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February 03, 2010 at 07:00 PM
Bank of America is poised to add as many as 2,000 advisors to its global wealth management division over the next 12 months, according to a recent news story in the Financial Times.
The focus would reportedly be on training new brokers, which would save the unit some money, rather than engaging more aggressively in the expensive recruiting wars now going on between BoA’s Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Wells Fargo Advisors and UBS.
“Merrill Lynch is returning to its roots. This is wonderful,” said Chip Roame, managing principal of Tiburon Strategic Advisors, an industry consultancy. “The firm was always the best at training and integrating rookies. They moved away from this in recent years. I see it as a positive development that they are returning to their original model!”
Merrill’s FA force now includes about 15,000 vs. 16,000-plus at the time of the BoA-Merrill Lynch merger was first announced in September 2008. In March 2009, the total number of FAs was 15,882.
“In Global Wealth and Investment Management, the financial advisor network of more than 15,000 was up slightly from the third quarter as the retention rate stood at the highest level in recent years and the company increased hiring, training and development of new advisors,” the company said as part of its fourth-quarter 2009 earnings release.
In terms of trailing-12-month sales or production, Merrill advisors are now at $830,000 on average for the fourth quarter of 2009 and $817,000 for the full year 2009. Client balances in Merrill Lynch accounts total $1.43 trillion. The GWIM unit is now lead by Sallie Krawcheck, formerly of Citi/Smith Barney.
Rival Morgan Stanley – with 18,135 advisors in its Morgan Stanley Smith Barney venture – just reported that its fourth-quarter trailing-12-month sales stand at $692,000. Client assets are $1.6 trillion.
