Cullman/Holt Group moves $1.3 billion from UBS to Wells Fargo's FiNet affiliate Ascend

Wells Fargo's FiNet channel has pulled another billion-dollar book from UBS's U.S. wealth platform, and how this group landed is the part a wirehouse team pricing its own move should study.

The Cullman/Holt Group, seven people who managed $1.3 billion from Upper Arlington, Ohio, joined FiNet affiliate Ascend Advisory Group in Dublin, Ohio, according to a Wells Fargo spokesperson. Managing Director Jeff Cullman and Senior Vice President W. Bruce Holt continue to lead the group, which also includes a third advisor and four client associates. The hiring report cites the team at both $1.3 billion and $1 billion—a spread worth resolving before anyone uses it as a benchmark.

Ascend, the landing spot, manages more than $2.5 billion according to its website and was founded and run by Tony Reilly. FiNet president John Tyers made the pitch on the hire by crediting the platform Reilly built and the "access to capabilities and solutions" the network provides—a team of this size can keep institutional-scale capabilities without staying inside a wirehouse.

FiNet has made that argument repeatedly: Touchstone Wealth Partners, a $2.1 billion Toledo practice, joined in April, and Snow Pine Private Wealth brought $1.7 billion from Wayzata, Minn., in March. Winthrop & Co.'s advisor moves report counts Wells Fargo as the largest beneficiary of departing UBS teams, with 11 groups added in 2025.

UBS has seen advisor attrition in North America since it restructured compensation in 2025, lowering payout rates for some advisors and shifting incentives toward wealthier clients. It has forecast a slowdown and introduced a retire-in-place program paying transitioning advisors a maximum of 300% of trailing-12 production over the sunset period, which Winthrop's analysts note competes with external recruiting packages for the retiring cohort. Those analysts say UBS is testing the trough of its advisor losses in 2026, and second-quarter results supported that for net new assets, though not yet for headcount.

One Ohio departure is not a verdict on UBS or FiNet, but it sharpens the choice: a $1.3 billion group can affiliate with an independent channel and join a practice that already has scale, or stay for a retention package that pays in multiples of production. Whether the incoming group holds equity in Ascend or its affiliate is not stated in the coverage, and for the next billion-dollar team, that term is likely the one that settles the move.