UBS closed out 2025 on a high note, just not in its wealth business in the Americas.

The Swiss investment bank beat fourth-quarter earnings expectations Wednesday, posting net profits of $1.2 billion. But those results weren’t enough to hide continued struggles inside the firm’s wealth management division, particularly in the Americas. While UBS’ global wealth unit attracted strong inflows from Asia, Europe and the Middle East, its Americas business lagged behind, shedding more than $14 billion in client assets during the quarter as advisors continued to walk out the door after compensation changes were made last year. Shares of the Zurich-based bank fell about 6% by the close of trading Wednesday.

“You’ll see more advisors leaving, certainly in the first quarter, and they’re going to have a really hard time recruiting competitively for this year,” said Jason Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants.

Movin’ Out (Advisors’ Song)

The outflows come as UBS continues to reshape its US wealth business as well as finish its Credit Suisse integration. The firm reorganized the wealth unit into four regional divisions as part of a broader push to improve profitability. So far, the results have been uneven. The latest earning report shows:

• Advisor headcount across the Americas, which includes the US, Canada and Latin America, fell to 5,772 at the end of the year, down from 5,968 a year earlier.
• UBS’ global wealth unit brought in $8.5 billion in net new assets during the quarter, plummeting approximately 77% from the prior quarter, and roughly 52% from a year ago.

“We’re certainly not satisfied with the net movement we’ve seen around our advisors,” Chief Financial Officer Todd Tuckner said on the firm’s earnings call. “We expect net new assets in the Americas to be positive in 2026, supported by a healthy recruiting pipeline and improved retention of our most productive advisors.”

UBS did not answer additional questions about the report.

Shedding a Few Pounds. Some of the exits may have been a result of UBS trimming its pay grid for advisors and incentives for teams in 2025. In September, the company walked back some of those cuts for its 2026 advisor compensation plan, which includes raising the grid payout rate. “The question is whether they can retain advisors at this point, because I don’t see a world where they’re going to be able to meaningfully recruit this year unless it’s an acquisition,” Diamond said.

Set, hut!

Football season is almost at a close, which means bets on the Big Game are skyrocketing. Analysts expect viewers to wager approximately $1.76 billion on this Sunday’s Super Bowl LX, a nearly 27% year-over-year increase. New prediction markets from firms like Polymarket, Kalshi and now Robinhood are offering bettors the opportunity to take increasingly niche gambles on everything from which companies will run ads during the event to what words might be spoken by the announcers. (Event contracts for the latter from Polymarket include “underdog,” “concussion” and the phrase “Now, here’s a guy.”) Should advisors be concerned that their clients might be parlaying their 401(k)s away?

“We have seen a rise in this in our younger clients, aged 20 to 40 years old,” said Kyle Mostransky, CEO of investment management firm Mostransky & Associates. “Our concern is that this leads into crypto speculation, meme stocks and treating investing as picking winners and not owning businesses.”

Banking on It

Apps like FanDuel, BetMGM and DraftKings capitalize on the legal sports betting industry — estimated to be worth more than $10 billion — by offering real-time wagers on everything from football to darts. These apps can blur the line between skill and chance, Mostransky said, which encourages younger, less experienced investors to buy in. It’s also bleeding over into the world of investing. “I don’t see an issue with a big event like the Super Bowl, putting $100 on a box or doing it for charity,” said Larry Sprung, founder of Mitlin Financial. “But when people are betting on how long the national anthem is going to last, or how long the coin flip is going to take, I think it’s crazy.”

Advisor Upside decided to undertake a serious investigation into some of the strangest Super Bowl-related contracts on the market as of Wednesday afternoon, including:

• The color of the Gatorade that will be poured on the winning team’s head coach. (Orange was the most popular option, at 25%, although yellow is clearly the best.)
• Whether halftime show performer Bad Bunny will wear a skirt or dress during his performance (15%).
• Which celebrities will attend the game, with the top three bets being former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (99%), Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (60%) and singer Justin Bieber (56%).

To Parlay or IRA? Ultimately, rolling the dice on sporting events is up to the individual, even if it might not be the best long-term financial decision. But advisors should still know when to put their foot down, said Joon Um, a financial planner with Secure Tax & Accounting.

“When we step in is when betting starts creeping into money that should be earmarked for savings, taxes or long-term goals. Then it becomes a planning issue, not a lifestyle one,” Um said. “Being based in LA, we also have plenty of clients who enjoy Vegas trips, so we frame betting the same way: entertainment spending with clear limits.”

Artificial intelligence may not only come for our jobs one day, but for our very souls. In a bleak future, the last remaining husks of flesh and bone will bow down to their all-seeing, all-knowing computer overlords, begging data centers for a single drop of water … For now, though, AI is a pretty handy tool for financial advisors.

Nearly two‑thirds of advisors believe generative AI’s greatest impact will be improving client communications, according to a Morningstar report. That doesn’t mean that clients are now mainly interacting with a computer program. It’s the opposite, actually. AI tools can take care of a lot of the prep and post-work for meetings, allowing for better, more thoughtful dialogues between advisors and clients.

A Little Help from My AI Friends

Advisors spend about 52% of their time on client-related activities like identifying goals and customizing strategies, but most would like to spend a lot more time on those tasks. “AI will most likely be a tool that can help them get there if they are strategic about how and where they plug it into their workflows,” said Joseph Agostinelli, senior director of market research at Morningstar.

The report also found:

• Some 26% of advisors use AI for meeting summaries, note-taking and drafting emails.
• A similar number use it for research and due diligence on investment products and strategies.
• About a quarter use AI for brainstorming talking points, like market trends or geopolitical developments before client meetings.

“Specifically, if the advisor knows the industry or company their client works for, they use AI to gather news updates,” Agostinelli said. “Are there layoffs? Are there large mergers or acquisitions? That type of information could help address relevant topics in the meeting.”

Client Connection. It’s unclear whether clients are recognizing improvements when their advisors use AI tools, but it is what plenty of clients are encouraging. Some 43% said their confidence in their advisor would increase if they knew they were using AI to make their practice more efficient, per a Morningstar survey.

A dystopian future run by AI is just one possibility. But who knows, maybe humans and machines can coexist. Maybe.