Merrill Hires 3 New York Advisors From UBS

By Janet Levaux

September 15, 2016 at 11:03 AM

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Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BAC) said Thursday it has recruited three veteran financial advisors from UBS (UBS) in New York with combined client assets of $750 million.

Harry Lewkowitz and Jeff Gersten, of the Lewkowitz–Gersten Wealth Management Group, are part of UBS's Manhattan East complex in New York. Previously, they managed about $500 million in client assets.

Lewkowitz has been in the business for 35 years, starting out at Thomson McKinnon Securities in 1979. He worked for Merrill earlier, from 1990 to 2002, and then was with Citigroup for seven years before joining UBS in 2009.

Gersten has 17 years in the industry. He cut his teeth at Merrill in 1999, but then moved to Citi in 2002 and UBS in 2009.

The third advisor, Jeffrey Schoenfeld, has 26 years in the business and worked with about $250 million of client assets at UBS. He worked at Shearson Lehman and Alex. Brown in 1990 and later worked for Banc of America Securities (1997-2003), Citi and UBS.

"Harry, Jeff and Jeff are highly experienced financial advisors who exemplify what it means to deliver a holistic and personalized approach to clients' financial needs," said Aanal Shah, market executive for Merrill Lynch's Manhattan East complex, in a statement.

Merrill Lynch has about 14,400 advisors with about $2 trillion in client balances as of June 30. Its parent company is set to release its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 17.

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