Merrill vs. Morgan Stanley: An Earnings-Season Tale of Two Wirehouses

BofA's wealth group had revenues of $4.4 billion in Q2 ($3.6 billion of which came from Merrill), down from $4.9 billion a year ago. Its profits fell by 62% from a year ago to $726 million in the latest quarter.

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management had roughly $2.5 trillion in client assets as of Q2, but Morgan Stanley had nearly $2.7 trillion. With the BofA Private Bank advisors included, though, the overall wealth unit had $2.9 trillion in client assets. 

Financial Advisor Stats

Morgan Stanley's tally is 15,399 advisors, down by 234 from a year ago. They work with a total of $2.7 trillion in client assets.

Advisors with Morgan Stanley have average trailing 12-month fees and commissions of $1.21 million as of June 30 — up 16% from the first quarter and up 8% from year ago.

Bank of America Merrill has 17,888 advisors, up by 380 from last year; these figures include some advisors working on Merrill Edge and other BofA operations. The overall wealth unit has $2.9 trillion of client assets.

The wealth unit's advisors have average yearly production of $1.07 million, down 6% from the prior quarter and down 1% from the year-ago period.

Veteran Merrill advisors, though, had average annual fees and commissions of $1.38 million in Q2'20 — a drop of about 5% from Q1'20 and 1% lower than in Q2'19.