulatory and self-regulatory reports
-
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Third party data providers and research consultants
- Outside consultants, experts and other professionals
- Other public sources
The economy
Industries
We may change, at our sole discretion, the number and types of
asset allocation models offered in our Programs. To better
personalize the investment strategy selected, clients in Programs
with SMA Managers and in Discretionary Programs may impose
reasonable investment restrictions on the management of their
accounts. (See “Account Requirements and Types of Clients—
Investment Restrictions & Investment Policy Statements” above.)
Statistical information
4. Performance Fees and Side by Side
Management
Accounting and tax law interpretations
Political developments
Credit analysis
Risk measurement analysis
Performance analysis
In addition, we receive a broad range of research and
information about the following:
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- Groups of securities and individual companies
-
- Market data
-
-
-
-
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- Other information that may affect the economy or
securities prices
Research can be received through various channels, including:
- Written reports
-
Telephone contacts and personal meetings with research
analysts
Economists
We offer our own portfolio management services and those of
our Financial Advisors in our Portfolio Management Program
and Advisor Allocation Program.
Financial Advisors in the PMP and AAP Programs may also
have clients with accounts in brokerage or other Advisory
programs. The services and management of those accounts
differ. Due to the discretionary nature of the PMP and AAP
Programs, Financial Advisors in these programs should place
transactions for their discretionary clients’ accounts prior to
soliciting the same securities in their non-discretionary advisory
and brokerage clients’ accounts. PMP and AAP Financial
Advisors are also subject to an internal personal trading policy.
-
- Government representatives
-
Corporate and industry spokespersons
We may receive research, model portfolios and asset allocation
services generated by UBS, UBS affiliates, third parties, by or
through brokers or dealers or investment advisers, including
research, model portfolios and asset allocation advice purchased
through economic arrangements with such parties.
UBS Financial Services Inc. does not impose performance fees in
our wrap fee advisory programs. UBS Financial Services does not
serve as investment manager to hedge funds, private equity or
similar types of investment vehicles. However, as a distributor
of alternative investments, including hedge funds and fund of
funds, UBS receives a portion of the performance fees charged
by the investment adviser to those funds. Financial Advisors who
sell those alternative investments, including those investments
held in Advisory accounts, receive a portion of those fees.
5. Methods of Analysis, Investment Strategies
and Risk of Loss
Our Investment Advisory services generally rely on a variety of
fundamental, technical, quantitative and statistical tools and
valuation methodologies. As a result of these different
methodologies employed, technical or quantitative research
recommendations may differ from, or be inconsistent with,
fundamental opinions for the same security. We may use
computer technology to more readily display these factors and
to create asset allocation recommendations. Personnel involved
in providing Investment Advisory services may have access to
specialists or other information for all major industry groups.
Our Financial Advisors and clients have access to research from
UBS CIO Americas Wealth Management (CIO A WM), which is
part of UBS Wealth Management USA. CIO A WM is designed
specifically for use by private clients and our Financial
Advisors. As a result, subject to certain exceptions, we expect
that product areas in UBS Financial Services Inc. will incorporate
insights and economic perspectives of CIO A WM, where
appropriate, in their products and services.
As a result of a reorganization in January 2023, the product and
sales support areas for investment advisory programs, financial
planning, insurance & annuities, mutual funds and sustainable
investing were combined with the independent research areas of
Wealth Management US Chief Investment Office under the
leadership of Solita Marcelli, Chief Investment Officer of Global
Wealth Management Americas. In order to address the conflicts
of interest that arise as a result of having independent research
and investment product organizations under the same leadership,
we have implemented policies and procedures to ensure the
continued separation of the research function as required by
applicable rules and regulations, including, but not limited to,
ensuring that no research personnel, including Ms. Marcelli, is
subject to, accountable for, or compensated on sales or revenues
key performance indicators for the product areas within the
combined CIO & Investment Solutions organization.
Clients and Financial Advisors also have access to certain
categories of UBS Investment Research (INV Research) that is
issued by UBS Investment Bank. Because both sources of
research reflect the different assumptions, views and analytical
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methods of the analysts who prepared them, there may be a
difference of opinions between CIO A WM and INV Research.
Neither source is necessarily more reliable than the other. The
various research content provided does not take into account
the unique investment objectives, financial situation, or
particular needs of any specific individual investor.
sustainability considerations and incorporate the findings in a
variety of ways. Sustainable investing-related strategies may or
may not result in favorable investment performance and the
strategy may forego favorable market opportunities in order to
adhere to sustainable investing-related strategies or mandates.
Issuers may not necessarily meet high performance standards on
all aspects of ESG or other sustainability considerations. In
addition, there is no guarantee that a product’s sustainable
investing-related strategy will be successful. Companies, as well
as related investment strategies, face increasing risks associated
with different and evolving industry and regulatory standards as
well as public sentiment toward sustainable (ESG) and diversity
(DEI) approaches; these risks include, but are not limited to,
becoming the subject of investigations and enforcement actions,
litigation, public boycott, and reputational harm.
Discretionary programs
UBS Portfolio Managers in our Discretionary Programs and
Financial Advisors in AAP use a variety of research sources in
making their investment decisions for your account, including
research issued by the firm, UBS affiliates and independent
sources.
Investments and strategies available in our Advisory Programs
are subject to varying degrees of due diligence (quantitative
and/or qualitative) and depth of research. For example, the
Investment Manager Analysis Group conducts enhanced
research on a select group of SMA Managers and mutual funds
and makes that research available to Financial Advisors. These
"Select Lists" represent a diversified selection of mutual funds
and SMAs within various investment categories with different
investment philosophies. The Select Lists are published for
internal use only and can be, but are not required to be, used as
a resource by Financial Advisors when recommending SMAs and
mutual funds to clients. These lists are updated periodically.
Financial Advisors have access to various resources to review and
select the investments and managers they recommend to
clients. As such, the SMA managers and mutual funds in which
you invest may or may not be part of these Select Lists.
We will not notify you if the SMA or investment you select is on
one of these Lists initially or if it is removed after you invest.
UBS Portfolio Managers are not required to follow the
firm or UBS issued research except in limited
circumstances and may, in their discretion, take positions
for your account that contradict the research issued by
UBS and its affiliates.
SMA Managers
Important information about sustainable investments:
Various products and services use terms or labels related to
sustainable investments. However, industry standards and
terminology related to sustainable investments will differ and are
evolving. You should carefully review the offering materials to
understand how a particular product or strategy approaches
sustainable investing and if the approach aligns with your goals
and objectives.
At UBS Financial Services Inc., we continue to maintain and
evolve our own standards and framework for sustainable
investing. We believe sustainable investment strategies should
have an explicit focus on sustainability objectives or outcomes.
Although we serve as a distributor of sustainable investment
strategies, we do not review every product to determine
consistency with our standards for sustainable investing, nor do
all products that we make available align with our approach.
Notably, not all strategies that use terms or labels related to
sustainable investing, ESG, impact, or related themes are
classified as sustainable by UBS.
Managers in our Advisory programs are not required to use UBS
research as the source of their investment decisions. SMA
Managers participating in our ACCESS, MAC, AAP and SWP
programs may utilize various fundamental, technical,
quantitative or statistical research, tools and valuation
methodologies in order to determine which securities to
purchase for your program accounts. They may rely on their
proprietary research, and/or they may receive research from a
variety of sources, including UBS or one of our affiliates, as
part of their investment process. Any research that we or one of
our affiliates may provide to an SMA Manager is separate and
apart from our Advisory programs and does not affect or
otherwise limit the manager’s discretionary investment
responsibility for your program account. You should be aware
that we or our affiliates (or employees thereof) may have
conflicts of interest in connection with the research
reports we publish. UBS and its affiliates (or any of our
employees) may happen to fall into any one of these
categories, which could potentially create a conflict of interest:
• Holding long or short positions in a specific security
being researched
• Deal as principal or agent in a specific security being
researched
• May provide Advisory or other services to an issuer or
their affiliate that is covered in research reports issued
by CIO A WM and/or INV Research
For researched SMA strategies and certain mutual funds, our
Investment Manager Analysis (IMA) group classifies investment
strategies as sustainable if they meet our review standards and
requirements. Managers may have their own standards for
determining sustainability. Strategies are subject to re-review by
IMA and the classification of a strategy as sustainable or not
sustainable according to UBS’s parameters, is subject to change.
The sustainable classification is only one component of the IMA
review process, and a change to a classification will not
necessarily impact the ongoing availability of a strategy.
Although we notify clients when a separately managed account
strategy is no longer available on the platform or through SMA
Advantage, we do not communicate changes to our
sustainability classifications directly to clients. Speak to your
Financial Advisor for more information about UBS’s approach
and IMA’s classification process, or for assistance identifying
specific products that we have reviewed and determined to be
consistent with our standards for sustainable investing.
CIO A WM and INV analyst compensation is not based on
investment banking, sales and trading or principal trading
revenues, however, their compensation may relate to the
revenues of UBS business groups as a whole, of which
investment banking, sales and trading and principal trading are
a part.
Financial Advisors also have access to proprietary models
It is also important to know that sustainable investments across
geographies and styles approach the integration of
environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and other
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covering equities, fixed income, mutual funds and municipal
securities developed by our various business areas.
Our Proprietary Asset Allocations
voting authority to your Separately Managed Account (SMA)
Manager. For assets invested in Discretionary Programs, and in the
case of AAP, the FA-Discretionary Sub-accounts, and custodied at
UBS, you may delegate proxy voting authority to Institutional
Shareholder Services Inc. ("ISS"), a proxy voting service we have
engaged and made available to you. ISS will not act as proxy
voting agent for DVP accounts.
Our asset allocations are based on a proprietary methodology. In
developing those allocations, UBS considers asset class risk and
return results that are based on estimated forward-looking
return and risk (measured by standard deviation) assumptions
(“capital market assumptions” or "CMAs"). These CMAs are
also based on UBS proprietary research, with the development
process including a review of a variety of factors, such as the
return, risk, correlations and historical performance of various
asset classes, inflation and risk premium. These CMAs are
vetted and approved by the UBS Wealth Management USA Asset
Allocation Committee and may differ or be contrary to those
established by other business areas or divisions of UBS as a result
of using different assumptions and/or criteria.
You may not delegate proxy voting authority to UBS or any
of its employees. Neither your Financial Advisor nor UBS
will exercise voting discretion or have input regarding
voting decisions made on your behalf for the securities
held in our Programs or assets you hold at UBS or at other
financial institutions. We will not vote proxies, file claims,
or provide any advice about the voting of proxies related
to the securities you hold in your Accounts at UBS or at
other financial institutions, including claims or proxies
related to corporate actions or legal proceedings ( including
bankruptcies and class actions) except to the extent
required by law.
We ask you to provide these instructions when you
establish your first Advisory account under the
relationship Agreement. We will apply your preferences
(where those features are available) to all Advisory
accounts established under the relationship Agreement,
unless you provide different instructions for specific
accounts.
The CMAs have two sets of return assumptions, designed for
different investment time horizons, but a single set of risk
assumptions. The “strategic” return assumptions are used for
investing over one full economic cycle, whereas the
“equilibrium” returns have an investment horizon of multiple
economic cycles. The strategic returns have multiple uses,
including developing Strategic Asset Allocations, custom
portfolio analysis, and risk monitoring. The equilibrium CMAs are
used for long term planning purposes and financial planning
purposes, and can be used under certain circumstances with
institutional clients.
For Discretionary Programs, if you designate ISS or another firm or
SMA Manager to vote proxies on your behalf (a “Proxy Voting
Agent”), the Proxy Voting Agent will serve as your agent and
attorney-in-fact to receive and vote all proxy and will be
responsible for voting on matters requiring a proxy vote for the
securities held in your Account in accordance with its proxy voting
guidelines or other proxy voting guidelines to which you and your
Proxy Voting Agent agree. ISS will vote proxies in your Discretionary
Accounts, and in the case of AAP the FA-Discretionary Sub-
accounts, based on its Benchmark U.S. Voting Guidelines. If assets
are not custodied at UBS (DVP accounts), proxy materials are sent
to the clients and clients are responsible for voting proxies for these
assets.
A summary of ISS' Proxy Voting Guidelines, ISS' Form ADV Part 2A
and the complete Proxy Voting Guidelines Benchmark Policy
Recommendations are available at ubs.com/advisorydisclosures.
UBS periodically reviews the economic or market conditions or
other general investment considerations that it believes may
impact the capital market assumptions. The capital market
assumptions may change from time to time at the discretion of
UBS. UBS has changed its risk and return assumptions in the
past and may do so in the future. We will not provide you
with an updated investment proposal automatically based upon
changes to these or other underlying assumptions, but you
may request an updated proposal from your Financial Advisor.
Changes in the assumptions may affect your Target
Allocation on the broad asset class, subclass or style level. We
may also add or remove asset classes, subclasses and styles
from our allocation methodology at any time. We will send
you a written notice in the event that changes in our capital
market assumptions result in a change to your Target
Allocation. It is important to note that changes to your Target
Allocation may result in tax consequences to you. Please
consult your tax advisor if this occurs.
UBS will pay ISS fees and expenses related to proxy services, but not
those of any separate Proxy Voting Agent you engage. UBS reserves
the right, at our discretion and in accordance with this Agreement, to
designate a different independent Proxy Voting Agent to act as your
agent and attorney-in-fact to vote proxies for your Account and to
pay for such proxy service-related fees and expenses.
The CMAs are not guaranteed, do not represent the risk or
return of a particular security, investment, portfolio or
strategy, and do not take into consideration the fees, costs
or charges associated with any particular product,
investment, portfolio or strategy. Actual performance can
differ, perhaps significantly, from these CMAs. In addition,
UBS employs a variety of asset allocation models and tools. As a
result, our modeling outside of the programs may vary
depending upon the asset allocation model, amount invested
and software program used for analysis.
6. Voting of Client Securities (Proxy Voting)
You have the option to elect to vote your own proxies, however,
our Discretionary and SMA Programs permit you to delegate
proxy voting authority. For assets invested in SMA Programs, and
the SMA sub-accounts of SWP and AAP, you may delegate proxy
ISS will not vote in the following circumstances: (a) the
securities are no longer held in your Account; (b) assets are not
held at UBS; or (c) the proxy or other relevant materials are not
received by ISS in sufficient time to allow an appropriate analysis
or to allow a vote to be cast by the voting deadline. In addition,
ISS generally does not make recommendations, and will not vote
proxies or file claims in respect to bankruptcies and class actions,
limited partnership or bond issues, preferred stock, and certain
foreign securities, if voting may cause the sale of the security to
be prohibited under foreign law for a period of time, usually
the time between the record and meeting dates (“share
blocking”). Also, ISS will not vote or advise you on other
corporate actions, like tender offers, which do not require a
proxy or are not solicited via a proxy. Those materials will be
forwarded to you. Neither we nor your UBS Portfolio Manager
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will be authorized to respond to such correspondence or advise
you on actions you should take.
charged for this service; the fee is paid for by UBS. This service is
not part of our advisory programs and we do not act in an
advisory capacity when making this service available to you.
UBS-CAP and IC: Proxy voting for Advisory Accounts enrolled
in UBS-CAP or IC will vary based on the terms of the Advisory
Program(s) selected. In IC Accounts, you retain the right and
obligation to vote any proxies or corporate actions, like tender
offers, relating to mutual funds, exchange traded funds or
alternative investment funds held in your IC Wrap Account. For
SMA managers in IC Accounts, you delegate proxy voting
authority to the investment manager, unless you change or cancel
these instructions.
PACE; Strategic Advisor; SWP Non-Discretionary Assets;
UBS-CAP Alternative Investments: You expressly retain the
right and obligations to vote any proxies relating to the
securities held in your PACE and Strategic Advisor Accounts, as
well as for your SWP Non-Discretionary Assets, an d alternative
investments in UBS-CAP but you may delegate these rights and
obligations to a properly authorized agent.
Securities of Non-US Issuers: If your Account contains securities
issued by a non-US issuer, unless you, your SMA Manager or the
issuer have made other arrangements with us specifically with
regard to such securities, or to the extent required by applicable
law, we are not obligated to distribute issuer communications to
you or your Proxy Voting Agent (including your SMA Manager or
ISS). Pursuant to the Shareholder Rights Directive II (Directive EU
2017/828), and the related Implementing Regulation and national
laws (together, “SRD II”), UBS, in its capacity as an intermediary,
may be required to distribute communications from issuers that
have their registered office in an EEA member state and the shares
of which are admitted to trading on a regulated market situated
or operating within an EEA member state. UBS may distribute
such communication and facilitate the exercise of certain
shareholder rights, including the right to participate and vote in
general meetings of such issuers, through a third party service
provider. If you hold securities covered by SRD II, you will need to
enroll in our e-delivery service for shareholder communications to
ensure you receive information about upcoming meetings and
have access to our proxy voting service. Under SRD II, we may also
provide information to these issuers regarding the identity of
shareholders of their securities in response to a valid request by
that issuer. UBS will have no liability to you for actions taken, or
not taken, by UBS or its agents in good faith and intended to
comply with any provisions of SRD II.
SMA Programs; Discretionary Programs; SMA Managers in
Strategic Wealth Portfolio and AAP: By signing the
Application and Agreement, you designate (as relevant given
your Advisory Program selection) your SMA Manager to receive
and vote all proxy and related materials for securities held in
the Advisory Accounts or sub-accounts they manage on your
behalf or ISS to receive and vote all proxy and related materials for
securities held in Discretionary Programs or in the case of AAP the
FA-Discretionary Sub-accounts. Unless you provide different
instructions, we will apply your proxy-related preferences to all
Advisory Accounts you establish under the Agreement,
assuming your preferences are available in each program.
Limitations of our Authority: We have no authority, direct
or implicit, and accept no responsibility for taking any action or
rendering any advice with respect to the voting of proxies related
to securities held in your SMA Account or sub- accounts. Our
obligations with respect to any such solicitation are limited
exclusively to forwarding, within a reasonable period of time, to
your SMA Managers any materials or other information received
by us with respect to such solicitation.
When you delegate proxy voting authority to your SMA
Manager, t h e y will vote on matters requiring a proxy vote for
the securities held in your Account/sub-account. Your SMA
Manager will also vote on other corporate actions, like tender
offers, which do not require a proxy or are not solicited via a
proxy.
Neither UBS, your Portfolio Manager or your Financial Advisor
exercise voting discretion or have input regarding voting
decisions made on your behalf for the securities held in your
Discretionary Program account.
Proxy Voting Policies: Copies of ISS' proxy voting policies and
procedures as well as those of your SMA Managers are available
to you upon your request. You may also request specific
information as to how proxies for your securities were voted.
Some of the information, format, and period covered by the
proxy reports will vary depending on the individual investment
manager’s policies and procedures. Please contact your
Financial Advisor regarding your requests.
YOU MAY CHANGE YOUR PREFERENCES AT ANY TIME BY
NOTIFYING US IN WRITING.
Your proxy-related preferences do not apply to class action
lawsuits, legal proceedings and bankruptcy proceedings
involving an issuer whose equity or debt securities a re held in
your Accounts, even if you delegated proxy voting authority to
us or your SMA Manager. Correspondence related to such
lawsuits will be mailed to you directly and will be your
responsibility (except as noted below regarding class action claims
filing service). Neither UBS, the SMA Manager nor your Financial
Advisor will respond to such correspondence.
Proxy Voting in our Capacity as a Broker-Dealer: Except for
ERISA Plans and Individual Retirement Accounts, if we forward
proxy materials to you or your SMA Manager, as applicable
given the Program you selected, but we do not receive voting
instructions from you (or from your SMA Manager) within the
designated time frame, we will, in our capacity as a broker-
dealer vote these uninstructed shares in proportion to the voting
instructions we have received from our brokerage clients on
“routine” ballot items under the rules of the New York Stock
Exchange, or as otherwise permitted under such rules. We may
in some circumstances decide not to vote the uninstructed
shares, however, upon request from an issuer or other party or
where casting a vote as described above would have the
unintended consequence of impacting the voting results on
“non-routine” ballot items.
Securities Class Action Claims Filing Service: Financial
Recovery Technologies LLC (FRT), an unaffiliated third-party service
provider to UBS, provides class action recovery solutions for
eligible UBS clients. To enroll in the service, eligible clients must
sign a separate enrollment agreement and appoint FRT as their
agent for class action purposes. Neither UBS nor FRT provides
legal advice. When clients are enrolled in the service, FRT will
monitor the client’s eligibility to participate in covered lawsuits and
will automatically file claims with administrators. Any recoveries
are paid to UBS and credited to client accounts. Clients are not
Fees related to shareholder communications: UBS outsources
production and delivery of shareholder communications, including
proxies, to a third party. The third party charges issuers standard
industry fees on our behalf to recover costs related to production
and distribution of the communication materials. It also shares a
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SMA Managers, Portfolio Managers or Financial Advisors.
Item 9. Additional Information
A. Executive Officers and Board of Directors
portion of these fees with UBS in accordance with our agreement.
Proxies and other shareholder communications that are sent to
SMA Managers or to ISS in accordance with the option selected by
clients for their Advisory Accounts, are included in the calculation
of fees collected and shared with us. Total fees collected are
generally in the range of $21 million annually, and the amount
paid to UBS averages approximately $7 million per year. We
receive payments monthly and allocate it to the branches as non-
compensable revenue; it is not paid to Financial Advisors or branch
managers.
Item 7. Client Information Provided to
Portfolio Managers
Michael Camacho is Head of Global Wealth Management US
and President and Chair of the Board of UBS Financial Services Inc.
Robert Karofsky is Managing Director and is Co-President of
GWM and President of UBS Americas.
Peter Mozer is a Managing Director and a member of the Board
of UBS Financial Services Inc.
Ralph Mattone is Managing Director and the Chief Financial
Officer and a member of the Board of UBS Financial Services Inc.
We share certain information you provide to us during the
account opening process, including the information discussed
below, with your SMA Managers, Financial Advisors and
Portfolio Managers in order to assist them in the management
and servicing of your Account.
CIO Wealth Management Research Americas
Solita Marcelli is a Managing Director and Chief Investment
Officer Americas for UBS Global Wealth Management, which
comprises the registered broker-dealer, UBS Financial Services Inc.
In this capacity within Wealth Management US, she oversees
Investment Research, as well as Investment Solutions which
includes wealth planning, insured solutions, investment manager
analysis, and the investment advisory programs described in this
Brochure.
She is a member of the global CIO and WM USA management
committees, in addition to serving as a participant in the House
View Investment Committee, which is responsible for formulating
the UBS Global Wealth Management Investment House View.
For accounts in the ACCESS, AAP and SWP Programs we
provide information to the SMA Managers systematically. The
information we provide includes your personal information, such
as your name, address, social security number (TIN) and account
type. We also provide your responses to the Profile Questionnaire
and general account information, such as risk profile, account
objectives, and any investment restrictions on the account. We
report account activity and make trade confirmations and
monthly ACCESS account statements available systematically.
With your approval, we also provide trade confirmations to
certain Investment Managers for accounts in the MAC and IC
Programs. Certain account activity is also communicated
through our system, including withdrawal, termination and tax
harvest requests.
Management for the Investment Advisory Products
Covered in this Brochure
Our Portfolio Managers and Financial Advisors who service your
Account have access to the same information as listed above.
Portfolio Managers also receive copies of trade confirmations for
transactions they execute in your Accounts as well as copies of
the quarterly Performance Reviews for your Accounts.
Daniel Cohen – is a Managing Director of UBS Financial Services
Inc., and is the Head of Investment Solutions, CIO Americas
David Giffen – is a Managing Director of UBS Financial Services
Inc. and is the Head of Advisory Solutions and Mutual Funds.
Data Downloads. To service and reconcile your Discretionary
and SMA Account or sub-accounts efficiently, we automatically
provide your SMA Managers or sub- advisors with copies of
the confirmations for trades they place in the Accounts/sub-
accounts they manage for you as well as, for ACCESS managers,
copies of your monthly account statements.
We also provide account statements to MAC and IC managers
upon their request. From time to time, your SMA Managers or
sub- advisors may request that we provide them with a data
download that can include account statements and all
transactions they effected on your behalf in order to reconcile
your Account. SMA Managers and sub-advisors can also receive
statements and confirmation and other account and client
information when you grant them access via UBS Online Services.
General Counsel, Director of Compliance and Chief
Compliance Officer
Kiye Sakai is a Managing Director and General Counsel for UBS
Financial Services Inc., a US registered broker-dealer and
investment advisor for UBS’s Global Wealth Management US
business, and head of the legal team supporting that business,
which includes UBS Bank USA and UBS Trust Company of Puerto
Rico Inc.
Lauren Munfa is a Managing Director, the Americas Head of
Global Wealth Management Compliance & Operational Risk
Control and is the Chief Compliance Officer of UBS Financial
Services Inc.
Lisa M. Francomano is a Managing Director, Head of GWM
C&ORC Products & Solutions and Chief Compliance Officer for
UBS Financial Services’ advisory business.
By selecting a Discretionary Program or a Program in which SMA
Managers will manage your Accounts/sub-accounts, and by your
continued participation in those Programs, you consent, authorize
and direct us to provide your Account data and copies of your
trade confirmations and account statements to your SMA
Managers.
Item 8. Client Contact with
Portfolio Managers
We do not restrict your ability to contact or consult with your
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B. Disciplinary History
Below is a summary of the material legal and disciplinary events against UBS Financial Services Inc. during the last ten years. As of the date
of this brochure, there are no reportable legal and disciplinary events for our senior management personnel or those individuals in senior
management responsible for determining the general investment advice available to our clients.
The disciplinary reporting requirements for broker-dealers and investment advisers differ in some ways, with FINRA requiring broker-
dealers to report on matters (for example, pending complaints and arbitrations) which are not required to be reported by investment
advisers. Since our firm operates as both broker-dealer and investment adviser we file the information as required by each entity. The
information in this report is not the only resource you can consult. You can access additional information about our firm and our
management personnel on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, located at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov, as well as the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s website, brokercheck.finra.org.
Please note that in each instance described below, the Firm entered into the various orders, consents and settlements
without admitting or denying any of the allegations.
Disciplinary History
1
Date of Action: December 30, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
Without admitting or denying the findings, the Firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that from February 2014 through
November 2024, it sent its customers millions of trade confirmations that either (1) disclosed that the price shown was or may be an average price
when it was not an average price or (2) failed to disclose that the price shown was in fact an average price. The findings also stated that the firm failed
to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to achieve compliance with Exchange Act Rule 10B-10 and FINRA rule 2232.
Disposition: Censure and fine of $1.1 million.
2
Date of Action: December 18, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
The firm entered into an Acceptance Waiver & Consent under which the firm, without admitting or denying the findings, consented to the
sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to assess whether its
registered representatives recommended to retail customers short-term trades of syndicate preferred stocks that were unsuitable.
Disposition: Censure, fine of $500,000, restitution of $343,914.66 plus interest, and disgorgement of $2,645,537 plus interest.
3
Date of Action: July 8, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish and
maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to achieve compliance with the firm's obligation to monitor transmittals of customer funds
to third parties and to respond reasonably to red flags of private securities transactions. The findings stated the firm failed to detect that a
registered representative, who was acting outside the scope of their employment with the firm, sold to their customers unapproved securities
that were offered by a third party. The firm repaid the customers their principal plus the amount of appreciation reported to them by the third
party totaling more than $17 million.
Disposition: Censure and fine of $850,000.
4
Date of Action: September 27, 2022
Brought By: Securities and Exchange Commission
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
On September 22, 2022, UBS Financial Services Inc. became the subject of an order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"),
whereby it acknowledged that its conduct violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Section 17(A)-4 regarding books and records retention
requirements and Section 15 9B0(4)(E) regarding supervision of same.
From at least January 2018 to September 2021, UBS employees sent and received off-channel communications that related to the business of
the broker-dealer operated by UBS. Respondents did not maintain or preserve the substantial majority of these written communications.
Disposition: The commission imposed a cease-and-desist order, a censure, a civil monetary fine of a total of $125,000,000 against both UBS
Broker-Dealers jointly, and joint undertakings and remedial action including the retention of an independent Compliance Consultant to
undertake a comprehensive review of UBS’s supervisory, compliance, and other policies and procedures designed to ensure that UBS’s
electronic communications, including those found on personal electronic devices, including without limitation, cellular phones are preserved in
accordance with the requirements of the federal securities laws.
UBS agreed to pay $125,000,000
Page 74 of 94
5
Date of Action: September 27, 2022
Brought by: Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Entity: UBS Financial Services, Inc.
On September 27, 2022, UBS failed to supervise diligently its officers, employees, and agents in violation of regulation 166.3
Disposition: The firm shall cease-and-desist from violating section 4G of the Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. § 6G, and regulations 1.31, 1.35 and 166.3
UBS agreed to pay, jointly and severally, a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $75,000,000
6
Date of Action: July 27, 2022
Brought by: Securities and Exchange Commission
Entity: UBS Financial Services, Inc.
On July 27, 2022, UBS Financial Services Inc. consented to and became the subject of an order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
("SEC") for the failure to adequately develop and implement a written Identity Theft Prevention Program as required by Rule 201 of Regulation
S-ID (17 C.F.R. § 248.201).
Disposition: Without admitting or denying the findings in the order, UBS consented to the entry of an Order Instituting Administrative and
Cease-and-Desist Proceedings pursuant to Sections 15(b) and 21C of the Exchange Act , and Sections 203(e) and 203(k) of the Investment
Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) (collectively, the “Order”). Pursuant to the Order, from at least January 1, 2017 to October 3, 2019,
UBS violated Rule 201 of Regulation S-ID because its written Identity Theft Prevention Program lacked reasonable policies and procedures to: (i)
identify relevant red flags for the covered accounts UBS offered and maintained, and incorporate those red flags into its Program; (ii) detect red
flags that have been incorporated into its Program; (iii) respond appropriately to detected red flags to prevent and mitigate identity theft; and
(iv) ensure that the Program was updated periodically. There was no finding of customer harm.
UBS agreed to pay a civil money penalty in the amount of $925,000.00.
7
Date of Action: June 29, 2022
Brought By: Securities and Exchange Commission
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
On June 29. 2022, UBS Financial Services Inc. consented to and became the subject of an order by the SEC in connection with allegedly
inadequate training of its Financial Advisors offering the Yield Enhancement Strategy (“YES Strategy”) to clients in the UBS Portfolio
Management Program during February 2016 to February 2017.
Disposition: Without admitting or denying the findings in the order, UBS consented to the entry of an Order Instituting Administrative and
Cease-and-Desist Proceedings pursuant to Sections 15(b) of the Exchange Act and Sections 203(e) and 203(k) of the Advisers Act , making
Findings, and Imposing Remedial Sanctions and a Cease-and-Desist Order (“Order”). Pursuant to the Order, UBS willfully violated Section
206(4) of the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7, which requires a registered investment adviser to adopt and implement written compliance
policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act and the rules thereunder.
8
UBS agreed to pay disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and a civil monetary penalty totaling $24.6 million as follows: (i) disgorgement of $5.8
million plus prejudgment interest of $1.4 million for a total of $7.2 million, which was deemed satisfied by the payments previously made by
UBS to investors in excess of that amount; and (ii) a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $17.4 million.
Date of Action: December 20, 2021
Brought BY: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
UBS Financial Services Inc. consented to a censure and to the entry of a finding that it failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system
reasonably designed to supervise 529 plan share-class recommendations in violation of MSRB Rule G-27.
Disposition: Letter of Acceptance Waiver & Consent; the firm was censured and agreed to pay $4,059,653 plus interest in restitution to
customers. The firm voluntarily self-reported the issue to FINRA as part of FINRA’s 529 share class disclosure initiative; accordingly, no fine was
imposed.
9
Date of Action: July 19, 2021
Brought By: Securities and Exchange Commission
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
The SEC issued an Order finding that UBS violated Section 206(4)-7 of the Advisers Act in connection with the firm’s failure from January
2016 through January 2018 to adopt written policies and procedures that were reasonably designed to prevent the unsuitable use of VXX, a
volatility exchange-traded product, as a buy-and-hold investment in the firm’s discretionary portfolio management program (“PMP”). The
Order noted that even though the Firm had mandatory training and a concentration limit for VXX in PMP, it did not have a control to
prevent PMP advisors from holding VXX for unsuitably long periods. The Order also noted that UBS on its own decided to remove VXX from
the PMP program altogether in late 2017.
Disposition: Cease & Desist Order; Censure; civil monetary penalty of $8,000,000; disgorgement and pre-judgment interest of $112,274.
Page 75 of 94
10
Date of Action: July 20, 2020
Brought By: Securities and Exchange Commission
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
The SEC issued an order finding that UBS violated MSRB Rules G-11(k), G-17, G-27 and Section 15B(c)(1) of the Exchange Act between
August 2012 and June 2016. The SEC alleged UBS did not comply with certain retail order period restrictions in new issue municipal bond
offerings it distributed by allocating bonds intended for retail customers to certain customers, who immediately resold or “flipped” the
bonds to other broker-dealers at a profit. The Order also found UBS, through certain registered representatives, improperly obtained
negotiated new issue bonds for UBS’s inventory by placing indications of interest with the flippers who then placed customer orders with
the underwriting syndicate, instead of UBS submitting dealer orders directly with the syndicate on its own behalf. This practice was found
to have circumvented the priority of orders and given UBS access to a higher priority in the bond allocation process than it typically would
have had.
Disposition: Cease and Desist; Censure; disgorgement of $6,740,000, prejudgment interest of $1,549,336, and a civil penalty in the amount
of $1,750,000 for a total of 10,039,336.
11
Date of Action: September 28, 2016
Brought By: Securities and Exchange Commission
Rule: Section 15(b)(4)(E) of the Exchange Act
Allegations: The SEC alleged that during the period of 2011-2014, UBS failed reasonably to fulfill supervisory responsibilities within the
meaning of Section 15(b)(4)(E) of the Exchange Act because UBS failed to establish reasonable policies and procedures, and a system for
applying such procedures, that would reasonably be expected to prevent and detect the violations of Section 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act of
1933. The product under review was the Reverse Convertible Note ("RCN") with a single stock as the underlying asset, also called single-
stock-linked RCNs. The Order finds that the Firm failed to reasonably supervise its RCN sales by failing to develop and implement adequate
education and training for its Financial Advisors regarding certain aspects of single stock-linked RCNs, including for example, the role of
implied volatility of the underlying stock in the selection of the stock as the asset underlying the RCN. The Order highlighted the Firm's
significant cooperation and prompt enhancement of procedures addressing the SEC's concerns.
Disposition: SEC censure order and fine
Fine: $8,227,566 in disgorgement (to the SEC), $798,316 in interest, and $6 million in penalty, for a total of $15,025,882.
Page 76 of 94
Item 10. Other Financial Industry Activities
and Affiliations
-
UBS Financial Services Inc. is a member of all principal securities
and commodities exchanges in the United States including the
New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). Our parent company, UBS
AG, is a global, integrated investment services firm and one of
the world’s leading banks. We are registered to act as a broker-
dealer, investment adviser and a futures commission merchant.
Please note that registration as an investment adviser does not
imply a certain level of skill or training.
-
As a full service broker-dealer and investment adviser, we offer
our customers and investment advisory clients a broad range of
financial services and products, and we are engaged in various
aspects of the securities and investment business. Our financial
services include:
instruments. These loans may be used to buy securities or
for other purposes. These loans are not subject to the
maintenance requirements and potential capital charges
that are imposed on broker-dealers.
UBS Bank USA is an FDIC-insured Utah industrial bank. UBS
Bank USA provides deposit services and secured and
unsecured loans to clients, including loans secured by
securities, other financial instruments and residential real
estate. The securities based loans made by UBS Bank USA are
predominately loans that are "non-purpose" and may be
used for purposes other than buying, trading or carrying
securities. Non-purpose securities backed loans are not
subject to the maintenance requirements and potential
capital charges that are imposed on broker-dealers.
UBS Business Solutions US LLC is an affiliate of UBS Group
AG that provides certain services to UBS Group AG's affiliates
and subsidiaries that operate in the United States. Services
currently include Finance, Risk Control, Compliance, Legal,
Human Resources, Technology and Operations.
Trading for our own account.
−
− Underwriting securities offerings.
− Acting as a market maker in securities.
−
− Acting as a clearing firm for other broker-dealers.
− Buying or selling securities, commodity futures contracts
and other financial instruments for customers as their
broker or buying them from or selling them to clients,
acting as principal for our own account,
Providing investment advice and managing investment
accounts or portfolios.
− Acting as a commodity pool operator, futures
−
commission merchant or commodity trading advisor
and providing custodial services.
Through our affiliates, we provide clients with trust
and custodial services.
− We manage, sponsor and distribute registered
investment companies and other public and private
pooled investment vehicles, including hedge funds,
whose shares or other interests are sold to clients.
UBS Group AG (UBS Financial Services Inc.’s ultimate parent)
offers investment advisory services through a variety of direct
and indirect subsidiaries. These entities are separately registered
investment advisors and, in some cases, registered broker-
dealers and commodity-trading advisors. Their principal lines of
business range from developing and distributing investment
products including wrap fee products, mutual funds, closed-end
funds, privately placed funds and other pooled investment
products, providing investment advice to individuals, pension
and other employee benefit plans, other tax-exempt
organizations, insurance companies, investment companies,
commingled trust funds, corporations, and other institutional
investors, and serving as investment managers, administrators,
distributors and/or placement agents for a number of funds,
including, in the case of UBS Asset Management (US) Inc., the
PACE Select Advisors Trust, and a number of UBS AG and UBS
Asset Management-advised mutual funds. Certain investment
advisers listed below may serve as the respective investment
manager for clients participating in our MAC, ACCESS, SWP or
AAP programs, or as investment managers for products we offer.
UBS Financial Services Inc. is a registered broker-dealer that
provides a full suite of wealth management advisory services. Our
investment advisory business is the principal business in terms of
revenues.
UBS Financial Services Inc. Subsidiaries & Other Affiliates
UBS Group AG has several subsidiaries registered as investment
advisers in the United States, including the entities listed
below. These companies manage the assets of or serve as
general partners or managers of registered investment
companies and private investment funds that may be offered
and sold to our advisory clients. Information on those investment
vehicles can be found on the respective Form ADV of each
affiliated advisor.
-
-
-
-
UBS Farmland Investors, LLS
UBS Asset Management (Americas) Inc.
UBS Realty Investors LLC
Credit Suisse Asset Management Limited
There are a number of related persons that provide investment
management and other financial services and products to our
investment advisory clients, which may be material to our
advisory business. UBS Financial Services Inc., our subsidiaries or
affiliates act in one or more capacities, including investment
adviser, sub-adviser, consultant, administrator and principal
underwriter (as applicable) to a number of open-end and closed-
end investment companies with varying investment objectives.
As a futures commission merchant, and through affiliates
registered as commodity pool operators and commodity trading
advisors, we or an affiliate also provide advice on commodities
and commodity-related products.
Item 11. Investment Adviser Code of Ethics,
Participation or Interest in Client
Transactions and Personal Trading
Certain of our subsidiaries, affiliates and related entities include
the following:
A.
Investment Adviser Code of Ethics
-
-
-
UBS Financial Services Insurance Agency Inc.
UBS Trust Company of Puerto Rico.
UBS Credit Corp. provides loans to clients that are either
unsecured or secured by securities or other financial
The Firm maintains and enforces a written code of ethics in
accordance with Rule 204A-1 under the Investment Advisers
Act of 1940. The code and any subsequent amendments are
provided to all Global Wealth Management Americas
Page 77 of 94
in your best interest.
employees of the Firm and each employee is responsible for
acknowledging receipt.
The code, which supplements the Firm’s code of conduct, has a
dual purpose:
–
To set forth standards of conduct that apply to all
employees of the firm and reflect the firm’s fiduciary
obligation to its clients.
When we execute a principal transaction for your account, it is
possible that better prices or other terms for the trade could be
obtained from alternative sources not known to UBS. Since there
may be securities offered by other dealers only to their clients,
you may not be able to compare the price on securities
offered by these dealers to those offered by UBS. These
conflicts are addressed as follows:
-
To address conflicts of interest associated with the
personal trading activities of employees defined under the
‘40 Act as “access persons.”6
– We have an obligation to provide you with best
execution and we believe we can provide best
execution to you by routing certain orders to our affiliate,
UBS Securities LLC, for execution on a principal basis.
– We monitor our execution services and measure how we
Employees are required to promptly report any suspected
violation of the code. Violations of the code may result in
discipline, up to and including termination. Clients or
prospective clients may obtain a copy of the Investment Adviser
Code of Ethics upon request.
B. Participation or Interest in Client Transactions
1. Principal transactions and agency cross trades.
–
-
Under applicable rules and regulations, we may enter into
principal transactions f o r investment advisory clients after
making appropriate disclosure and obtaining client consent
when necessary. However, as a matter of policy, UBS does not
permit principal trading in Advisory Programs.
meet our best execution obligation by taking into
account many factors, including the degree to which
our affiliate, UBS Securities, executes principal trades in
client accounts and, specifically, the pricing and service
quality that we receive in connection with principal
trades versus the costs associated with foregoing a
trade (if UBS is the only dealer in a security) or executing
on an agency basis through another dealer.
The mark-up or mark-down on securities in advisory
accounts is not shared with your Financial Advisor.
Although we are not required to waive or offset our
compensation under applicable rules or regulations, for
certain security types such as new issue fixed- income
securities, we may waive some of the compensation we
earn in executing principal trades, or waive a portion of
the fee imposed on your account for a period of time as
an offset for other compensation we receive.
Advice/Services to Other Clients and Activities in our
Proprietary Accounts
In accordance with the provisions of Section 11(a) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, we may execute transactions
on the floors of national or regional securities exchanges for
managed client accounts where appropriate. Additionally, if
appropriate client consent is obtained and required disclosure
is made, agency cross transactions may be effected for
customer accounts to the extent permitted by law. Agency
cross transactions are transactions in which we or our affiliates
act as broker for the party or parties on both sides of the
transactions. In these circumstances, we will receive
compensation from parties on both sides of these transactions
(the amount of which may vary) and, consequently, we will have
a potentially conflicting division of loyalties and responsibilities.
Your consent to “agency cross” transactions may be revoked at
any time by written notice to us. For MAC accounts, we may
execute “agency cross” transactions on a routine basis,
consistent with best execution, unless UBS or one of our affiliates
is acting as investment manager.
Conflict of Interest
We and our affiliates provide investment banking, research,
brokerage, investment advisory and other services for different
types of clients, and may give advice to or take actions for those
clients, or for our own accounts for those of our affiliates that
differs from advice given to, or the timing and nature of actions
taken for you. We and our affiliates may buy and sell securities
for our own or other accounts, or we may act as a market
maker or an underwriter for securities recommended, purchased
or sold. UBS and our affiliates occasionally may not be free to
divulge or act upon certain information in their possession on
behalf of investment advisory or other clients. We are not
obligated to execute any transaction for your account that we
believe to be improper under applicable law or rules or contrary
to our own policies. In particular, you should note that some
of our programs may recommend asset allocations or analyze
markets and the economy in a different way than would be
recommended by some of our research, trading or other
departments.
UBS and our affiliates expect to earn a profit whenever we
engage in principal transactions with you, and depending on the
type of security, we may include a profit margin in the price we
pay or charge you, by marking up or marking down the price of
the security.
The profits we or our affiliates earn on these transactions will
be in addition to the fees you pay us under the Program for
investment advice, trading, execution, custody and other
program services. As a result, principal transactions present a
conflict between your interests and our interests and those of
our affiliates, because we have a financial incentive to
recommend these transactions to you when they might not be
We have adopted policies and procedures that limit transactions
for our proprietary accounts and the accounts of our
employees. These policies and procedures are designed to
prevent, among other things, improper or abusive conduct trades
on behalf of money managers who participate in the Firm’s
advisory programs. Additional home office employees may be
deemed Access Persons depending upon their work location when
there may be a potential conflict with the interests of a client.
Trading Activity
location.
6 Access Person: all branch office employees, regardless of their job function, or
certain home office employees depending upon their job function and/or work
Page 78 of 94
from vendors.
Directed brokerage compensation from managers available
in our advisory programs
The vast majority of our exchange-listed securities and over- the-
counter (OTC) orders are executed through our affiliate, UBS
Securities LLC—which executes orders as either principal or as
agent, depending on the circumstances and type of program
involved. See the section Trading and Execution Practices—
Execution of Transactions for your Account” for more
information.
Trade Errors
Financial Advisors who recommend or otherwise solicit the
hiring of investment managers in our Advisory Programs,
including but not limited to, ACCESS, MAC, AAP and SWP
programs are generally not permitted to receive any directed
commission income or other transaction revenue from any
investment manager who is also employed in any of their
ACCESS, MAC, AAP or SWP, account relationships subject to
certain exceptions. However, UBS and other Financial Advisors
may execute securities transactions directed to us by affiliated
and unaffiliated investment managers for other clients. These
transactions and the compensation we receive may not be
pursuant to any specific oral or written arrangement
between us and any of the affiliated and unaffiliated
investment managers.
3. Additional Sources of Compensation in
We have a trade error procedure, pursuant to which we resolve
trading errors that may occur from time to time. We require the
appropriate supervisory personnel to review and approve the
correction for certain trades. The correction must be processed
on a timely basis and may not adversely affect a client, with
very minor exceptions. The firm maintains an error account to
facilitate handling trading errors. Gains may be offset by
losses in the error account. At the end of the calendar year, if
the net ending value of the Firm's error account is a gain the firm
would donate funds to a charity. If an outside investment adviser
causes a trade error, the outside investment adviser’s trade error
procedure will govern, unless it conflicts with our internal
procedure.
Connection with Investments in
Advisory Accounts
2. Additional Sources of Compensation from
SMA Managers or Vendors Whose Products
We May Recommend to Our Advisory Clients
UBS, our Financial Advisors and affiliates receive additional
compensation in connection with certain types of assets in which
your Advisory Accounts may be invested. This compensation is in
addition to the Program Fee you pay us for our investment
advisory services, and i t is a result of distribution, shareholder
servicing, administration, marketing, investment management,
revenue sharing or referral agreements we and/or our affiliates
have with vendors or sponsors of those securities and other
services.
We also receive additional compensation as a result of inter-
company profit sharing and servicing agreements. The nature of
the services provided by, and the compensation paid to, us and
our affiliates are described in the offering documents for the
respective products, which are available at no charge through
your Financial Advisor. Certain securities, mutual funds for
example, are sold by prospectus only. Please read the
prospectus carefully before investing.
Contributions to Training and Education Expenses.
Investment managers, mutual fund vendors, unit investment trust
sponsors, annuity, life insurance companies or their affiliates and
sponsors of ETFs whose products are available on our platform
may contribute funds to support our Financial Advisor education
programs. The contributions are used to subsidize the cost of
training seminars we offer to Financial Advisors through
specialized firm-wide programs and regional training forums.
These seminars are designed to provide training and education to
Financial Advisors, Branch Office Managers, Field Leadership, and
other personnel who regularly solicit clients to participate in the
various types of businesses listed above. These contributions also
subsidize a significant portion of the costs incurred to support the
Financial Advisor training, Financial Advisor and Client education,
and product marketing efforts conducted regionally and
nationally by product specialists employed by UBS. The training
events and seminars can (and often) include a non-training
element to the event such as business entertainment which is not
subsidized by vendors.
Not all Advisory Programs permit the purchase and sale
of domestic mutual funds, offshore funds, unit
investment trusts, or alternative investments. Please
review the eligibility of investments in your advisory
program with your Financial Advisor for more details.
The amount of fees paid to us, and therefore your Financial
Advisors, may vary depending on the arrangement between us
and the vendors/sponsors and, if applicable for mutual funds,
and the terms and conditions of the relevant fund’s 12b-1 or
trailing commission plan. If you hold these assets in your
advisory accounts, we receive these payments for the duration
of your advisory program account. In some circumstances, our
receipt of such compensation may extend beyond your
participation in our advisory programs if you continue to hold
those assets at our firm.
As a result of the various payments to us or our affiliated
companies, the amount of compensation that UBS entities receive
with respect to the sale of affiliated or proprietary products
including mutual funds, and alternative investments, is greater
than the amount payable to the organization as a whole from the
sale of unaffiliated mutual funds or products.
Not all vendors contribute to our education efforts. Neither
contribution towards these training and educational expenses,
nor lack thereof, is considered as a factor in analyzing or
determining whether a vendor should be included or should
remain in our programs or our platform. Contributions can vary
by vendor and event. In some instances, the contributions per
vendor (as well as the aggregate received from all vendors) are
significant. Some vendors may decide to contribute at levels
different than those we request. Additional contributions may be
made by certain vendors in connection with specialized events or
education or training forums. Your Financial Advisor does not
receive a portion of these payments. However, their attendance
and participation in these events, as well as the increased
exposure to vendors who sponsor the events, tends to lead
Financial Advisors to recommend the products and services of
those vendors as compared those who do not.
Please see the section "Non-Cash Compensation" for a description
of additional types of support and/or contributions we receive
Page 79 of 94
placement agent services, even though there may be other funds,
managers or investments with better performance results and/or
more preferential terms.
For UBS proprietary products, our affiliates receive fees for
providing investment management and other services ancillary
to the execution of purchases of shares in affiliated funds,
including, administration and shareholder services to the
affiliated funds in the Programs. These fees are rebated to client
retirement accounts enrolled in Discretionary Programs.
Differences in fees received by UBS and/or UBS Financial Advisors
create an incentive to recommend funds / investments (and in
certain cases, specific share classes) in which UBS and/or UBS
Financial Advisors will receive a fee or higher fees.
UBS only distributes funds/products that compensate UBS and its
affiliates and/or UBS Financial Advisors for its distribution and
Page 80 of 94
Unless otherwise noted, we receive the payments described below for affiliated and non-affiliated products.
Offshore Mutual Funds
Payment Type Current Rate
Source of Payment
Do Financial Advisors
Receive a Portion of
These Fees?
Trails
Equity offshore funds: 0.75%.
Asset-based fees typically paid by
the distributor or advisor of the
offshore fund.
Yes - Trails are received in
brokerage accounts only.
Trails are rebated to clients
in the advisory programs.
Fixed income offshore funds: 0.50%.
Please ask your Financial Advisor for our fee schedule that shows the
specific trails that are paid to your Financial Advisor as these
amounts are typically not clearly disclosed in the offering materials of
offshore funds.
No
Revenue
Sharing
Most offshore funds pay revenue sharing to UBS. Percentages listed
below are paid per annum of the average daily net asset value of the
fund attributable to the shares owned by our clients, during each
month.
Affiliated Offshore Funds: ranges from 0.05% to 0.70% per annum
Revenue-sharing compensation is
paid directly from the distributor
or advisor, and not from the
offshore funds or indirectly
through fund portfolio trading
commissions Revenue- sharing
compensation is intended to
compensate us for ancillary
services related to the sales of
offshore fund shares.
Unaffiliated Offshore Funds: ranges from 0.10% to 0.50%
Alternately, this could be paid as a percentage of the fund's stated
management fees and could be up to 65% of these fees, which
would include both revenue sharing payments and
trails/commissions.
Page 81 of 94
Domestic Mutual Funds
Payment Type Current Rate
Source of Payment
Do Financial Advisors
Receive a Portion of
These Fees?
Affiliated funds in Advisory Programs: No trailers or 12b-1 fees.
Trailers &12b-1
Fees
Investors/Shareholders pay these
fees to the sponsors of the Funds.
No. 12b-1 fees for Class A
shares in PACE, Strategic
Advisor and SWP are
retained by the Firm and
are not paid to Financial
Advisors.
Non-affiliated funds: Fees on A shares generally range from 0.04%
to 0.50% per year—although the average current annual rate is
approximately 0.25%; however, the majority of assets in the
Programs are Advisory and Institutional shares and carry no trailers
or 12b-1 fees.
We receive these payments from
the sponsors for distribution and
shareholder services we provide in
connection with the purchase and
sale of mutual fund shares.
In late 2025, unless certain
exceptions apply, all 12b-1
fees will be retained by the
Firm and not paid to Financial
Advisors.
The 12b-1 fees retained
b y are treated as non-
compensable revenue. See
“Revenue Sharing” below
for a description of that
process.
.
No
Networking
Fees
up to $14 for each mutual fund position that is held at UBS but
typically $13-$14. Some fund companies may choose to calculate
this rate expressed in basis points on assets. Exclusions may
apply to positions below $500 and certain discretionary
retirement accounts.
These fees are paid by mutual
fund sponsors from investor
assets, but in some cases may be
subsidized, in part, by affiliates of
the mutual fund.
Networking fees are paid in
consideration for services
provided by us ancillary to
effecting mutual fund
transactions including
transmission of shareholder data
between UBS and the fund
companies.
No
Omnibus
Processing
Fees7
These fees are paid by mutual
fund sponsors from investor
assets, but in some cases may be
subsidized, in part, by affiliates of
the mutual fund.
These payments, which usually range from $10 to $26 per
position but are typically between $15-$26, can vary by share
class. Some fund companies may choose to calculate this rate
expressed in basis points on assets, which may result in payments
in excess of $26 per position. The asset managers making
these payments may consider the excess of what the mutual
fund would otherwise have paid for these services on a per
position fee schedule as a form of revenue sharing. Exclusions
may apply to positions below an asset level mutually agreed
upon by UBS and the fund company, certain discretionary advisory
and retirement accounts, and certain funds and/or shares classes.
A portion of the payments we receive for Omnibus processing is
paid to a sub-account vendor contracted by UBS.
7 For an individual fund company, UBS may receive either Networking Fees or Omnibus Processing Fees.
Page 82 of 94
Alternative Investment Funds
Payment Type
Current Rate
Source of Payment
Do Financial Advisors
Receive a Portion of
These Fees?
Clients/Investors pay these
fees
Placement Fees
charged by Financial
Advisors
Yes. Financial Advisors
typically receive 100% of
the placement fee.
For investments made through a UBS brokerage account, UBS
charges a one-time placement fee of up to 2.00% of the
invested or committed amount, at the time of the investment
or commitment. The placement fee charged is in addition to
the amount of the investment/commitment and can be
waived or lowered by the Financial Advisor prior to the
investment.
No
Placement Fees
charged by UBS
The fund or its distributor,
investment manager or
investment adviser pays
these fees.
For investments made through a UBS brokerage account, UBS
may also receive a placement fee for placing the investments
with the third-party fund or underlying fund. These
additional fees range between 0.50% and 2.00% of the
commitment/investment amount.
For Investments made through a UBS Brokerage
Account:
Distribution Fees
The fund or its investment
manager or adviser pays
these fees.
Yes. Financial Advisors
receive approximately
80-100% of the
distribution fees.
No
Administrative and
shareholder
servicing fees
The fund or its investment
manager or adviser pays
these fees.
UBS receives an annual fee for distribution services generally
between 0.35% and 1.20% of the net asset value for
affiliated funds, and 0.40% and 1.25% of either the net
asset value or commitment amount for third party funds.
.
For Advisory Investments:
For advisory share classes, the administrative and shareholder
servicing fees UBS receives are typically in the range of 0% to
0.25% per annum, calculated based on either the net asset
value or commitment amount. This fee is not paid in
connection with IRA or Qualified Plan assets.
Distribution Fees
The fund or its investment
manager or adviser pays
these fees.
Yes. Financial Advisors
receive approximately
80-100% of the
distribution fee.
Managed Futures funds:
For Investments made through a UBS Brokerage Account, UBS
generally receives a distribution fee from the fund sponsor
between 2.00% and 2.50% per annum calculated based on
the net asset value.
Yes. Financial Advisors
receive approximately
80-100% of the
distribution fee.
Distribution Fees –
transferred
investments
The fund or its investment
manager or adviser pays
these fees.
For brokerage investments in third-party funds clients
purchased at other financial institutions and transferred to
UBS (but which UBS does not distribute), UBS compensation
ranges between 0.10% and 1.05% per annum, calculated
based on either the net asset value or commitment amount.
No
The fund‘s investment
manager or adviser pays
these fees.
Revenue Sharing
For certain private funds, UBS receives additional compensation
(commonly referred to as “revenue sharing”) based on a
percentage of the incentive fees paid to the fund’s investment
manager or affiliate. For those funds, UBS is paid up to 25% of
the fund manager’s incentive fees attributable to investors
through a UBS brokerage account.
No
The fund or its distributor,
investment manager or
investment adviser pays
these fees.
For other certain funds (private and registered), UBS receives
revenue sharing ranging between 0.10% and 0.25% per
annum calculated based on the net asset value, attributable to
investors through a UBS brokerage account for ancillary services
in connection with effecting sales of these third-party funds.
Referral Fees
In limited circumstances, UBS may refer a brokerage client to a
third-party manager for investment into one of the manager's
funds for a negotiable referral fee.
The fund or its investment
manager or adviser pays
these fees.
Yes. Financial Advisors
receive approximately
80-100% of the
distribution fees.
UBS allocates investments to investors in priority of the chronological order of investors who successfully submit completed fund documentation;
however, specific funds may have different parameters with respect to eligibility, minimum investment amounts, suitability or fund discretion, among
other things, that will change the priority.
Page 83 of 94
Mutual Fund Revenue sharing compensation. The revenue
sharing information below is current as of the date of this
brochure and is subject to change in our discretion. Updated
and current information on these arrangements is available at
our website, www.ubs.com/mutualfundrevenuesharing.
and evaluation of mutual funds and fund families. There are
multiple factors involved in determining a particular mutual fund’s
level of access to our branches. Although revenue sharing may be
one factor, others include understanding of business goals,
quality of sales personnel and marketing material, range of
products, level of service to Financial Advisors and Branch
Managers, participation of funds in researched investment
models, and branch discretion.
In general, we charge each mutual fund family up to the
following amounts:
-
Generally, we receive revenue sharing compensation in
connection with all mutual fund assets in Program
Accounts except for assets held by:
- Qualified Plans and IRA clients in our Discretionary Programs
(PMP, AAP and UBS Advice Advantage) and in PACE Select.
IC clients that hold mutual funds in an IC Account.
–
-
-
-
-
Clients invested in funds that have been created at the request
of UBS to meet a specific investment objective ("Purpose Built
Funds") in Discretionary Programs. Purpose Built Funds are
funds which UBS requests be established either by affiliates or
third parties in order to fulfill a product need.
Clients whose accounts are custodied at other financial
institutions.
-
-
Revenue sharing compensation will not be rebated or
credited to you. However, to the extent we receive
revenue sharing compensation for Qualified Plans and IRA
assets in our Discretionary Programs or PACE Select, that
compensation will be rebated to Plan and IRA clients.
Up to 0.15% per year (paid quarterly) on all sales of mutual
fund shares (excluding sales through wrap-fee programs);
generally, the amount ranges from 0.05%-0.15%.
Up to 0.20% per year (paid quarterly) of the asset value of
all equity mutual fund shares held at UBS (other than money
market or offshore funds); the most common rate on equity
mutual fund shares is 0.15%.
Up to 0.20% per year (paid quarterly) of the asset value
of all fixed-income mutual fund shares held at UBS (other
than money market or offshore funds); the most common
rate on fixed-income mutual funds shares is 0.10%.
Some mutual fund families may be subject to a minimum
annual payment which, in some instances, may result in a
fee that exceeds the percentages described above.
Certain mutual fund companies may pay a flat-
fee annually which may or may not exceed the rates listed
above.
Generally, we receive revenue sharing compensation in
connection with all mutual fund assets, including assets in
Institutional and Advisory shares. This additional compensation
we receive presents a conflict of interest and is an incentive to
allow certain Institutional and/or Advisory share classes to be
purchased in Investment Advisory Programs for which we receive
higher compensation.
In addition to sales loads, 12b-1 fees and processing fees, UBS
receives other compensation from certain distributors or advisors
of mutual funds that we sell. These separate compensation
amounts (commonly referred to as revenue sharing) may be a
negotiated flat fee or may be based on two components:
The amount of sales by UBS of a particular mutual fund family
to our clients (excluding sales through wrap-fee programs).
The asset value of a particular mutual fund family’s shares held
by our clients at UBS in eligible programs.
We require that these payments be made directly from the
distributor or advisor, and not from the mutual funds or
indirectly through mutual fund portfolio trading commissions.
Revenue-sharing payments are intended to compensate us for
assisting with the sales and distribution support and ancillary
services related to sales of mutual fund shares. Except as noted,
none of these amounts are rebated to you or paid to the
Financial Advisor or his or her branch office.
Except as noted below, this calculation includes shares of
affiliated and non- affiliated funds in our wrap-fee programs,
mutual fund assets held at other financial institutions. Although
we seek to apply a level, standard payment schedule for all of
the mutual fund companies whose funds we sell, mutual fund
companies approach revenue sharing in a variety of ways, and
some mutual fund companies decline to pay revenue sharing
exactly at the levels listed above or at all. As a result, such funds
present a financial disincentive for us to promote the sale of
those funds that do not pay us at the levels listed above.
Revenue sharing payments are allocated to the individual branch
offices as "non-compensable revenue" (revenue that is not paid
out to Financial Advisors or Branch Office Managers) but are
considered as part of the overall profitability of the branch, and as
one of several components used in determining Branch Office
Manager compensation.
Many mutual funds companies pay revenue sharing to us,
including our affiliate, UBS Asset Management. UBS determines
the level of access to our branches based on our own review
Revenue sharing payments present a conflict between our
interests and those of our customers, because the payments
give us a financial incentive to recommend that our customers
buy and hold shares of those funds that we maintain on our
distribution platform and for which we receive revenue-sharing
payments. Although mutual funds from over 400 different fund
families are available o n our distribution platform, this
represents only part of the universe of mutual funds that are
available in the financial services marketplace.
Page 84 of 94
Unit Investment Trusts, Proprietary Money Market Funds and Banking Products
Payment Type
Do Financial Advisors
Receive a Portion of
These Fees?
No.
Volume based
payments
Source of Payment
These payments are made by
the UIT sponsor and not out of
UIT assets.
Investment Type and Current Rate
Unit Investment Trusts.
additional payments to the firms that sell their UITs,
including UBS.
Calculated as a percentage of the total volume of sales of
the sponsor’s UITs made by the firm during the UIT’s initial
offering period. The percentage typically increases as
higher sales volume levels are achieved.
No.
These payments are only made on the sale of units subject
to a transactional sales charge in brokerage accounts.
UBS RMA Government Money Market Fund and UBS Liquid
Assets Government Fund.
UBS Asset Management
(Americas) Inc. (“UBS AM
Americas”),
Proprietary Money
Market Funds
used as Sweep
Vehicles
Payments to UBS Financial Services: shareholder services
fees (non-12b-1) from UBS RMA Government Money
Market Fund at an annual rate of 0.25% of the fund’s
average daily net asset (unless otherwise waived).
Revenue Sharing: UBS RMA Government Money Market
Fund assets at the annual rate of up to 0.12% of the
fund’s average daily net assets.
BNY Mellon Investment
Servicing (US) Inc. ("BNY
Mellon”),
We also provide certain services with respect to both funds
pursuant to a delegation of authority from BNY Mellon
Investment Servicing (US) Inc. ("BNY Mellon”), the transfer
agent of the funds, for which we receive compensation
from BNY Mellon with respect to UBS RMA Government
Money Fund.
UBS Bank USA
UBS Bank Core Savings Accounts: annual fee of up to
$50 for each account
Banking Products
and Sweep
Program
UBS Bank USA
UBS Bank Sweep Programs and the UBS FDIC-Insured
Deposit Program annual fee of up to $50 for each UBS
account that sweeps into deposit accounts at UBS Bank
USA.
UBS Bank USA Program Banks
Brokerage: FAs received
monthly production
credits of 10bps if the
client relationship meets
certain qualifying criteria
relating to cash
management
transactions. Advisory
accounts are not included
UBS-ISP (part of the UBS Bank Sweep Programs) and
the UBS FDIC-Insured Deposit Program: All Program
Banks, except UBS Bank USA, pay UBS a fee equal to a
percentage of the average daily deposit balance in the
Deposit Accounts at each Program Bank. The fee varies
from bank to bank and ranged between 4.97% to 5.53%
from March 2023 to March 2024 for both programs. The
service fee is paid monthly.
Compensation for Data Analytics (Strategic Insights): Our
Strategic Insights program offers vendors whose products are
offered on the UBS Financial Services platform the opportunity to
enter into agreements with us pursuant to which, for a fee
ranging from $170,000 – $370,000, we will provide analytics
and data relating to Financial Advisors in order to help vendors
streamline and tailor the way they do business with our
Financial Advisors. The list of Financial Advisors is a complete list of
all of our Financial Advisors including those that sell their
products and those who do not.
Participation in this program is optional and is not a consideration
when determining whether or not a vendor's products will be
made available on the platform.
Fees related to shareholder communications: UBS outsources
production and delivery of shareholder communications, including
proxies, to a third party. The third party charges issuers standard
industry fees on our behalf to recover costs related to production
and distribution of the communication materials. It also shares a
portion of these fees with UBS in accordance with our agreement.
Proxies and other shareholder communications that are sent to
SMA Managers or to ISS in accordance with the option selected by
clients for their Advisory Accounts, are included in the calculation
of fees collected and shared with us. Total fees collected are
generally in the range of $21 million annually, and the amount paid
to UBS averages approximately $7 million per year. We receive
payments monthly and allocate it to the branches as non-
compensable revenue; it is not paid to Financial Advisors or branch
managers.
Vendors that have this data have an advantage over others as
they have a greater level of information and can tailor their
wholesaling efforts in our branches, which may result in
increased sales of those products by our Financial Advisors.
Financial Advisors do not receive a portion of these fees.
Although opportunities for these strategic relationships are
available to all vendors whose products are available on our
platform, not all vendors participate in these relationships.
Page 85 of 94
accounts. However, we may from time to time, approve margin
on an exception basis when requested by a client or for use in
specialized strategies available in our advisory programs. You
may also use certain managed account assets to collateralize
margin loans and purpose credit lines, as described below, in your
brokerage account. Certain accounts in Strategic Advisor may use
margin upon request.
Non-cash compensation: We and our Financial Advisors receive
non-cash compensation from mutual fund companies,
investment managers, unit investment trust sponsors, annuity
providers, insurance vendors and sponsors of investment
products (including, but not limited to, ETFs) that we distribute.
This compensation includes the following:
- Occasional gifts up to $100 per vendor per year
- Occasional meals, tickets or other entertainment of
You must meet certain eligibility requirements and complete
loan documentation prior to using margin in your advisory
account or applying for a credit line loan. Specifically, you will be
required to execute a separate margin agreement with us or
loan documents with UBS Bank USA or UBS Credit Corp.
-
-
Your Financial Advisor does not receive any portion of the interest
or fees paid to UBS, UBS Bank USA or UBS Credit Corp. on margin
or purpose loans.
Margin and Purpose Credit Lines. Using margin loans or
purpose credit lines in an Advisory Account or using the advisory
assets as collateral for margin loans or purpose credit lines used in
another account is a more aggressive, higher cost and higher risk
approach to pursuing your investment objectives. Before you decide
to use margin or a purpose credit line in your managed account or
to use such assets as collateral for margin or a purpose credit line,
you must carefully consider:
- whether or not you can afford, and want, to assume the
-
reasonable and customary value. The thresholds and limits for
gifts and entertainment are designed to mitigate conflicts
related to recommending the products of the providers of such
gifts, meals or entertainment.
Sponsorship support of educational events the Financial
Advisors arrange for clients and prospective clients.
Contributions made at the firm-level toward seminars and
educational programs for Financial Advisors. These
contributions are significant both per vendor and in the
aggregate. While Financial Advisors do not receive any portion
of these payments, the conflict presented is that a Financial
Advisor’s attendance and participation in educational or
training forums, and the increased exposure to vendors who
sponsor these events, tend to lead Financial Advisors to
recommend the products and services of those vendors over
the products of other vendors. These seminars and educational
programs often include non-educational elements. (See above,
Contributions to Training and Education Expenses, for
additional details).
Various forms of marketing support and, in certain limited
circumstances, the development of tools used by the Firm for
training or record-keeping purposes.
-
-
The receipt of cash and non-cash compensation from sources other
than clients, and the differences in the way we compensate
Financial Advisors for the products we offer, create an incentive for
Financial Advisors to recommend certain products and account
types over others. We address our conflicts of interest by
maintaining policies and procedures requiring that Financial
Advisors act in your best interest, reasonably supervising their
activities and by disclosing these conflicts to you so that you can
make fully informed decisions.
Non-cash compensation can vary by vendor and event.
additional risks that losses in your account may be significantly
greater than if you decide not to invest with borrowed funds
(i.e., not to use leverage).
that the use of leverage will increase your costs of investing, as
well as your risks, and depending upon the return achieved
through the use of margin or a purpose credit line, may make
your investment objectives more difficult to realize.
If we provide a margin loan or purpose credit line to you, you
will pay us interest on the outstanding loan balance. Since the
wrap fee is calculated as a percentage of assets under
management, the use of margin or a purpose credit line to
purchase securities in a managed account generally will
increase the amount of (but not the percentage of) the wrap
fee that you pay to us. This will result in additional
compensation to us, the Financial Advisor and your selected
investment manager.
Other compensation: In addition, our affiliates receive trading
commissions and other compensation from mutual funds and
insurance companies whose products we distribute.
The decision to use leverage in a managed account or use
those assets as collateral rests with you and should only
be made if you understand:
-
-
-
-
-
UBS or our affiliates may engage in a variety of transactions with
(or provide other services to) the investment managers, mutual
funds, their affiliates or service providers with which you are doing
business. We may, in turn, receive compensation from these
entities. Those transactions and services that we or our affiliates
provide may include:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Executing transactions in securities or other instruments
Broker-dealer services for our own account
Research services
Consulting services
Performance evaluation services
Investment banking services
Banking or insurance services
4. Margin and Lending
The risks of margin and purpose credit line borrowing and the
impact of the use of borrowed funds on a managed account
How the use of margin and purpose credit lines may affect
your ability to achieve investment objectives.
You may lose more than your original investment.
A positive or negative performance of a leveraged managed
account, net of interest charges and other account fees, will be
magnified by virtue of using borrowed money. As a result,
gains or losses in a leveraged managed account will be greater
than would be the case with an unleveraged managed
account.
You will not benefit from using leverage in an Advisory
Account if the performance of your account does not
exceed the interest expense being charged on the loan
plus the additional advisory account fees incurred by
your account as a result of the deposit of the loan
proceeds.
Credit Lines. You also may apply to borrow money from our
affiliates, UBS Bank USA or UBS Credit Corp., using an eligible
You may choose to engage in leverage strategies involving the
assets in your eligible non-retirement, non- custodial accounts.
Margin is generally not recommended or permitted in advisory
Page 86 of 94
Financial Advisor when addressing your needs for liquidity. UBS
mitigates this conflict by training and supervising Financial Advisors
to make investment decisions that are in your best interest.
Our affiliates will have a lien on assets in your Account to secure a
credit line loan, which creates a conflict of interest with respect to
the management of your Account. Specifically, in order to preserve
sufficient collateral value to support the loan and avoid a margin
call, depending upon your leverage, a Financial Advisor may be
inclined to invest your Account in more conservative investments,
which may result in lower investment performance than more
aggressive investments (depending on market conditions). We
mitigate this risk by requiring and monitoring to ensure that your
Account is managed consistent with your respective investment
strategies. In addition, where a loan is secured by both brokerage
and advisory assets, a Financial Advisor will benefit if your
brokerage assets are liquidated prior to or instead of your advisory
assets because he would then be able to maintain advisory fee
revenue.
securities account. These eligible securities accounts may include
one or more of your advisory accounts, which may be used as
collateral pursuant to the UBS Credit Line Program. Credit line
loans are either non-purpose or purpose loans. Non-purpose loans
may not be used to purchase, trade or carry securities and may be
used for other liquidity needs such as personal expenses, real estate
transactions, or other needs. However, non-purpose proceeds may
be used (i) on an exception basis when requested by a client, to
invest in select private equity funds or other non-purpose margin
stock (for example floating rate notes) and (ii) be used to purchase
precious metals (for example gold), which results in Financial
Advisor compensation on both the non-purpose loan and the use
of loan proceeds. Purpose loans may be used to purchase, trade or
carry securities or may be used for other liquidity needs such as
personal expenses, real estate transactions, or other needs. Please
review your loan agreement to make sure you understand which
type of loan you have and that you ensure you are in compliance
with its terms. In order for an Advisory Account to be eligible to
serve as collateral for a credit line loan, the Advisory Account may
not also serve as collateral for any margin lending.
Defaults Margin and Credit Lines are full recourse, demand loans.
UBS, UBS Bank USA or UBS Credit Corp., as the case may be, may
demand repayment at any time. You may need to deposit
additional cash or collateral, repay part or all of the loan or sell
securities if the value of the portfolio declines below the required
loan-to-value ratio or if the required collateral is not maintained
(commonly referred to as a “margin call”). You are personally
responsible for repaying the margin loan or Credit line loan in full,
regardless of the value of the collateral.
You are responsible for independently evaluating if the loan is
appropriate for your needs, if the lending terms are acceptable, and
whether the loan will have potential adverse tax or other
consequences to you. Your decision whether to arrange a loan or
draw down on your loan and how you use your loan proceeds is
not encompassed within our advisory relationship. The lending
relationship is governed exclusively by the Credit Line Agreement
between you and UBS Bank USA or UBS Credit Corp., and any
interaction you have with your Financial Advisor in connection with
applying for or obtaining a credit line is in his or her capacity as
broker, not as an investment adviser.
If you wish to collateralize a credit line loan with an advisory
account, we will automatically discontinue the margin for that
Account. Since your Advisory Account will be pledged to support
any loans extended under the UBS Credit Line Program, you will
not be permitted to withdraw any of the assets in the Account
unless there is a sufficient amount of collateral otherwise
supporting the loans (as determined by UBS Bank USA or UBS
Credit Corp. in its sole discretion).
You will pay interest to UBS Bank USA or UBS Credit Corp. on the
loans you obtain from them in addition to the Advisory Account
Program Fees paid to UBS. The interest rate charged in connection
with a credit line loan from our affiliates may be higher than that
charged by other lenders.
Failure to promptly meet a request for additional collateral (a
margin call) or repayment or other circumstances (e.g., a rapidly
declining market) could cause us, in the case of margin loans, or
our affiliate, in the case of credit lines, and in our discretion, to
liquidate or instruct us to liquidate some or all of the collateral
account(s) to meet the margin loan or credit line requirements or to
repay all or a portion of the outstanding margin or credit line
obligations. It is possible that neither you nor your Financial Advisor
will be provided advanced notice of a liquidation of securities that
you have pledged as collateral. Furthermore, neither you nor your
Financial Advisor may be entitled to choose the securities to be
liquidated. Depending on market circumstances, the prices
obtained for the securities may be less than favorable. When
securities are forcibly liquidated pursuant to a margin call or
demand for full or partial repayment of the loan, either UBS Bank
USA or UBS Credit Corp. will instruct UBS to liquidate (in its
capacity as a broker-dealer) some or all of the collateral account(s).
UBS will benefit if your brokerage assets are liquidated prior to or
instead of your advisory assets because UBS would then be able to
maintain advisory fee revenue. However, UBS follows procedures,
agreed upon with UBS Bank USA and UBS Credit Corp., relating to
such liquidations to address and eliminate this potential conflict by
prioritizing the position(s) with the most exposure and highest
maintenance requirement, irrespective of which account type holds
such securities.
UBS Bank USA pays a servicing fee to UBS based on the amount of
outstanding loan balances, irrespective of the type or level of
interest rate, to compensate UBS for referring clients and for
administrative and operational support relating to the loan. In the
event you maintain a loan balance on a non-purpose loan, your
Financial Advisor will receive compensation primarily based upon
the outstanding balance and the corresponding spread on the loan.
This provides an incentive for your Financial Advisor to refer you for
a non-purpose loan and to draw down on the loan. In certain
circumstances, the loan approval amount and spread on the loan
may determine whether your Financial Advisor is eligible for
compensation, but even in those circumstances compensation paid
to your Financial Advisor depends on the outstanding balance.
Any required liquidations may result in adverse tax consequences.
UBS, our affiliates and employees do not provide legal or tax
advice. You should consult your legal and tax advisors regarding
the legal and tax implications of margin borrowing and using
securities as collateral for a loan.
Neither UBS, our affiliates nor our Financial Advisors will act
as investment adviser to you with respect to the liquidation
of securities held in an advisory account to meet a margin or
purpose loan call or credit line loan demand. In addition, as
creditors, we and our affiliates have interests that are
adverse to you. Our affiliated lenders have the right to
Since UBS and your Financial Advisor are compensated primarily
through advisory fees paid on your Account, we (and your Financial
Advisor) benefit if you draw down on your loan to meet liquidity
needs rather than sell securities or other investments in your
Account, which would reduce our advisory fee. A draw down
would preserve your Financial Advisor’s advisory fee revenue and
may generate additional loan-related compensation for the
Financial Advisor. This presents a conflict of interest for your
Page 87 of 94
-
-
-
-
levels of unsolicited trading in Strategic Advisor;
asset allocation and investment policy guidelines in UBS-CAP
and investment policy statements in IC;
trading activity in the PMP program, and trading guidelines for
PACE, Strategic Advisor, SWP, AAP UBS-CAP and IC; and
review of researched SMA Managers.
protect their own commercial interests and take actions that
adversely affect the management of your Account and
related performance. Additional limitations and availability
may vary by state. Those liquidations will be executed in our
capacity as broker-dealer and creditor and may, as permitted
by law, result in executions on a principal basis in your
Account.
Securities backed financing involves special risks (including,
without limitation, being subject to a margin call if certain
collateral value requirements are not met) and is not suitable
for everyone. For further information, please see the UBS
Financial Services Inc. Loan Disclosure Statement, which is
available from your Financial Advisor.
Item 12. Personal Trading
Advisory Account Groups; Impact on your Accounts and
Investment Advisory Fees: Advisory Account Group (“AAG”)
applies certain Advisory program guidelines across all, or some
accounts across a client tax identification number (or other
unique identifier). The AAG aggregates guidelines across multiple
accounts held by the same client in either the same program or
across programs, depending on the specific guideline and
program. The AAG impacts the application and resolution of
guidelines at the account level including, but not limited to:
− Single security concentration (i.e., equity, bond, mutual fund,
etc.)
− Aggregate security concentration (i.e., complex mutual fund,
structured products, etc.)
The Investment Advisers Act of 1940 imposes a fiduciary duty on
portfolio managers to always act in the best interests of clients and
to put their clients’ interests ahead of their own. With respect to
trading in a Financial Advisor’s own account or one over which
he/she has control or a beneficial interest (a “Control Account”),
there is a potential conflict of interest in situations where Financial
Advisors buy or sell securities for their own accounts as well as the
accounts of their clients.
− Cash concentration
− Trading level activity
− Minimum positions
The standard AAG will be automatically applied to all existing and
new Advisory accounts with the same client tax identification
number (or other unique identifier). At your request and pursuant
to a letter of authority, we may also establish a custom AAG by
combining two or more standard AAGs and expanding the group
of accounts considered for purposes of the program guidelines.
To ensure that the AAP Financial Advisors, PMP Portfolio Managers,
Financial Advisors with a power of attorney for limited discretion in
IC, and UBS Financial Services Inc. avoid any potential conflicts with
respect to personal trading, we have a Personal Trading Policy for
Control Accounts. Generally, when a security is bought or sold in a
PMP or AAP account, that security may not be bought or sold in
the PMP/AAP Financial Advisor’s Control Account(s) during a
defined timeframe.
The Personal Trading Policy applies to trades in an advisor’s Control
Account unless the Control Account participates in PMP or AAP
and is traded in a block transaction receiving an average price along
with other PMP/AAP client accounts.
Item 13. Review of Accounts
UBS-CAP and IC do not use the standard or custom AAGs.
The UBS-CAP and IC Programs apply Program guidelines on
investments, restrictions and activity at the portfolio-level across a
client’s accounts enrolled in the respective Program, not on an
account-by-account basis. This means that an individual client
account will be deemed to be in alignment with program guidelines
(for example, as to position concentration, trade activity, etc.) when
considered together with the client’s other UBS-CAP or IC Program
accounts, even when the individual account would not align with
program guidelines if viewed separately.
We have various policies and procedures applicable to the review
and supervision of client accounts in our investment advisory
programs. Those policies are designed to comply with the
requirements of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and where
applicable, ERISA and other applicable rules and regulations.
For example, an individual client account with no trading activity
over a given period will be deemed to be in alignment with
program guidelines if the client’s CAP Program accounts viewed
together demonstrate that the client is receiving investment
advisory services under the CAP Program consistent with program
guidelines. This is even though, if not enrolled in the CAP Program,
the Account would otherwise be terminated and transitioned to a
brokerage account for not fully leveraging the wrap fee services
offered in the Program and covered by the Program Fee.
There are general policies applicable to all advisory accounts as well
as individually tailored guidelines for each of the wrap fee programs
described in this brochure. Because the Programs offer different
services and have different features, the guidelines for supervision
vary by Program.
The use of the AAG or, for UBS-CAP and IC, a portfolio based
approach for the supervision of Program guidelines means that:
− Some or all of such accounts may remain in the UBS
Accounts are reviewed periodically (usually quarterly), although
certain guidelines for specific Programs are reviewed daily (for
example, principal trades and trading errors). Items generally
reviewed include, but are not limited to the following (as applicable
given program features and services):
–
Investment Advisory Programs although they would have been
terminated from the Program(s) due to concentration levels or
low trading levels if reviewed on a stand-alone basis;
consistency of the client’s investment profile with their
selection of SMA Managers in the ACCESS program, asset
allocations in PACE, SWP, AAP and Strategic Advisor, and
investment strategies managed by our Portfolio Managers
in PMP;
− For UBS-CAP and IC, accounts with no trading can remain in
the Program for an extended period of time so long as clients
are receiving and leveraging the investment advice provided in
the respective Program;
− The continued participation of such accounts in UBS
-
-
levels of security and cash concentration;
compliance with principal trade restrictions where those trades
are not permitted;
Investment Advisory Programs will result in UBS receiving
revenue that it may not have otherwise received had the
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accounts been reviewed individually and terminated from the
program;
provide detailed information at the time of the referral regarding
the compensation arrangement with UBS and the related conflicts
of interest.
− Unless you are paying a levelized UBS Investment Advisory Fee
for all assets in the AAG relationship, it is possible that the
trading or concentration levels of accounts with lower fees will
benefit those in which you are paying higher fees or vice versa;
and
− While the ongoing advice of your Financial Advisor is the
principal component of the services you pay for in the
Programs, if you trade infrequently you may not be taking full
advantage of all of the services offered.
Annual Review of Accounts: Financial Advisors are required to
conduct an annual internal review and a review with clients of
Accounts enrolled in Advisory Programs. Reviews are conducted on
a household basis.
We also have solicitation arrangements under which we and/or our
Financial Advisors receive compensation for referring clients to a
third party who will provide investment advisory or other services to
the client. The compensation we receive is usually a portion of the
advisory fee the third party receives from its clients and will
continue as long as the referred client remains invested in an
advisory program with the third party. In certain circumstances we
may also receive commission revenue for transactions those third
parties execute through our firm. It is our practice to disclose to the
client being referred the terms of the arrangement, including the
maximum compensation payable to us and/or our Financial
Advisors or a third party, as the case may be. We also may refer
clients to a third party for investment in private funds managed by
the third party. In those cases, we will typically enter into a
placement agent agreement with the third-party manager (or a
private fund that it manages) that describes the terms of the
arrangement and compensation paid to UBS. The compensation we
receive under these arrangements with third parties presents a
conflict of interest since it provides an incentive for UBS and its
Financial Advisors to refer clients to a third party that offers us
compensation, or greater levels of compensation for their products
or services over other third parties. We address these conflicts by
providing detailed information at the time of the referral regarding
the compensation arrangement with the third party and the related
conflicts of interested.
Branch or Market Managers and other supervisory personnel are
responsible for the supervision and review of these accounts, while
home office Program Managers are responsible for enforcing the
various program guidelines. Reports are generated either by the
Program Management team or automatically through our systems,
and provided to Financial Advisors and Branch or Market Managers
for follow-up. These reports are for internal use and are not
provided to clients. If the report item is not remedied within a pre-
determined period of time, the accounts may be terminated from
the Programs or other action taken to bring the account back into
compliance with Program guidelines or document an exception to
the guidelines.
Clients in the Advisory programs receive an annual review of
their account which identifies shifts in the asset allocation in
their Advisory Account Review documents.
We and our affiliates also have arrangements with some third party
investment managers under which we and/or certain of our
Financial Advisors provide research (within the meaning of Section
28(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934), and in return, the
investment manager places brokerage transactions with us for
execution, subject to best execution practices and requirements.
Item 14. Client Referrals and
Other Compensation
The research services provided generally may be in the form of
written reports or telephone contacts or personal meetings with
security analysts, economists, or meetings hosted by our Financial
Advisors with corporate or industry spokespersons. UBS or our
Financial Advisors also may recommend or refer clients to third-
party investment managers that place brokerage transactions with
us.
Arrangements with Affiliates: We have referral agreements with
our affiliates that outline: (1) how we refer clients to them, (2) how
they refer clients to us, (3) how we act as solicitor for their advisory
services and/or wrap fee programs, (4) how we refer clients to them
for services other than advisory services, and (5) how we are
compensated when we refer investors into private funds they
manage and promote.
The differences in the form or amount of compensation paid to us
by different investment managers for client referrals or research
products create a conflict between our interests and the interests of
the clients referred because of the incentive to make referrals to
those investment managers that offer us greater compensation
than others.
Under those agreements, we share fees with or receive fees from
our affiliates for the referral or solicitation of clients or for services
provided to clients. These payments will vary, depending on the
type of agreement, product or the nature and extent of the services
provided, and may continue as long as the client account is
maintained with UBS or our affiliate, for an agreed upon period, or
as compensation for distribution services in the case of interests in
financial products sold (such as interests in private funds).
Arrangements may also be based on a percentage of revenue
received.
Referral arrangements for financing business. We have
certain agreements whereby we refer our customers to certain
lenders, on a non-exclusive basis, for specific financing
opportunities not available at UBS or its affiliates. These lenders
may be able to assist clients in securing financing for specialized
borrowing needs.
It is our practice to disclose to the client being referred the roles of
UBS and the lender in connection with such referral and that we
receive a referral fee from the lender. Upon the successful
completion of a transaction, the lender will pay us a referral
fee, which will vary depending upon the lender and/or the amount
of the financing. A portion of the fee we receive is paid to the
Financial Advisor.
Referral Arrangements for Annuities for Insurance Business.
UBS offers a referral program for property and casualty insurance,
Third Party Arrangements: We also have a referral program in
which UBS enters into solicitation arrangements with third parties
that we compensate for referring or soliciting their clients to
participate in our Advisory or trust services programs. The
compensation these solicitors receive is generally a portion of the
advisory fees we receive from referred clients. There are conflicts of
interest that arise when we compensate third parties for solicitation
activities. The fees solicitors receive may provide greater
compensation to the third party than other similar arrangements
and motivate the third party to recommend our services or
Programs over other similar services or Programs that involve less
lucrative fee-sharing arrangements. Third-party solicitors will
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high-limit disability insurance, certain life insurance products and
products for certain international clients, pension risk transfer
services, and Medicare supplemental insurance plans. Under these
programs, a Financial Advisor refers a client to a third party general
agency ("General Agency") or other third party firm (“Third-Party
Firm”) that sells the insurance or annuity policy directly to the
client. The General Agency or Third-Party Firm then pays UBS a
portion of the commission it receives from the insurance company
that issues the policy or the fee that the Third-Party Firm receives
from the client (the “Referral Fee"). The fees and charges paid by
clients, as well as the Referral Fee paid to UBS, will differ based on
the type of policy and a variety of other factors. Financial Advisors
receive a portion of the amounts UBS receives based on the grid
rate applicable to them. Clients will receive disclosures from their
Financial Advisor when a referral is going to be made.
Item 15. Financial Information
UBS Financial Services Inc. is a qualified custodian (as defined in
SEC Rule 206(4)-2. As a result, we have not included the balance
sheet required under the “Financial Information” of this Form ADV.
As of the date of this Brochure, there is no financial condition
that is reasonably likely to impair our ability to meet our
contractual commitment to our clients.
Our Firm has not been the subject of a bankruptcy petition at
any time during the last ten years.
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SUMMARY OF MATERIAL CHANGES
SEC File Number 801-7163
March 31, 2025
UBS Financial Services Inc.
1000 Harbor Boulevard
Weehawken, NJ 07086
(201) 352-3000
http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com
Summary of Material Changes to Form ADV Disclosure Brochure
Discretionary Programs
Portfolio Management Program (PMP)
UBS Advice Portfolio Program
Advisor Allocation Program (AAP)
Separately Managed Accounts Programs
ACCESSSM
Managed Accounts Consulting (MAC)
Unified Managed Accounts Program
UBS Strategic Wealth Portfolio (SWP)
Non-Discretionary Advisory Programs
UBS Strategic Advisor
Personalized Asset Consulting and Evaluation (PACE)
PACE Multi Advisor Program
PACE Select Advisors Trust
Portfolio Advisory Program(s)
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program (UBS-CAP)
UBS Institutional Consulting Program (IC)
Alternative Investments Advisory Program
UBS Consolidated Advisory Program Select (CAP Select)
This Summary of Material Changes applies to the Form ADV Disclosure Brochure for the retail and institutional wrap fee
investment advisory programs and Alternative Investments Advisory Program listed above.
If you have any questions about the content of this brochure, please contact us at 888-526-7454. The information in this brochure has
not been approved or verified by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or by any state securities authority.
Additional information about UBS Financial Services Inc. is also available on the SEC’s website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.
Please note that registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training.
You may obtain a copy of our updated Form ADV Disclosure Brochure by contacting us at the number listed above to make your request. The
Brochure is available to you free of charge. You may also access the document at our website:
http://www.ubs.com/us/en/wealth/misc/AccountDisclosures.html
Please retain this document for future reference as it contains important information regarding our investment advisory programs.
Item 2. Material Changes
This section describes the material changes to our Wrap Fee Programs Form ADV Disclosure Brochure since the last amendment of
our Form ADV on March 30, 2024.
The Section “About UBS Financial Services Inc.”
“Our Responsibilities as an Investment Adviser” has been revised to state that where UBS recommends proprietary or affiliated
investments on a non-discretionary basis to you regarding your covered retirement accounts and would receive increased
compensation, we may operate under the US Department of Labor’s Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02, where relevant, a
special rule that requires us to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours when we provide investment advice
or recommendations as a fiduciary.
Item 4. Services, Fees and Compensation has been revised as follows:
Item 4.B (Advisory Programs: Fee schedules, Minimum Investments and Minimum Annual Fees) has been updated to reflect that the
minimum account opening size for Strategic Wealth Portfolio has been reduced from $100,000 to $25,000 (but can be higher if
SMA sub-accounts are included in the target allocation).
In Item 4. B. 1 (Your Program Fee; Services Included in Your Program Fee), the discussion of affiliated or proprietary SMA Advantage
strategies that charge a Premium Services Fee has been revised to state that they are not available to Retirement Plan clients enrolled
in the IC Program with a Limited Power of Attorney for Financial Advisor Discretion Services. Premium Services Fees may be charged
to Retirement Plan clients in IC non-discretionary programs and other IC clients. Recommending affiliated managers raises a conflict
of interest, because retaining those entities will result in increased compensation to UBS and/or a UBS affiliate. Current Retirement
Plan clients in IC non-discretionary programs may execute a contract amendment to permit SMA Advantage strategies with a
premium service fee.
Item 4. D (Compensation to Financial Advisors, Market Directors and Associate Market Executives (“Advisors”) Who Recommend
Advisory Programs) has been updated to reflect changes to the standard compensation plan for Financial Advisors by revising the
Incentive Grid Rate range and the available awards.
In Item 4.G.2, (the subsection titled Rebalancing Your Asset Allocation: Rebalancing Options, Process, Thresholds and Limitations),
has been revised to reflect changes to certain automatic rebalancing thresholds. In PACE and SWP , the single mutual fund, ETF
and SMA concentrations, as applicable, of 70% have increased by 1% before automatic rebalancing is triggered. In
AAP, the single mutual fund and ETF concentrations of 35% and the single SMA strategy concentration of 70% have
also increased by 1%. Accounts are subject to rebalancing as provided in that subsection.
Item 4. H (Portfolio Advisory and Alternative Investments Advisory Programs) has been revised to state that for Retirement Plan
clients enrolled in the IC Program with a Limited Power of Attorney for Financial Advisor Discretion Services, our investment searches
will not include UBS affiliated/proprietary mutual or sub advised funds unless such investments or strategies are eligible within the IC
Program and made available at no additional cost to client. Such funds or strategies may be available to Retirement Plan clients in IC
non-discretionary programs and other IC clients.
Section E.1 (Description of our Discretionary Programs; UBS Advice Portfolio Program)
UBS Advice Portfolio Program: The UBS Advice Portfolio Program was closed to enrollment for new clients or new accounts on
March 21, 2025. On or about June 13, 2025, any existing UBS Advice Portfolio accounts will transition to a similar UBS House View
multi-asset portfolio in the ACCESS program. The House View portfolios are managed by the same portfolio management team
currently responsible for the UBS Advice Portfolios and will continue to leverage asset allocation guidance from the UBS Chief
Investment Office (CIO) and portfolio construction and execution capabilities from UBS Asset Management.
Accounts enrolled in the UBS Advice Portfolio Program will be automatically transitioned to the UBS ACCESS—Separately Managed
Account (SMA)—Advisory program unless a client takes action to select another program or no program prior to June 9, 2025.
Ongoing management and maintenance activities for any existing UBS Advice Portfolio Program (cash flows, withdrawals, etc.)
accounts will remain available until June 13.
Item 5 Account Requirements and Client Types has been revised as follows:
Item 5.B.2 (Investment strategies; Eligible and Ineligible Assets), the subsection titled “Single Share Class Mutual Funds” has
Page 92 of 94
been updated to reflect that 12b-1 fees paid by legacy A, B, C or other share classes of mutual funds in UBS brokerage accounts will
be retained by UBS and no longer shared with Financial Advisors unless certain conditions apply. This change will take effect on or
around the middle of 2025, and creates a conflict of interest because it influences the recommendations that you receive from your
Financial Advisor.
In Item 5.C.7. (the Debiting/Invoicing Program Fees sub-section) has been revised to clarify details about the Bill To feature and when
the feature will be terminated. The feature will not automatically terminate when there is a title/ownership change, or new
authorized parties are added to the Bill To account. It is your responsibility to contact your Financial Advisor in order to update your
billing features.
Section 6. Portfolio Management Selection and Evaluation has been revised to add the following section.
A. Alternative Investments Due Diligence, Review and Approval and Allocation of Investment Opportunities
Unified Global Alternatives (UGA) is a new business unit established in January 2025 through a collaboration between the Global
Wealth Management and Asset Management divisions of UBS.
UGA combines the Global Alternatives Investment Solutions teams within Global Wealth Management with Asset Management’s
Hedge Fund Solutions, Real Estate and Private Markets Multi-Manager businesses along with their respective sales and distribution
support teams. UGA is designed to serve the needs of clients from both divisions.
UBS Financial Services Inc. the sponsor of the advisory programs described in this Brochure is part of the Global Wealth Management
(GWM) Division.
Prior to the creation of UGA, GWM (including UBS-FS) managed an open architecture platform of alternative investments, while the
AM areas which are part of UGA, structured and managed proprietary alternative investments that could be offered to brokerage
and advisory clients on the UBS-FS Platform. AM funds underwent investment and operational due diligence on an arm’s-length
basis and the respective business units operated separately without common revenue targets. Not approving an AM fund for the
UBS-FS platform had no impact on the overall goals or compensation of the GWM team.
The creation of UGA gives rise to new conflicts of interest as it brings together the formerly independent teams with a common goal
to grow the alternative investment franchise, increase revenues and gain better value for clients. GWM has delegated initial and
ongoing due diligence responsibilities, negotiation of placement agreements and onboarding of alternatives investments for the
GWM platforms to UGA.
To address the conflicts of interest, UGA has adopted policies, procedures that require (1) the consistent and objective application of
due diligence requirements for all funds approved for the GWM platforms; (2) revenue targets for the business teams to be product
type neutral so as to not favor proprietary products vs. non-proprietary products; (3) the allocation of capacity and investment
opportunities among GWM and AM clients to be subject to a fair and reasonable process that complies with fiduciary obligations.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, in instances in which the fund capacity allocated to UBS is limited (for example, private markets),
fiduciary portfolios will be given priority access versus non-fiduciary accounts.
Item 9.B. (Disciplinary History) has been updated to include the following disciplinary items:
Date of Action: December 30, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
Without admitting or denying the findings, the Firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that from February 2014
through November 2024, it sent its customers millions of trade confirmations that either (1) disclosed that the price shown was or
may be an average price when it was not an average price or (2) failed to disclose that the price shown was in fact an average price.
The findings also stated that the firm failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to achieve
compliance with Exchange Act Rule 10B-10 and FINRA rule 2232.
Disposition: Censure and fine of $1.1 million.
Date of Action: December 18, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
The firm entered into an Acceptance Waiver & Consent under which the firm, without admitting or denying the findings, consented
to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to
assess whether its registered representatives recommended to retail customers short-term trades of syndicate preferred stocks that
were unsuitable.
Disposition: Censure, fine of $500,000, restitution of $343,914.66 plus interest, and disgorgement of $2,645,537 plus interest.
Page 93 of 94
Date of Action: July 8, 2024
Brought by: FINRA
Entity: UBS Financial Services Inc.
Without admitting or denying the findings, the firm consented to the sanctions and to the entry of findings that it failed to establish
and maintain a supervisory system reasonably designed to achieve compliance with the firm's obligation to monitor transmittals of
customer funds to third parties and to respond reasonably to red flags of private securities transactions. The findings stated the firm
failed to detect that a registered representative, who was acting outside the scope of their employment with the firm, sold to their
customers unapproved securities that were offered by a third party. The firm repaid the customers their principal plus the amount of
appreciation reported to them by the third party totaling more than $17 million.
Disposition: Censure and fine of $850,000.
©UBS 2025. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS. All rights reserved. UBS
Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member SIPC.
UBS Financial Services Inc. ubs.com/fs 110106-2700-134
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