Merrill Lynch and the Arkansas advisor who changed firms as Jonesboro braces for a new wealth office

On a workday in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the phone still rings and calendars still fill, but the name on the door is changing: merrill lynch veteran advisor Clay Young has moved to UBS, a shift that comes alongside plans for a new office space in town. For clients and staff used to continuity, the transition compresses big decisions—trust, access, and long-term planning—into a single season of change.

What happened in Jonesboro—and why does it matter?

UBS has hired financial advisor Clay Young and placed him in its South Market, led by regional director Julie Fox, market executive Gregory Achten, and market director Sara Perez Barrett. Young will serve as a managing director and private wealth advisor focused on high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients, including individuals, families, and business owners.

UBS also said it plans to expand its footprint in Jonesboro, including opening a new office space. In one account of the plan, the office opening was framed as coming later this year; in another, UBS was described as planning to open a new office space later in 2026. While that timing remains presented differently across the two descriptions, both point to the same direction of travel: a larger on-the-ground presence anchored by an established advisor.

Young will ultimately be based in a new location to be established in Jonesboro; until then, he will report to UBS’s Memphis, Tennessee office. The immediate practical reality is a regional setup—Jonesboro as the destination, Memphis as the interim base—that will shape how meetings, staffing, and client service are coordinated in the short term.

Who is Clay Young, and what does his move from Merrill Lynch signal?

Young has more than 30 years in the industry, with prior stints at A. G. Edwards, Stephens, and most recently Bank of America Merrill Lynch. His role is described as serving high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, families, and business owners, with expertise in investment management, retirement planning, and banking and lending solutions.

For clients, the signal is less about branding than about whether the same level of attention—and the same coordinated approach to managing family wealth—travels with the advisor during the firm change. For Jonesboro, the move also reads as an attempt to tie a local market to a broader expansion effort by a large institution, using a known figure as the centerpiece.

One detail underscores why firms compete so aggressively for established advisors: Young was described as having overseen $1 billion in assets under management at Merrill. That figure was attributed, in the context provided, to a separate account that cited an unnamed source. Even without treating it as a fully verified institutional disclosure, the number conveys how the market values scale and existing client relationships.

How does this fit into the wider wealth-management reshuffle?

The Jonesboro hire lands amid multiple personnel moves across the wealth-management landscape in North America.

Janney Montgomery Scott added financial advisor Michael Mrotzek, first president for wealth management, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Mrotzek previously worked for Morgan Stanley, manages more than $200 million in client money, and has almost four decades’ industry experience. He is supported by Gina Kletter, senior registered private client associate.

Lincoln Investment Planning announced that financial advisors Curtis Wilcox and Paul Niemiec have joined Lincoln’s broker dealer and RIA. They were introduced to the firm through WealthGuide Advisors and will do business as Blue Harbor Wealth Management. The team reported previously advising on approximately $250 million in client assets and joins from Corebridge Financial.

Other moves include Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network adding Justin “Judd” Bohall and Alyson Maher of Bayview Financial Group, who oversee close to $300 million in assets under management, alongside support staff Jennifer Briggs and Ashley Edwards. In that announcement, John Tyers, president of FiNet at Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, said: “FiNet has been a trusted home for advisors who want true independence without trade offs for more than two decades. ”

Raymond James also added advisors R. Lynette “Lynn” Laughter and Isaac Laclé to Raymond James Financial Services, bringing a team that previously managed approximately $200 million in client assets at Commonwealth Financial Network. They are now operating as Laughter & Associates Financial Management in Dalton, Georgia, joined by office manager Rebecca Sibley, branch associate Sonny Gallman, and client services associates Deborah Long and Debbie Famber.

Taken together, these moves suggest a market where client relationships, autonomy, and platform fit continue to drive recruiting—firm by firm and city by city—while advisors bring support staff and operating models with them.

What is UBS trying to do next—and what should clients watch?

UBS is tying Young’s arrival to a broader push to expand in US wealth, describing its plans to grow its Jonesboro presence and establish a new office location there. Young is expected to be the local anchor, while the firm’s leadership structure in the South Market—Julie Fox, Gregory Achten, and Sara Perez Barrett—frames where he sits inside the organization.

For clients affected by the transition from merrill lynch to UBS through their advisor relationship, the key near-term questions are operational rather than abstract: where the advisor is physically reporting from while the new Jonesboro location is set up, how the team handles meetings and service while reporting into Memphis, and how the advisor’s investment management and retirement planning approach is implemented on the new platform. The context provided does not specify client actions or transfer mechanics, so the most concrete takeaway is that the advisor’s base and reporting line are defined while the Jonesboro office is still being established.

Back in Jonesboro, the day’s routines continue—appointments, calls, and long-term planning conversations—but the backdrop has shifted. If the promised office expansion arrives on schedule, it will turn a single hire into a permanent footprint, and the story that began with one advisor’s move will become a local marker of how national wealth firms compete, grow, and replant themselves in new places.