thanks for the advice. this is apparently a new program they are starting at merrill. it might be different then what you experienced. i read over the information but there was no mention of what happens after you graduate from the pmd program…i suppose you leave the bank and go back to the ML office. it is supposed to start in april in texas and then california starts in august along w/ some other areas. hopefully we will get more explanation of this program on monday on our weekly pmd meeting.

The hurdles are based on Net New Money (coming from outside the bank, not money already sitting in bank accounts), # of accounts opened, and now the emphasis moved to PCs as well. The hurdles are minimal when it comes to PCs. The tracking system is absolutely horrible, everything has to be manually tracked and verified. You will spend at least 2 days a week just tracking your sales. Plus, you have to also open bank accounts and CDs. You are a glorified licensed banker. There are a lot of PMDs that manipulate the compensation system to get their bonus. In contrast, on the Merrill side the bottom line is PCs. There is no way to BS that. Just expect a lot of really strange tracking methods and a lot of comp manipulation. It’s a joke.

i am going to go ahead and do it. starts in august in california.
2 year program…hate cold calling so this is a better option imo

BofA had a well oiled machine in BAI working with the branches, massive production by the avg fa!! … Now 5 yrs later merill boneheads finally realized bofa had a good thing and are trying to fix. they should of just kept Merril Separate and BAI separate.
Look at how well WF does it… separate channels, they have the bank channel wfa
and the acquired Wachovia wfa’s(pcg) in the wirehouse channel…

Friend of mine went to ML/BOA/ME route and is dieing. They have the BOA Hurdles plus the PMD Hurdles, opening Edge accts is easy, getting the PCs and NNH#s are almost impossible. Its very catch 22. you have to bring in over 250 accts but then you have to give them away. he was there for like 3 months and then was trying to head back. On a positive note, His branch was robbed, so you also get to deal with that. FUNFUN!

I went through it this year & it is a joke. They give you a max $500-$1000 kicker for anytning you send over to Edge under $250k & over you split with a team of older FAs that they mandate a 50/50 split on production. There is no one who will make it through that program with the production hurdles asked of you when you are also opening up checking accounts & issuing temporary debit cards. Then having to track all that to get paid on it.

I can imagine this turning out like every “Licensed Banker” program where your role transforms over time and you end up being a personal banker and not an adviser.

I can imagine this turning out like every “Licensed Banker” program where your role transforms over time and you end up being a personal banker and not an adviser.

Being a personal banker is a crap job.

seems like you guys are all incorrect, as it isnt mandated there be a 50/50 split on new HH brought in through the bank. im starting soon. you negotiated a crap deal

smoko you are exactly right… They want bank products as part of the trade for the bank leads. Essentially you become a glorified personal banker with limited abilities to really do any banking (no biz accounts) as you got to also make referrals to your bank partners, do random bank tasks & feed the Edge machine. While you send your referrals to your senior team to close. Who’s client is that going to be at the end of the day? Hmm… The complex director made the PMD I knew take that deal.

There hasn’t been any mention of this in my office but we don’t have physical BOA branches where I am. So how exactly does this work? Any non-teamed PMD can be put into this role w/o their say-so? Or is this designed for PMDs who aren’t making hurdles but want to stay with the company?

pmds decide if they want to join it. you team up w a big producing team, you get splits in place, and u go to the branch and start sourcing leads, if ur lucky, u get placed in a high traffic affluent branch, easy warm leads to close

Interesting. Wonder what they do in markets where BoA doesn’t have physical branches…

Interesting. Wonder what they do in markets where BoA doesn’t have physical branches…

I’d like to know, too.

[quote=BACFA]1. If there aren’t any BofA branches in the market, then there will not be any BFA’s.
2. There are very few large prospects that will show up in the bank and want to do an appointment. An IBM executive is not going to wander into the bank branch midday and do any banking business.
3. However, it is a great place for PMD’s to learn how to do appointments. The amount of traffic you will see is exponentially larger than sitting in your ML Complex and cold calling all day.
4. They just changed the BFA goals. There is no longer the $500-$1,000 bank bonus. It is now converted into PCs and used to hit your PMD hurdles.
5. You will still need help from a team to hit your PMD hurdles. The bank referrals will not generate enough revenue to do it.[/quote]

Are they making any changes to the PMD program where BofA has no presence?

As far as I know, there are no changes for existing PMDs. There are some changes for new 2014 PMDs but they haven’t been announced.

i am a BFA and i just noticed I did not get my PMD Incentive Bonus for Jan 2014. I always got a bonus each month in 2013 for hitting hurdles. I’m still hitting hurdles yet no bonus in Jan 2014. If they took away, the PMD Incentive bonus, I"m going to be so mad.

i am a BFA and i just noticed I did not get my PMD Incentive Bonus for Jan 2014. I always got a bonus each month in 2013 for hitting hurdles. I’m still hitting hurdles yet no bonus in Jan 2014. If they took away, the PMD Incentive bonus, I"m going to be so mad.

dylan, this is system wide, heres the email i got…

There is a slight delay in the PMD bonus showing in MyHR, but it will still payout on the 1/15 cycle. As long as they see the bonus showing now for December in the PMD reporting, they will be paid. They should be able to see the statement updated on 1/15.