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September 28, 2011 at 09:53 AM
Bank of America co-CEO David Darnell, the commercial banker recently put in charge of Merrill Lynch as Sallie Krawcheck’s replacement, has told staff he is willing to “get out of the way” to help them boost performance, according to the company.
“My job is to do everything I can to help and if not, I’m going to get out of the way,” Darnell told advisors in New York in mid-September, as reported in a Bloomberg story early Wednesday. Existing managers are “who’s going to run this business, and I want to be very clear about that.”
These managers include John Thiel, head of U.S. wealth management and a former advisor, and Andrew Sieg, head of global wealth and retirement solutions.
Rivals of Merrill Lynch are hoping that Krawcheck’s departure will give them a new edge in recruiting members of the “Thundering Herd,” which now has more than 16,000 FAs. Krawcheck was known to be very advisor focused at BofA (BAC), experts note.
Earlier this week, though, Merrill said it had hired three advisors from Wells Fargo (WFC): James Watts in Mill Valley, Calif., who has yearly fees and commissions of about $1.5 million and $216 million in assets; and the team of Scott Brownell and Neal Burgess in Casper, Wyo., with production of $1.4 million and assets of nearly $174 million.
In addition, Michael Cirullo just joined Merrill’s Hartford, Conn., office from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MS) with nearly $1.1. million in production and $144 million in assets.
