Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said Monday that it recruited five financial advisors from Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo with a total of about $1.5 billion in assets and $9.3 million in yearly fees and commissions. It also hired 27 Merrill Edge financial solutions advisors across the Southeast.
Bruce Lee and Jim Hoesley moved to Merrill from Credit Suisse Private Banking, where they managed about $1.2 billion in assets and had yearly production of about $8 million. They joined the Merrill Lynch Private Banking & Investment Group in Chicago as managing directors and private-wealth advisors. Lee will also assume a national leadership role focusing on supporting growth in the ultra-high-net-worth segment, Merrill says.
The team of Chris Sotus, Mike McCullough and Alex Jarman joined Merrill's office in Savannah, Ga., from Wells Fargo Advisors (WFC) with about $257 million in assets and yearly fees and commissions of $1.3 million. Sotus was named resident director for the office.
A week ago, a five-member team of Merrill Lynch advisors based in New York, led by Harvey Kadden and boasting more than $1 billion in assets and $14 million in yearly fees and commissions, left the firm to join Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
Merrill had 16,722 advisors as of Sept. 30, while Morgan Stanley (MS) had 17,290. As the concentration of assets in the wealth-management industry continues to increase, competition for the top advisors is intensifying, experts say. There is also growing pressure from smaller boutique firms, as well as hefty regulatory and financial issues that broker-dealers–and particularly bank-owned firms–must tackle.
