UBS Accuses Ex-Advisor of 'Brazen' Attempts to Take Clients
What You Need to Know
One client told UBS advisor Douglas Frew showed up at her house seeking an asset transfer, according to a lawsuit.
The suit reports 33 requests to transfers a total of $15 million to an LPL-affiliated firm.
UBS alleges Frew has tried to take clients he hadn’t brought to the firm.
UBS Financial Services has sued former longtime financial advisor Douglas Jonathan Frew, alleging he violated loyalty and contractual duties by trying to transfer client assets to his new employer when he abruptly resigned last month.
Frew, who resigned and transferred his broker and advisor registrations to LPL Financial on Sept. 17, “egregiously violated” his loyalty duties and non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements “in order to try and move a significant amount of client assets” to his new firm, BroadFront Capital Management, the lawsuit contends.
UBS accuses Frew of ”brazen conduct,” including allegedly showing up at one client’s home to tell her she needed to transfer her assets and calling another client 10 times from his personal phone. His actions caused “justifiable fear and concern among clients,” the suit states.
By Sept. 27, shortly after the resignation, UBS had received requests for 33 transfers comprising $15.33 million to BroadFront for UBS clients formerly serviced by Frew or his advisory team, the complaint alleges.
Frew, now listed online as a partner and private wealth advisor at BroadFront, was introduced to those clients through his 10-year employment at UBS’ branch in Red Bank, New Jersey, according to the complaint, filed on Sept. 30 in New Jersey’s Superior Court, Chancery Division, in Monmouth County.
Joining UBS as a wealth planning analyst in 2014, Frew was promoted to financial advisor and later partnered as a junior advisor on a team with a more senior and experienced UBS financial advisor, Jason Feder, the suit says, noting the pair managed roughly $900 million in client assets.
“Feder introduced the overwhelming majority of the team’s clients and the team’s assets under management,” the complaint alleges.
The suit contends Frew violated firm policies and the law in attempting to move UBS clients and their significant assets to BroadFront, including client relationships he didn’t introduce and “which are legally, equitably and practically not his to take.”
“Leaving nothing to chance, (Frew) spent the days leading up to his resignation working on behalf of BroadFront and LPL Financial while still employed at UBS by sending key documents to UBS clients,” the suit alleges.
