A Chicago-area manager who had quickly climbed the leadership ranks at UBS Wealth Management USA is jumping to Merrill Lynch.<\/p>\n
Weisner Perez, who had been market director overseeing UBS branches in Northbrook, Oakbrook and Barrington offices, will join Merrill as a market manager, according to an internal memo sent this week and viewed by AdvisorHub.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perez will report to Merrill Chicago Market Executive Brooke Thompson to \u201csupport advisor growth, strengthen client engagement and help drive the continued growth,\u201d according to the memo.<\/p>\n
Perez, a Chicago native, started at UBS as an analyst at its Wealth Advice Center for mass affluent clients in 2019, became an assistant market head in Connecticut 2021 and was named market director in 2023 in Las Vegas. He had overseen the three Chicago offices since March 2025, according to LinkedIn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perez was co-chair of UBS\u2019s Mosaic Americas program supporting multicultural employees, according to LinkedIn. He also had qualified to participate in the firm\u2019s Elevate leadership development program aimed at the top 1% of employees, according to the memo.<\/p>\n
A UBS spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Perez began his career with a summer internship at Bank of America in 2018, according to LinkedIn. He did not respond to a request for comment sent through the social networking site.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Merrill and its wirehouse peers have been shuffling and poaching field leaders as they seek to bolster recruiting<\/a> in an increasingly competitive market.\u00a0<\/p>\n Merrill in June landed<\/a> a veteran Morgan Stanley manager for a similar role as market manager assisting the market executive for Connecticut, western Massachusetts and portions of New York.<\/p>\n In addition to managers, Merrill in July hired a team overseeing $13 billion<\/a> in assets from Morgan Stanley\u2019s institutional Graystone Consulting business. It also landed a Morgan Stanley veteran managing $1.5 billion<\/a> in Colorado and in June added a UBS team with $460 million<\/a> in assets in Tennessee.<\/p>\n