Robert McCann back in the financial advice industry

The former UBS chief was named co-chair of recently rebranded NewEdge Capital Group.

After leaving UBS at the end of 2020, Robert J. McCann is returning to the financial advice industry as co-chair of NewEdge Capital Group, which works with 300 financial advisers and $30 billion in client assets.

McCann is working alongside current NewEdge Capital Group chairman Charles Warden, founder of Mid Atlantic Capital Group. Parts of Mid Atlantic were recently rebranded under NewEdge, as parent company EdgeCo Holdings consolidated the wealth management operations it has launched or acquired since 2018, according to a statement Tuesday from the company. McCann is also an investor in the firm.

McCann is widely credited with injecting new life into UBS’ wealth management business in the United States after the credit crisis. He left rival Merrill Lynch and joined UBS in 2009. At the time, he was CEO of UBS Wealth Management Americas and a member of the group executive board; in 2015, he became UBS’ chairman for the Americas region.

NewEdge has three businesses for financial advisers: two registered investment advisers, NewEdge Advisors and NewEdge Wealth, and a broker-dealer, NewEdge Securities Inc.

“In the same way that streaming apps disrupted cable TV, the wealth advice business is being changed by elite advisors using cloud-based open platforms to deliver advice optimally, and NewEdge embraces that change,” McCann said in the statement.