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Articles tagged "Merrill Lynch"

Fred St. Laurent: The advisor will lose all of those bottom-end customers and Merrill will lose them too.

Merrill Lynch unveils changes to broker compensation
LPL, Schwab, TD, and RIAs are poised to reap a windfall as Bank of America says no thanks to the $250,000 set

Friday 12.30.11
Leonard Reinhart: What really intrigues me about what he's doing is he's bringing Wall Street back to Main Street.

Why exactly Dave Loeper and a Smith Barney/E.F Hutton legend are teaming up
Leonard Reinhart has ideas about how to market the Richmond, Va.-based firm's patented technology - and alleviate strain

Wednesday 10.26.11
HighTower plucked Ann Reider from an MSSB branch in close proximity to HighTower's Chicago headquarters

Casting a wider net for talent, HighTower poaches an MSSB branch manager
After three years of relentlessly recruiting brokers from Wall Street firms, the strategic buyer will go to wirehouses to top off its managerial talent

Friday 10.21.11
Duane Thompson says FINRA is keener than ever to regulate RIAs considering the waves of money flowing from the B-D to the fee-only side.

RIAs and B-Ds don't mix, says Duane Thompson at MarketCounsel Summit 2011
TD's Tom Bradley delivers a caffeine jolt of good news about the growth of the RIA channel

Tuesday 10.18.11
Jeff Spears: The profit margin on brokerage revenues is in the low teens. For banking products and services, it’s 30%-plus.

A memo to Merrill Lynch brokers and customers from an executive who's walked in Sallie Krawcheck's shoes
The brokerage chief's departure last week marks the end of the experiment of a semi-autonomous Merrill Lynch

Monday 9.12.11
With Sallie Krawcheck purged, 'the game is about to change in a big way', a former Merrill exec says.

Merrill Lynch brokers brace for sweeping comp changes as Sallie Krawcheck departs BoA and takes her advocacy with her
It's like 2008 all over again with some brokers just wanting out as clients question choice of employer, recruiter says

Wednesday 9.7.11
Dave Loeper: If advisors are using our process, they need to make sure they have the appropriate rights to it.

David Loeper is taking on UBS but his patent lawsuit is raising alarms in the RIA business
A pitched battle over the uniqueness of a financial planning process could result in thousands of advisors paying royalties

Thursday 8.11.11
Steve Blumenthal abandoned his fund of hedge funds due to tax reporting nightmares.

Three RIA adventures that led to dramatic asset growth
Conversations with academics, expanding strategies and veering away from hedge fund of funds led to thriving niches.

Thursday 7.28.11
Richard Bernstein: This is the world’s greatest story – U.S. small caps.

Former Merrill Lynch analyst tells RIAs to steer clear of emerging markets
Richard Bernstein sees Greece as the tip of the iceberg

Friday 6.24.11
Elliot Weissbluth: I can tell [advisors] life is better for you outside of the wirehouse and I didn’t know this fact three years ago.

HighTower dangles array of hedge funds to lure breakaways
Wirehouses have nothing on independents when it comes to access to hedge funds, firm says citing three-year study

Thursday 6.23.11
Jon Eaton: We think there’s much more than a niche; we think we have a better solution.

LPL Financial confirms that Akellian hire means big plans for its clearing services
The firm is eying fellow IBDs as customers and it aims to gain footing with Pershing and NFS

Friday 6.3.11
Robert Schein: Ten advisors called me. They said: 'You guys moved.' What more is there to the story?

HighTower is starting to run the poaching table in Palm Desert
The Chicago firm's phone is ringing after it wins a top Morgan Stanley team on the heels of nabbing Merrill breakaways

Thursday 6.2.11
Brian Amidei: We’ve gotten flowers and chocolate-covered strawberries.

HighTower wins a Palm Desert Merrill Lynch team in lightning fashion
Amidei, a former gas station owner and bond trader, knew what he wanted and acted fast

Monday 5.9.11
Craig Campbell: While it wasn’t easy to go independent after years in corporate America, he says, “that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of the effort. I definitely feel it’s been worthy of the effort.”

Why a senior Merrill Lynch advisor reluctantly broke away with ultra-affluent clients from the Texas oil patch
After getting the cold shoulder from his younger team members, independence with Wells Fargo's FiNet became attractive

Friday 4.8.11
Dave Emma: Athletes get taken advantage of and that happened to me.

A hockey star went from being a Merrill Lynch client to a Merrill Lynch advisor to the latest Merrill Lynch breakaway
Despite misgivings for 20 years, Dave Emma stayed largely for the culture and then Bank of America came along

Friday 3.25.11
Ed Simmons has a doctorate from Harvard and a 24-year tenure with Merrill Lynch. He became an RIA on Friday.

Merrill Lynch and Bank of America cultural tension may spin out a new round of breakaways, recruiters say
A big Maine team goes to HighTower; more Merrill brokers in pipeline, says Weissbluth

Thursday 2.24.11
Tejal and Rahul Shah: I was on the phone like Jerry Maguire, Rahul says, I had all my e-mails prepared for clients and I pushed send, send, send.

Why one Merrill Lynch advisor needed to break away twice to become an RIA
Rahul Shah's first breakout attempt to Wachovia's FiNet fizzled and, his wife, Tejal Shah masterminded the second effort

Tuesday 2.22.11
Fred St Laurent says that when Krawcheck is in charge, his job gets harder.

Sallie Krawcheck, A Recruiter’s Nightmare
Criticized and often at the center of a business storm, she has emerged as Wall Street's problem-solver -- and she's doing it again at Merrill Lynch

Thursday 1.27.11
Shirl Penney: We are very satisfied with the terms of the agreement.

Dynasty Financial Partners ends legal squabble with Bank of America, clearing deck for growth
The high-profile startup may have passed up chance to win its case, an attorney says

Tuesday 1.25.11
Frank Braddock: I said we needed a robust trading platform and the best research. Look, losing the smarts of MSSB would hurt.

A Morgan Stanley Smith Barney breakaway stepped off the wirehouse carousel to keep in touch with his clients
A former radio star, Frank Braddock prides himself on being able to get to know people within the intimate orbit of money

Wednesday 12.15.10
The buzz at the TD Ameritrade booth was that Tony Blair, Britain's former prime minister, is schedule to speak at TD's annual conference to be held in San Diego.

Eavesdropping on the Women Advisors Forum: Rainmakers share their secrets. Hint: They revolve around finding a niche
Women at the top of the profession have learned to give each other the look: "Like ‘I’ve got your back, sister.’”

Tuesday 12.14.10
Fred St Laurent: As a small business owner, how many mistakes can you afford to make?

The hidden dangers of hiring a laid-off Merrill broker
Who you bring on board says volumes about your firm's brand

Monday 12.13.10
Columnist Frank Pizzichillo on the decision points that finally led a brokerage team to make the break.

The Leading Indicator: The story of an intern, a broker and what might be the longest breakaway sales cycle ever
Merrilll Lynch's odd ducks are the independent world's $400 million AUM swans

Thursday 9.16.10
John Meunier: Evidence that the great migration among advisors is over is the fact that, on average, advisors’ satisfaction with their firm is up 15% over last year, with the biggest uptick noted among the national wirehouse representatives.

Finding greater advisor satisfaction at the wirehouses, Cogent study concludes the breakaway surge is over
For the first time in history, the majority of advisory compensation comes from fees; plus 9 other findings from one of the year's most ambitious surveys

Wednesday 9.1.10
Joe Perry: The way JHS presented its ethical guidelines helped win his business.

A decade of baby steps led a broker from Merrill Lynch to a three-office hybrid of his own
Potomac Investments now uses broker JHS, where an ethics policy carried the day

Thursday 7.29.10
H.A. McGill didn't have Ameriprise on his radar until friends told him the give it a look.

How Ameriprise used its franchise system to snare a Smith Barney breakaway
H.A. McGill found that the Minneapolis broker-dealer was friendly to tuck-in deals

Tuesday 7.6.10
Adam Honoré: The reason you’d want Merrill Lynch is that you’d want access to their advisors and to their training.

Why the launch of Merrill Edge may be a shrewder move by BoA than it first appears
Success will depend on how closely BoA/Merrill Lynch can tie the new online brokerage to its full-service offering

Monday 6.21.10
Alois Pirker: Wirehouses are watching the breakaway movement slowly and are likely to adapt. "They're not stupid."

Study: Breakaway trend may slow as wirehouse mergers start to click
To keep brokers, some wirehouses may offer more independent platforms

Tuesday 6.1.10
Craig Gordon: We have 2,400 in-house advisors. It would be very different if I told you it was 24,000. The commitment in that channel would be too big to disrupt..

Royal Bank of Canada is hustling to become an RIA custody force
RBC Advisor Services weaves together RIA businesses of old Dain Rauscher and old Bear Stearns

Monday 5.24.10
The breakaway team held conference calls with LPL in David Armstrong's car.

Two years later, a Merrill Lynch breakaway team has no regrets
No one took a pay cut, no one is answering to a manager anymore, and there's never a question about buying a stapler

Friday 5.21.10
Mindy Diamond: The biggest concern seems to be that Goldman has been described as 'betting against ... (clients).' Those words are not what a client wants to associate with the firm that manages their investments.

Goldman Sachs' wealth managers are taking recruiters' phone calls amid concerns over scandal fallout
The 'betting-against' allegations have some brokers fearful about their ability to attract new prospects

Monday 5.3.10
Bill Whitney: Everybody at a wirehouse has reached a gag threshold and is looking for an exit with few exceptions.

UBS brokers break away Mississippi style and a bass-fishing ex-Merrill broker comes out of retirement
Leaving the wirehouse was made easier by a truism of the folksy state: clients would be offended not to be asked to follow

Wednesday 4.28.10
Barron's Top 100 advisors paid for their own Ritz-Carlton rooms but didn't seem to mind

Enthusiasm simmers in the wake of the by-invite-only Barron's Top 100 conference
The purity of the all-independent crowd was palpable, powerful for attendees

Monday 4.26.10
Red Goldstein: All we have ever known in the financial business is folks leaving one wirehouse to go to another wirehouse.

This Merrill Lynch team leader broke away for fear of what might happen under Bank of America
Red Goldstein loved Merrill Lynch but he deemed any chance of increased restrictions too risky to his business model

Tuesday 4.20.10
Fred Tomczyk told Reuters: E*Trade 'is on a better footing today than they were a year or two ago, no question.

Analysts issue opinions on Merrill Lynch and TD Ameritrade based on new information
Merrill Lynch or another wirehouse, not a discount broker, should acquire E*Trade, researcher says

Monday 4.19.10
Carol Fabbri: We tell clients if the want to chase the next big thing, they should take 10% of their money and go to Vegas.

Breakaway spotlight: Former Merrill Lynch broker uses just-the-facts approach to win business of scientists, engineers
Two MIT grads do the math for clients, including numbers that show 401(k)s lacking

Wednesday 3.24.10
David Hou and Mark Sear believe cold calls have a place at an RIA.

Hou-Sear team applies Goldman Sachs marketing approach in second year as RIAs
Luminous Capital uses intensive cold-calling and a breakaway strategy to augment giant referral flow

Tuesday 2.16.10
Chet Helck: We are still attracting top-tier advisors

Raymond James wins breakaway brokers that are 'pragmatists'
With the get-me-out-of-here mentality mostly gone, a breakaway of a more deliberate stripe steps forward, recruiter says

Saturday 2.13.10
Frank Shull: Our pipeline is very full.

Focus Financial looks more like a consolidator-of-consolidators as its partner firms go on buying sprees
Lara, Shull pulls off five deals to nearly double its assets in a year

Tuesday 2.9.10
Brooke Southall: The Custody Project has grown to do justice to the scope and quality of the material it covers

Asset Custody Project rolls forward
The scope of the RIABiz plan for 2009 recaps and 2010 outlooks of RIA custodians took on a life of its own

Monday 2.1.10
Patrick J. Burns: I'm not sure the SEC or FINRA has the stomach for a return to the days of heavy litigation.

Broker protocol may be endangered by complexities as membership starts to explode
Merrill Lynch, LPL and Ameriprise create addendums to once-sacred truce; they may spark an unfavorable trend

Friday 1.29.10
Howard Diamond [with wife Mindy's hand on shoulder]: Ms. Krawcheck should not exhale so quickly

What comments by Krawcheck and Gorman about improving wirehouse attrition leave out
Breakaway trend appears as vital as ever and asset flows are in reverse

Friday 1.22.10
Hybrid tomatoes have their advantages and so do hybrid RIAs

5 Reasons why the hybrid RIA model may be a bigger deal than ever
Someday all advisors could be hybrid-like under FINRA

Thursday 1.14.10
Bob McCann sends a message that he wants to reward the advisors who stayed with UBS through the hard years

McCann plays his first cards as head of UBS
Keeping more brokers from leaving appears to be the priority

Wednesday 1.6.10
Expect to hear more in 2010 from Mike Durbin, who leads Fidelity's fast-growing RIA custody unit

Percolating: RIA custody roundup for 2010
New faces, new programs, new technology and new assets

Thursday 12.31.09
Brooke Southall: I asked John, 50, why he didn’t hire a financial advisor and he said that the system was “crooked” and “corrupt.”

What I learned about E*TRADE, Bank of America, Google and the Bubble Lounge during pre-holiday conversations
Just because a wirehouse broker doesn't win the account doesn't mean that another advisor will

Tuesday 12.22.09
Brian Moynihan: We think of this not as changing the business model, but changing the way we do business

Merrill Lynch goes unmentioned as Bank of America settles on CEO choice
Krawcheck doesn't figure in, and press release neglects mention of big wirehouse

Friday 12.18.09
Sean Walters: [Advisors] want to stay abreast without paying $6,000 to $7,000

Once a haven for fee-minded wirehouse brokers, IMCA is becoming a melting pot of advisory channels
IMCA conferences -- focusing on investment, wealth management -- are the sole reason that many new members join

Tuesday 12.1.09
Like Tom Turkey, many RIAs were thankful to survive 2009

Taking A Break From the Turkey?
RIABiz's top 10 stories from the past month offer a window into what RIAs care about

Thursday 11.26.09
Share your breakaway story: email elizabeth@riabiz.com

Merrill Lynch breakaway runs gauntlet to set up his business
'I was just a constant work machine'

Friday 11.20.09
Thomas B. Lewis: “There are RIA firms joining that are trying to recruit large producers.”

RIAs drive explosive growth of the Broker Protocol; signatories triple
The wirehouse legal truce is now a poaching tool for advisory roll-ups; Merrill Lynch applauds its wide use

Tuesday 11.17.09
Jim Scanlon: I was not a big producer so [my boss] could say: I need you to be in this meeting.

How TD Ameritrade wins clients $47 million at a time
UBS brokers double take-home pay with breakaway

Friday 11.13.09
Bob McCann is known not to overpromise

13 things to know about Bob McCann recruiting his old Merrill Lynch team to UBS
Move signals UBS executive's independence from his bosses back in Switzerland

Tuesday 11.10.09
Patrick Sullivan has brought 80 fellow advisors under his firm's compliance umbrella

LPL Financial wins more breakaway brokers by sacrificing a revenue stream
Morristown Financial Group finds lucrative niche by taking over some supervisory duties from fellow brokers

Wednesday 10.21.09
Krawcheck tells InvestmentNews:“What we’re seeing now is independent advisers asking how they can join us."

Six things to consider when reading Sallie Krawcheck's comments in interviews
Critics say mixed motives may explain head-scratching comments by CEO of Merrill Lynch

Monday 10.19.09
Thomas McGuirk: I didn't like the person I was during those three months

The number one obstacle to completing a clean breakaway from a wirehouse
Leading a double life is not for the faint of heart

Monday 10.5.09
David Hou: His dad says he worries alot. Mark Sear: "I was sweating."

(Part 3 of 3-part series) Hou-Sear team makes house calls in five states
Clients embrace idea of new RIA with quick signings

Wednesday 9.30.09
Sean Cook: We said: Are you going to be here?

In major reversal, Merrill turns away RIA assets
Is it post-BoA merger streamlining or a decisive strategic shift?

Tuesday 9.29.09
David Hou and Mark Sear: Our biggest fear was that Merrill Lynch would find out and fire us, Sear says.

(Part 2 of 3-part series) Hou-Sear team can't always beat RIAs so it joins them
Why Hou-Sear turned down $60 million to start Luminous

Monday 9.28.09
David Hou and Mark Sear started together at Goldman Sachs and maintained that 24/7 culture in their partnership

(Part 1 of 3-part series) Merrill Lynch stars take a leap of faith to a new office -- and independence.
Breakaway for $20 million producers begins with cell phone chat from empty office

Thursday 9.24.09
No vestige of the old brand name here

RIP Wachovia Securities brand name
Wells Fargo Advisors leaps to number three spot day one

Saturday 9.19.09
Mark Sear [left in dark blue shirt] and David Hou[right in dark blue shirt] : It took a year to get these smiles

Coming Soon: Multi-Part Series on the Hou-Sear departure from Merrill Lynch
Intensity of breakaway was unprecedented, lawyers and custody execs say

Friday 9.18.09
Sallie Krawcheck: The Merrill Lynch culture will survive

New Merrill Lynch CEO stumps in Boston
Krawcheck stays with party line

Tuesday 8.25.09
Can this bull act more like a cow?

Krawcheck's latest move called paper thin
New Merrill CEO cited as breakaway spark [new comments added 8-20-09]

Tuesday 8.18.09
Brooke Southall: I separate brokers as people from brokers as an institution

Welcome to RIABiz on day one
Online publication for financial advisors debuts from Sausalito, Calif.

Thursday 8.6.09
Schwab, TD disclose magnetic effects

With big assist from RIAs, Schwab is still a net new asset magnet
Wirehouses keep net flow numbers to themselves

Thursday 8.6.09
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