UBS launches wealth platform in Taiwan

UBS has hired Linyun Chang as head of a new wealth management unit that the Swiss bank is launching in Taiwan.

Chang was previously with BlackRock, where he worked for more than 12 years and was most recently in charge of the Asia ex-Japan retail business, leading a team of 60 people across Taiwan, China, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Korea to provide advice and products to wealth management platforms.

The new unit he has been hired to run, UBS Advice, is a flat-fee investment platform for clients with at least $1 million to invest.

“UBS is optimistic about the growth potential of [the] high-end wealth management market in Taiwan,” said Dennis Chen, who heads UBS’s wealth management business in Taiwan.

A statement announcing the hire went on to say: “[Chang] has extensive experience in the field of asset management to help UBS Advice build a strong team and, in turn, help UBS Wealth Management to have a more diversified and promising future.”

UBS Advice, which has already been rolled out in Hong Kong and Singapore, is aimed at a lower tier of wealth than the Swiss bank has typically targeted, providing access to UBS’s in-house portfolio monitoring and tailored allocation advice based on research from the bank’s chief investment office, while allowing clients to maintain a high degree of control over their investments — a strategy aimed at appealing to Asian investors’ preference for discretion over their portfolio.

Chang left BlackRock in November, according to his LinkedIn page.