“We realize that being lean and efficient is critical,” McCann said as laid out his long awaited plan. “Our vision is to be the best wealth management business in the Americas; not the biggest, the best,” he said. 

McCann, who joined the Swiss giant from Merrill Lynch last October, slashed $60 million in annual expenses earlier this year by cutting 300 jobs and eliminating 25 managing directors. The wealth management Americas chief said he wants to cut $40 million more over the next few quarters.  

Real estate is one obvious target. Last week McCann told UBS brokers the wealth management division has too much real estate, holding space for 10,000 US brokers, when it is targeting a work force of around 7,000.

Offering more advice and financial planning to high net worth and ultra high net worth customers will also be critical, McCann said.

Clients “don't want products,” he said. “The crisis has created a trauma, and it has created demand for investment advice and financial planning.”

Nonetheless, McCann made clear wealth managers would in fact be selling more products such as annuities, mortgages, life insurance and alternative investments, including hedge funds. "We need to build our capabilities on the mortgage and liability side," he said.

New products could add SFr725 million in annual pretax profit, McCann claimed. And increasing sales of loans could boost the division's pretax profit margin by 3 to 5 percentage points, he predicted.

The 52-year old executive also took some shots at his competitors.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Wells Fargo Advisors and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, are undergoing disruptive transformations and have yet to clarify their “value proposition” and cultures, McCann said.

“It's equally unclear how soon, and if, they are going to be able to integrate the vast and diverse technology platforms they have,” he said.

While saying that the independent channel deserves “close watching”, McCann said smaller advisory firms “don't have the range of solutions and capital to consistently serve” wealthy clients.

But he also conceded UBS had to make improvements. Despite the “steep prices” the bank paid in 2008 and early 2009 to attract advisors, UBS hasn’t increased productivity per broker because of ongoing high turnover from unhappy veterans.

“The quickest death bell within a company like this is high turnover,” McCann said.

Retention will now be a priority, he said, supplemented with occasional recruiting and training classes for new advisors. UBS plans to run a small training program at the end of 2010.

The new initiatives could generate an estimated SF1 billion in annual pretax profit in the "medium term" of three to five years, McCann said.

UBS’ American wealth management unit had $644 billion in assets under management at the end of March.