Merrill Fires 2 Reps Over Do Not Call List Violations

The terminations of Ferguson and Kunin come as Merrill attempts to shift away from cold calling as a method for its advisor trainees to find new clients.

In 2019, Merrill terminated veteran brokers Todd Bendell and Jonathan Elliott, saying they engaged in "solicitation of prospects inconsistent with Firm standards" and then didn't fully cooperate with reviews by the company, according to BrokerCheck.

Last year, Merrill put a short-term halt to cold calling by advisor trainees in response to outreach-related violations, according to Business Insider, which obtained a copy of an internal memo written by Jennifer MacPhee, who later retired from her role as head of Merrill's training program for more than 3,000 financial advisors. Both MacPhee and Merrill said her departure was unrelated to the violations.

In September, Merrill said it intended to resume such outbound calling activity in the "not too distant future as the new team and its approach settle in."

However, the company more recently indicated it was looking to be less reliant on the use of cold calling.

For Merrill reps, the clear message from the firings of Ferguson and Kunin seems to be that if they insist on cold calling potential new clients, they better make sure those people are not on the Do Not Call registry that is maintained by the Federal Trade Commission.

The terminations of Ferguson and Kunin were reported first by the Financial Times.