Recent mergers alter the landscape for world's largest private-client firms. UBS
has lost its position as the world's largest wealth-management company to Bank of America
, according to a survey of the global wealth-management by London-based consultancy Scorpio Partnership
. As a result of private-client defections and aggressive asset-value erosion, Zurich-based UBS' assets under management went from around $1.9 trillion to around 1.5 trillion, a fall of 21%.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America owes its new ascendancy to its early-2009 acquisition of Merrill Lynch
-- which brought in tow 50% of asset manager BlackRock
. Merrill alone claims $2.5 trillion in assets under management.

What really matters

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo made its first appearance as one of Scorpio's top 10 private banks by virtue of its late-2008 takeover of Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia and its Wachovia Securities retail brokerage (now Wells Fargo Advisors
). Wells Fargo manages about $1 trillion.

Altogether the big wealth managers -- Scorpio insists on calling them all "private banks" -- oversee approximately $14.5 trillion, down nearly 17% from last year. Operationally things were worse, however. The median profit decline for the firms surveyed was 32.9% and cost-income ratio -- arguably a better gauge of efficiency -- averaged 72.4% in 2008 versus 63.7% in 2007.

Here's a fun fact though: UBS, despite its slip to second place in terms of bulk, was actually the most profitable of the wealth managers Scorpio scrutinized.

The Scorpio survey also puts in doubt the notion that private clients have defected from incumbent advisors to the extent imagined. The standard reaction to recent market turoil -- where there were reactions -- seems to have been portfolio tune-ups and moves into ready cash. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article.