The latest news out of Merrill Lynch barely even registered a yawn from its wealth management sales force…..unless of course you were one of those trainees that just had your accounts ripped away from you….

FROM ADVISOR HUB ARTICLE SEPTEMBER 30: Merrill Lynch Wealth Management has stripped around 200 would-be advisors of their clients in the latest in a series of dramatic changes to its broker training program.The details of the policy change were laid out to local managers of the Advisor Development Program in a letter earlier this month from Eric Schimpf, co-head of Merrill’s advisor training, and Susan Axelrod, the firm’s chief supervisory officer. The firm gave the managers until September 16 to remove the clients, who were sent to a pool to be distributed to established Merrill brokers, according to the letter. 

The juxtaposition of this news days after the death of David Komansky is stark and all the more disgusting in its message. Komansky was a force at Merrill that led the firm at a time when its training program was the envy of the street is a stark contrast of what has become of the once dominant firm. 

When I heard about this latest move of actually taking away accounts from trainees I became viscerally angry…. a feeling of rage came across me….Why do I care? Because I got my brokerage license in 1986 at Merrill. It is where I got my start. But even more to the point its because the absolute idiocy that move defines is that of a bank which is butchering a firm. If you are a financial advisor at Merrill and you are “ok” and comfy being there – you have got to be kidding me, There may be a day when you accounts are taken away from you…or at a minimum you will have a bankers salary,,,that right a salary. 

For the past decade, especially the last five years, Merrill has been decimated in so many ways, Are you at Merrill? For those advisors currently at Merrill that have been there longer than 15 years I am certain you are:

  • In the process of considering your options
  • Are about to begin reviewing your options
  • Making a decision soon on the next chapter of your career away from Merrill
  • Have a start date at a new firm – have a resignation date to start your own firm

Why 15 years?

 Because if you have been at Merrill longer than 15 years you have absolutely no reason to even consider staying there another day – because you know what a wealth management firm is….you know what Merrill was and what it has become. 

Everyday you stay there you are  an accomplice to a horrible crime which is occurring bit by bit…..piece by piece…..the dismembering of what used to be a great brokerage  firm – it is being hacksawed just like Dexter would do to rid all evidence of the identity of the corpse.

B of A is slicing the firm up just as a butcher would – wasting none of the meat. 

You the broker that is still at Merrill just do not see that you are going to be the last to go. You barely exist as it is as resembling an advisor when compared to many of the advisors on the street Slowly and methodically Merrill is being wiped away – I would argue it lost all its character and identification years ago.