JPMorgan Wealth Management has significantly expanded its Los Angeles footprint by recruiting a team overseeing $1.1 billion in client assets from William Blair. The group, led by David Amar, will operate out of Century City, serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients across Southern California and nationally. Amar, a 30-year industry veteran who previously spent a decade at JPMorgan earlier in his career, returns as a wealth partner within the firm's boutique offering for wealthy individuals and institutions. His team includes Liza Belokonnyi as business specialist, Rene Galvan as investment associate, and Charles Brooks as senior client associate.
The hire marks the first major addition of 2026 under Mollie Colavita, who succeeded Phil Sieg as head of JPMorgan advisors last fall. It follows two team acquisitions in Austin last August—the Neff Group and the Buchanan Group. Michael Rogers, regional director for JPMorgan Wealth Management in Southern California, said the firm is "delighted to welcome David back" and described the team as "excellent additions" to its existing Los Angeles operations.
Separately, UBS has bolstered its Manhattan private wealth office by hiring Brad Gillin from Deutsche Bank Wealth Management. Gillin, who will join after his notice period, previously served as a director in New York City. He will be based at UBS's 1285 Avenue of the Americas office and report to senior market director Tom Conigatti. Gillin began his career at Deutsche Bank in 2006 as a client associate before moving into private banking and building his own practice over the past seven years. At UBS, he will advise ultra-high-net-worth families and financial professionals—including private equity partners—on asset allocation, portfolio construction, customized lending, liquidity strategies, and wealth transfer planning. He joins the Baum Investment Group, led by managing director and private wealth advisor Jamie Baum, who has over three decades of experience and has been with UBS since 2010. Manhattan market executive Kellie Brady noted that Gillin's background advising sophisticated clients makes him "a strong fit" for the market, adding that his "collaborative approach and understanding of complex wealth needs align well with UBS's global capabilities."
In the independent broker-dealer space, Cetera has added two Long Island-based advisors who together manage approximately $380 million in assets under advisement. Bob Bolebruch and Steve Sherman join through North Ridge Wealth Planning, a regional network led by CEO Matt Levy, after spending nearly two decades at American Portfolios—which was acquired by Osaic in 2022. Bolebruch, with more than 40 years of industry experience, has focused his practice on long-term client relationships and multigenerational family planning. He cited Cetera's service model and technology platform as key factors in the move, saying that when evaluating his next step, "the most important question wasn't what the platform could do for me, it was what it could do for them."
Bolebruch's daughter, Jordan Bolebruch, will join the practice as his partner—a succession element he said Cetera supported from early on in discussions. Tim Stinson, president of Cetera's Large Enterprise channel, welcomed "the father-daughter team of Bob and Jordan Bolebruch," describing their commitment to personalized service as a fit with the firm's broader culture. These moves come amid a competitive recruiting environment, as firms like LPL and Osaic continue to capture sizable teams, as seen in the recent $1.4B dual breakaway from Raymond James. Meanwhile, regulatory and technological developments are reshaping the landscape, including a judge halting forensic searches in the Ameriprise-LPL recruiting dispute and Wells Fargo launching an AI-enhanced advisor gateway.
