1. Huge Exodus At Merrill Lynch May Bode Ill for BofA
(Matching tags: bank of america,broker-dealers,Merrill Lynch)

Merrill Lynch advisors with significant client assets have been on a departing track to other firms, especially since September 2011. The other big three—Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wells Fargo—have ...

2. Billion-Dollar Merrill Lynch Team Jumps To HighTower, But Is This An "Exodus?"
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

Another high-end Merrill Lynch team has departed for the promise of independence at HighTower, but it's too early to say whether the assets Merrill has lost to the advisor-owned upstart in the last month ...

3. Merrill Lynch Discrimination Suit Gets Class Action Status
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

Brokers who claim Merrill Lynch steered them into less lucrative practices now have formal clearance to combine their interests in a class action suit.  ...

4. UBS Raids Merrill Lynch For 14 Advisors And $2 Billion In AUM
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

The Swiss have placed a rich bounty on Merrill Lynch advisors and their willingness to pay up to 180% of annual production seem to be paying out handsomely.  ...

5. Business As Usual Cost Merrill Lynch Advisor A Pro Baseball Client
(Matching tags: fiduciaries,Merrill Lynch)

Doug Mirabelli, formerly of the Boston Red Sox, has won more than $1.2 million in damages and fees from Merrill Lynch related to the way the firm handled his account back in 2008.  ...

6. Wealth Management Not Immune To New Bank Of America Cost Cuts
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

The corporate parent of Merrill Lynch had previously promised that wealth management was protected from layoffs or other significant cost-cutting measures. No more.  ...

7. Merrill Lynch's Shift Farther Up Market Punishes Its Advisors, Recruiter Says
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

The recent move to focus on higher-end accounts at Merrill Lynch to give parent Bank of America's "Merrill Edge" unit more room to move has raised a lot of eyebrows throughout the industry and ...

8. Merrill Edge Meets Hiring Target, Fine-Tunes Mass Affluent Marketing Focus
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch,bank of america)

Bank of America has hired the 1,000 "financial solutions advisors" it wanted for its Merrill Edge program a few weeks ahead of schedule. But don't call their clients "mass affluent" ...

9. Former Head Of Bank of America's Wealth Management Division Offers Comments That Should Be Heartening To Independent Advisors
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

Having been fired by Bank of America recently and with no plans announced about her future, Sallie Krawcheck, who turned around several high profile financial services businesses before her failed ...

10. Merrill Lynch Grabs A Billion-Dollar Team From Credit Suisse, Not To Mention A $200 Million Wells Fargo Trio
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

Even advisors with no interest in the wirehouse recruiting wars should pay attention to the success -- or failure -- of Merrill Lynch to shift its talent mix toward the high and low end of the market simultaneously. ...

11. $1 Billion Team Defects From Merrill Lynch To Morgan Stanley
(Matching tags: breakaway brokers,Merrill Lynch,Morgan Stanley)

Morgan Stanley may be crowing right now about grabbing a top-producing advisory team from Merrill Lynch, but in context, both firms have only been hurting themselves.  ...

12. Merrill Lynch Boosts Its Advisor Count, But Average Production Still Declined Last Quarter
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

More mixed signals at Merrill Lynch. Parent company Bank of America's latest earnings reveal that the "thundering herd" is technically growing even though average revenue per rep shrank.  ...

13. Sallie Krawcheck Gets $6 Million While Bank Of America Prepares For Holiday Layoffs
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch,bank of america)

Former Merrill Lynch chief Sallie Krawcheck is getting a year of severance pay and a bonus that might be bigger than what she would have earned if she'd stayed.   ...

14. Merrill Advisors "Really Concerned" Now That Sallie Krawcheck Is Gone
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch,bank of america)

Sallie Krawcheck's departure from Bank of America Merrill Lynch continues to prompt plenty of speculation.  ...

15. Krawcheck Leaves The Thundering Herd As Bank Of America "Simplifies" And Pushes Cross-Selling
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

Sallie Krawcheck's departure from Merrill Lynch puts the biggest brokerage firm on Wall Street in a precarious position.  ...

16. Bank Of America Keeps Hiring For Merrill Edge's Mass Affluent Branches
(Matching tags: bank of america,Merrill Lynch)

Bank of America may be foundering in some ways, but the bank's efforts to combine its middle-class reach with the Merrill Lynch brand are still ramping up.  ...

17. Class Action Suit Aims To Give Merrill Lynch Sales Assistants Overtime Pay
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

A Fort Worth advisor has filed a lawsuit against Merrill Lynch and parent Bank of America arguing that the way sales assistants are paid creates unfair conflicts of interest.  ...

18. Merrill Lynch Drops A Net $200 Million In Advisor Recruiting Shuffle
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch,Morgan Stanley,recruiting)

In the latest round of advisor trades, Merrill Lynch gained talent that previously managed $800 million, only to lose advisors with a full $1 billion on their books.  ...

19. New Study Breaks Down The Industry To Show RIA Firms' Growth, Foreshadow Credit Suisse Layoffs
(Matching tags: Morgan Stanley,Merrill Lynch,Wells Fargo,registered investment advisors)

  We all have a pretty good sense that the wirehouses are deflating, but it's worth pausing to check the numbers once in awhile -- especially when they preview big shifts in the marketplace.

20. From Merrill Lynch To TD Ameritrade, Broker Performance Hit A Wall Last Quarter
(Matching tags: Merrill Lynch)

As more earnings reports trickle in, it looks like both wirehouses and discount brokerage firms found it tough to attract new accounts and fresh transactional revenue last quarter.