UBS Wealth Management USA, which has been seeking to bolster its recruiting of top-end producers, on Friday nabbed a Merrill Lynch advisor who had generated $8.6 million in annual revenue in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a spokesperson confirmed. 

Joseph “Clay” Young IV, a three-decade industry veteran, had managed $956 million in assets at Merrill, according to an industry ranking cited by the spokesperson. He joined UBS’s South Market led by Regional Director Julie Fox on Friday. 

Young will work from an UBS office in Memphis, Tennessee, until it opens an office in Jonesboro later this year. 

Neither Young nor a spokesperson for Merrill responded to requests for comment.

The high-profile hire comes as UBS is attempting to regain momentum after a period of elevated advisor attrition tied in part to compensation changes that took effect last year.

Over the past two weeks, UBS has rolled out an aggressive recruiting package that offers 550% of trailing-12 month revenue for teams that generated at least $7 million in annual revenue. While moves can typically take at least six months to plan and execute, Young would appear to have met the threshold for the record-setting offer. 

The UBS spokesperson declined to comment on whether Young had qualified for or accepted the offer. 

Young began his career with Wells Fargo’s A.G. Edwards predecessor in 1996 and worked at Stephens Inc. before joining Merrill in 2015. 

Young also incorporates social media into his marketing and is active on Instagram where he identifies himself as a Merrill managing director and has more than 11,400 followers. Recent posts include Young posing with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Danny McBride, star of ‘Eastbound & Down’ and ‘Righteous Gemstones.’ 

UBS has experienced an exodus of advisors over the past year following changes to its compensation for 2025. UBS clients withdrew a net $14.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 and at least 54 teams with almost $52 billion left last year.  

Last month, it added longtime Morgan Stanley executive Ben Firestein to be head of Field Leader Development and National Recruiting and Retention, and it elevated Lisa Golia to a newly created role directly overseeing the firm’s U.S. advisor force. 

UBS also last week won approval for a U.S. bank charter.