A $3.1 billion Merrill Lynch team based in Southern California has joined UBS.
           
Craig Chiate, Mark Binder, Glenn Oratz and Scott Brown made the move Tuesday, said  UBS spokesman Gregg Rosenberg, along with eight support staffers. Rosenberg said the $3.1 billion figure includes both assets and liabilities.
           
Known as the Binder, Chiate, Oratz & Brown team, the group was part of Merrill’s high-net-worth PBIG unit (Private Banking and Investment Group).
 
The team will continue to work out of UBS offices in San Diego, Newport Beach and Los Angeles, supported by the UBS Private Wealth Management high-net worth unit, also based in Los Angeles. The set up is similar to how Merrill runs PBIG.
 
Landing the team is seen as a big coup for UBS. PBIG reps are the crème de la crème at Merrill. With their high-net-worth clients served by a specialty support team, and with access to special services including lending capabilities, advisors in the unit are tough to lift out.
 
Chiate and Oratz are listed among the top 100 advisors in California by Barron’s.
 
Several sources said other Merrill brokers who shared wealthy clients with the group may have also left for UBS, but Rosenberg said the four team members were the only producers to join.
 
Binder, Chiate and Oratz all joined Merrill in 2000, when they came over from Goldman Sachs’ private client division.
 
Brown, a 10-year Merrill veteran, focuses on alternative investment research and new business development.