BAC Buying MER!
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[quote=Broker Fee]
The integration can't be any worse than AG Edwards v Wachovia right. When all was said & done about 33% of the brokers departed edwards. I don't think BAC will loose anymore than that especially in this environment.
[/quote] The attrition at Wachywards has not been anywhere near 33%. Nice try.Amigo, I would much prefer the ML name to BAI. It took years for Morgan Stanley to finally dissolve the Dean Witter name (along with their reputation to roam the Sears department stores). I would happily learn new systems and migrate into ML’s platform to rid ourselves of NFS and the BAI Compliance.
On the conference call today, most of the senior management and FA's seem to prefer ML to the existing BAI and NFS platform. But the PFG and CM role was commented as a great thing, not as a distraction.Unfortunately, I just signed my offer letter to join Merrill on Friday 9/12 as a trainee being new to the FA business (been working at a trading operation for 5 years before this)…then over the weekend I hear the news. Now I’m wondering what the heck I’m getting myself into. I’m gonna stay put for now as long as the training program and compensation are still going forward. This is quite a mess…I may end up back at the trading desk. Sheeesh!
Guys, get out and get out now. I began my finance career in general at BAC before becoming licensed. You have no idea what a cluster fuck this is going to be unless you’ve seen BAC on the bank side, not BAI. The beaurocracy is absolutely staggering. It is nearly impossible to perform a single financial transaction of ANY kind without using a different system. You will have upwards of 12 passwords just for bank side programs. You will have no discretion to perform many transactions, leading you to need to call other departments, each of which will have 20-30 minute hold times, if you’re able to even reach the 9-5 piker who will be waiting at the other end of the line. Most of the bank employees will do absolutely NOTHING but get in your way. Not because they’re “haters” although many are, but because they’re just clueless imbeciles trying to rack up a few more years to get up to six weeks of vacation. I’ve confirmed with former coworkers that my experience has only worsened.
The culture of BAC is that no one can ‘get anything done’ without getting 20 other people in at least 10 other departments involved. Your clients will not be yours but those of the bank. Use this as an opportunity to go Indy or jump to another wire, but don’t even think of going to BAC.
If BAC is smart, they will just stay out of the way and let ML’s brokers go about their business. BAC should know that the wealth management platform was not broken and they don’t need to get involved to “fix” it. ML failed because of the other areas of the organization, not the wealth managment side.
BAC should smile at their good fortune to be able to acquire a revenue producing machine and then get out of the way. If they try to do what bankers do and start cutting costs, they will find that their revenue will fall off a cliff as the ML folks start to leave with their clients.BAC had to get away from NFS and self clear, eventually.
I was recruited to BAI from Merrill and it was the biggest mistake of my life as the cultures were so different, and that is what stands to destroy this deal is the potential clash in cultures. This acquisition has a chance if they just integrate all the systems and leave ML alone. There are no real cross selling opportunities that Lewis was espousing yesterday. Yeah, go ahead and start giving leads to the ML advisors and watch your legacy BAI FA's flock to Chase. For those ML'ers interested in what they are getting into, use the search function and search BAI, BAC, Banc of America Investments, and/or Bank of America. There is plenty of great feedback on this site, FWIW.[quote=Akkula]If BAC is smart, they will just stay out of the way and let ML’s brokers go about their business. BAC should know that the wealth management platform was not broken and they don’t need to get involved to “fix” it. ML failed because of the other areas of the organization, not the wealth managment side.
BAC should smile at their good fortune to be able to acquire a revenue producing machine and then get out of the way. If they try to do what bankers do and start cutting costs, they will find that their revenue will fall off a cliff as the ML folks start to leave with their clients.[/quote] I agree....if BAC is smart, they will just get out of the way and let MER run.Let MER run???
Letting them run is how they got themselves in the position of having to write off Billions of dollars of subprime loans. When BAC's relatively conservative bank management style meet's with merrill's wall street wild west style....guess who will win? There is a huge clash of cultures that's brewing over Charlotte,NC right now & i don't think it will be a pretty outcome.Charlie is right. how can you want to put a well run company into the hands of cowboys without a clue.
[quote=Charlie Brown]Let MER run???
Letting them run is how they got themselves in the position of having to write off Billions of dollars of subprime loans. [/quote] You don't understand. GWM is what everyone is refering to. Not IB.[quote=Charlie Brown]Let MER run???
Letting them run is how they got themselves in the position of having to write off Billions of dollars of subprime loans. When BAC's relatively conservative bank management style meet's with merrill's wall street wild west style....guess who will win? There is a huge clash of cultures that's brewing over Charlotte,NC right now & i don't think it will be a pretty outcome.[/quote] CB, One has nothing to do with the other. Wealth Management did not get Merrill in this mess. It was their I-Banking/Capital Markets division that sank them. BAC will leave Merrill's Wealth Management alone. It is their only shining light right now. They will keep the name like Citi did with Smith Barney. It doesn't matter what you call I-banking; Merrill, BOA, Bank of Merrill, Bank of Amerrill - it's all about the relationships and people. You will not lose that business because of a name. Institutional clients are too smart and educated for that. Retail clients, OTOH, just look at the name. Many of them wouldn't do busienss with "Bank of America", despite it being the same advisor with the same platform.[quote=B24][quote=Charlie Brown]Let MER run???
Letting them run is how they got themselves in the position of having to write off Billions of dollars of subprime loans. When BAC's relatively conservative bank management style meet's with merrill's wall street wild west style....guess who will win? There is a huge clash of cultures that's brewing over Charlotte,NC right now & i don't think it will be a pretty outcome.[/quote] CB, One has nothing to do with the other. Wealth Management did not get Merrill in this mess. It was their I-Banking/Capital Markets division that sank them. BAC will leave Merrill's Wealth Management alone. It is their only shining light right now. They will keep the name like Citi did with Smith Barney. It doesn't matter what you call I-banking; Merrill, BOA, Bank of Merrill, Bank of Amerrill - it's all about the relationships and people. You will not lose that business because of a name. Institutional clients are too smart and educated for that. Retail clients, OTOH, just look at the name. Many of them wouldn't do busienss with "Bank of America", despite it being the same advisor with the same platform.[/quote] Agreed that IF BAC senior mgmt is smart they will indeed let Merrill's leader (McCaan) run the retail division show. The potential conflict I see is that BAC does not have a history of hands off management, like most large banks. Unlike Wachovia which already had a successful retail wing when they swallowed up Prudential & AG Edwards, BAC does not have a track record of running a huge division (16,900 brokers) of highly independent minded successful brokers with huge ego's. There is the potential that they will wreck the train by trying to institute their bank minded bureaucratic processes within the retail division...katie bar the door if that happens because those brokers will leave in droves.[quote=Charlie Brown][quote=B24][quote=Charlie Brown]Let MER run???
Letting them run is how they got themselves in the position of having to write off Billions of dollars of subprime loans. When BAC's relatively conservative bank management style meet's with merrill's wall street wild west style....guess who will win? There is a huge clash of cultures that's brewing over Charlotte,NC right now & i don't think it will be a pretty outcome.[/quote] CB, One has nothing to do with the other. Wealth Management did not get Merrill in this mess. It was their I-Banking/Capital Markets division that sank them. BAC will leave Merrill's Wealth Management alone. It is their only shining light right now. They will keep the name like Citi did with Smith Barney. It doesn't matter what you call I-banking; Merrill, BOA, Bank of Merrill, Bank of Amerrill - it's all about the relationships and people. You will not lose that business because of a name. Institutional clients are too smart and educated for that. Retail clients, OTOH, just look at the name. Many of them wouldn't do busienss with "Bank of America", despite it being the same advisor with the same platform.[/quote] Agreed that IF BAC senior mgmt is smart they will indeed let Merrill's leader (McCaan) run the retail division show. The potential conflict I see is that BAC does not have a history of hands off management, like most large banks. Unlike Wachovia which already had a successful retail wing when they swallowed up Prudential & AG Edwards, BAC does not have a track record of running a huge division (16,900 brokers) of highly independent minded successful brokers with huge ego's. There is the potential that they will wreck the train by trying to institute their bank minded bureaucratic processes within the retail division...katie bar the door if that happens because those brokers will leave in droves.[/quote]Thats the question! How involved does the bank get in the brokerage.I seem to remember some years ago BAC bought a west coast brokerage and ran it into the ground. Anyone remember the name?
Does anyone remember that BAC bought Dean Witter before they started calling themselves Morgan? I am talking about the B/D not the I-Bank for those of you who cannot seem to follow the difference, BAC stayed with the purchase for a whole 18 months and unwound it. Something about culture clash, I believe was what they said. Then “the Dean” went to JPM leaving Mr. Morgan turning in his grave. BAC hired many of the managers that were find JPM uncomfortable after they righted the ship (by moving out a lot of “the Dean” folks). The people that need to be worried are BAI low level managers. They are toast.
BAC does not have one example of successfully integrating anything but a retail bank. Even then they lose around 30% of the earnings. Dean Witter, Qucik & Riley, US Trust. They all were failures at the hand of the current leaders of BAC.
But hey, everyone shops at Walmart, right?
BACFA:
You are certified Kool Aid drinker You are way off base with regard to BAISI's ultra aggressive arb tactics. Go to Finra.org and look at all of the Arb cases BAISI is invovled in just from Jan 2003 until now. Hundreds more than comparable sized firms Wachovia, LPL, Merrill. BAISI will slowly try to dilute your influence as an FA and attempt to brand your client to BofA....you will slowly become a replaceable cog in the comprehensive financial services wheel and not the chief and sole point of contact. With your assigned CM partner, a new Trust officer, a new Private Bank Associate....And an integrated BofA bank account linked to your brokerage account... Try and leave after all of those mits are all over your book in the middle of a down market..... Wait until you have to meet all of the referal goals back to the bank, back to Trust, the data entry to verify all of your activity. You will have no time to sell anything This is gonna beee BEAUTIFUL.... And remember those big Merril producers from Cleveland that got recruited to the BAISI model in San Diego.....They were the $3 million dollar team that sued and tatooed BAISI's ass for fraudulent recruitment...That would be my template as a Merrill Rep.....
Search Ina, Parizale at Finra Arbitration decisions webpage .....
Revisit the old Investment News article from 2005 everyone will see what I am talking about
Maybe I drank the Kool-Aid but I think that things with Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management will largely remain the same. Bob McCann will still be running the show. BAC wants to retain the Merrill Lynch FAs and considers then the “Crown Jewels of Merrill Lynch” (not my words). Bob knows the ML FAs and he knows what it will take to keep them around. I’ve heard people talking about retention bonuses nearing 100% of trailing 12-months for higher producers. Unfortunately for me, I did hear that lower producers have much lower retention bonuses. Since I’m just graduating POA at my 18-month mark at the end of this month, there will be no retention bonus for me. I’m also a little upset, but not shocked, to hear that my FCAAP bonus will not vest at the acquisition as we were told by our director yesterday. Oh well, I’m no worse off comp wise…at least not for now. I’m just happy that I’m getting my graduation bonus. I fear that many of my POA/PMDP brethren will not be so fortunate.
Merrill Lynch told us that they “never have laid-off an FA”. How true is that? What is the likelihood that will remain true? To me it seems logical that they eliminate the bottom quintile of those with LOS > 4-5yrs.
–WM
It’s amazing how many recruiting calls have come in to my office the past few days. I am also surprised how many “senior” advisors never even picked up the phone to make any outbound calls to clients the past few days. Some have not had a chance since so many clients are calling in, but others just aren’t calling. Can you guess which advisors are losing clients?
WealthManager:
Stop imitating those Cheech and Chong movies....you are high if you think BofA is not going to kill ML brand and integrate ML into the BAISI model. AG Edwards will not be a brand in a year. Yeah, their name is going to survive another buyout of Wachovia. No way Man....Phuuuuuuuuft....Take another long toke....
Its always smiles and promises until the deal closes and then the dungeon door shuts and Merrill is officially in the acquisition dust bin. Quick and Reilly, Thomas "Weasel" Partners, etc BofA a floated the same story to those poor saps...I dont see their name along side of BankofAmigo.
On the day the deal closes they will welcome Merrill FA's as proud new BAISI FA's....With Annualized COMP, Bonus paid in BAC STOCK. We saved you and we will not let you forget it and our model proved to be better than yours.....WE BOUGHT YOU so dont get any bright ideas about who is in charge. Merrill Army is somewhat mechanized with their financial planning module requirements, but they will not like all of the politics and layers of the bank... It will be like going to work for the Pentagon and on the first day they give you a 1000 page phone directory of all employees and say here is your resource reference guide. Its all in the manual.......just send any questions to mail code REVO-DNEB-666 Good luck and again, Welcome! ( Delivered with horrible Perma smile of an evicerated corporate drone) Max Headroom in a S&K Menswear suit.[quote=daytradah]
Its always smiles and promises until the deal closes and then the dungeon door shuts and Merrill is officially in the acquisition dust bin. Quick and Reilly, Thomas “Weasel” Partners, etc BofA a floated the same story to those poor saps…I dont see their name along side of BankofAmigo.
[/quote]True, but were those companies 16,000 FAs strong?
I also do still see US Trust’s name…not alongside but standing alone.
–WM