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Registered Rep. March 15, 2006 John Churchill |
NASD Fines Merrill $5 Million in Settlement Over Improper Supervision Charges The firm's Financial Advisory Center (FAC) was found to have lacked sufficient supervisory measures that led to a variety of improprieties committed by brokers at the two locations between 2001 and 2004. |
Registered Rep. April 1, 2006 John Churchill |
Merrill Call Centers Gone Wild Merrill Lynch agreed to pay a $5 million NASD fine to settle charges that the firm's brokerage client call centers were poorly supervised. |
Registered Rep. November 1, 2005 John Churchill |
The Money Squeeze There's one thing that stands between the big retail brokerage firms and the high profit margins that the executives of these firms and their investors seek: the financial advisor. |
Registered Rep. November 18, 2005 Kristen French |
Smith Barney Cuts Pay for Smaller Brokers The new pay scale was announced to brokers internally in October and will take effect in January. |
Registered Rep. December 1, 2002 David A. Gaffen |
Manning the Phones When wirehouses and other major brokerages introduced the notion of call centers a couple of years ago, brokers were suspicious. Although they understood the logic behind the move, it was a difficult adjustment. But call centers are here to stay and brokers are learning to live with them. |
Registered Rep. November 1, 2004 John Churchill |
Shaky Third Quarter Gives Advisors Pause The last quarter hasn't been great for retail brokerages. Low trading activity and geopolitical uncertainty kept investors on the sidelines, and advisors are feeling the pinch. |
Registered Rep. December 1, 2004 David A. Gaffen |
Meet the New Boss, Different From the Old Boss November's news that Bob Mulholland was leaving Merrill Lynch wasn't entirely a surprise. He had been co-head of the 14,000-strong retail brokerage unit, but Merrill insiders figured all along that only one boss would prevail. |
Registered Rep. March 1, 2005 John Churchill |
Earnings Forecast: Clouds Give Way to Sun The past year's earnings troubles belie the brokerage industry's sunny prospects for 2005. For advisors, the industry's recent troubles have translated into fewer jobs, but many firms are recruiting aggressively again. |
Registered Rep. February 1, 2005 |
By the Numbers Top 10 Broker/Dealers, by Advisor Headcount: Merrill Lynch... Wachovia... Smith Barney... Morgan Stanley... etc. |
Registered Rep. August 25, 2006 Kevin Burke |
Merrill Fighting Back Against Recent Defections The recruiting war for top brokers remains fierce. The latest evidence of the fight to win million-dollar producers involves the industry's biggest firms. |
Registered Rep. November 1, 2005 Kevin Burke |
Reshuffling the Decks There is an unusual amount of reorganization afoot, with Merrill, Wachovia, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney all shaking up their retail brokerage operations. Some of the moves have direct implications for retail advisors. |
Registered Rep. February 1, 2006 Kevin Burke |
Hired and Fired Up The biggest brokerage businesses are showing that even in a modest market upswing they now have in place a strategy for delivering stronger and steadier sales and earnings growth. |
Registered Rep. August 10, 2004 David A. Gaffen |
Fleeing Brokers Can Take Some Client Info Three of the nation's largest brokerage firms have agreed to make it easier for registered reps to take clients with them when they change firms, eliminating a lot of the cloak-and-dagger antics that brokers often suffer when making a move. |
Registered Rep. July 28, 2005 Kristen French |
Morgan Confirms Trainee, Broker Cutbacks In an internal memo, co-president Zoe Cruz announced the company would reduce the number of trainees it hires to 1,000 in 2006, from 2,400 this year, while continuing to recruit experienced brokers who focus on high-net-worth clients. |
Registered Rep. January 1, 2006 John Churchill |
More, More, More Faced with growing competition from other advice providers and fewer inherent advantages in the way of products and platform capabilities, wirehouse brokers will feel pressure to do more fee-based business and to make wealthier clients a bigger part of their practice. |
Registered Rep. December 1, 2002 Ross Tucker |
Happy Holidays! You're Fired. The ax will fall at year's end for some 700 of 13,500 Morgan Stanley brokers. Some branches will be closed entirely. |
Registered Rep. January 9, 2008 Halah Touryalai |
Smith Barney Snags Three Advisors From Rivals Smith Barney has started off the new year right with a recruiting victory. The firm recently hired three Merrill Lynch reps and one UBS advisor. |
Registered Rep. May 1, 2006 Kevin Burke |
Failure to Launch Last year, Merrill Lynch's deal to buy Advest was regarded as a savvy transaction. Eight months later, with about 100 reps left, the deal math looks considerably worse. But Merrill may soon have an opportunity to see if it can do better. |
Registered Rep. September 25, 2002 Rick Weinberg |
NY Attorney General: I Could Have Nailed Merrill on More Serious Charges Eliot Spitzer said he could have pursued criminal charges against Merrill Lynch for its conflicts of interest in its research, but that he didn't want to "destroy" the firm or Wall Street. |
Registered Rep. June 1, 2006 Kristen French |
Hungry for Hires Wachovia hired a whopping 900 reps in 2005, bringing the total to 10,400, and aims to add the same number in 2006, including around 100 rookies. |
Registered Rep. May 1, 2004 David A. Gaffen |
Mother Merrill's Extreme Makeover A 12-year veteran of Merrill Lynch has noticed a pronounced improvement over the years in the way clients perceive him and his colleagues. |
Registered Rep. April 19, 2006 Kevin Burke |
Merrill's Brokerage Earnings Up Pretax earnings at Merrill Lynch's global private client group rose 27% in the first quarter ending March 31 to $646 million, up from $510 million in the same period a year ago. As might be expected, the division's headcount increased along with profits. |
Registered Rep. November 1, 2003 David A. Gaffen |
Is Wall Street Abandoning Main Street? Are the major brokerage firms losing interest in the everyday investor who has been the very foundation of many of its successes? |
Registered Rep. June 6, 2006 Halah Touryalai |
End of Settlement Talks Bring Students to Protest Against Merrill Lynch African-American college students protested in front of several Chicago-based Merrill Lynch offices one day after settlement talks between African-American reps who claim they were discriminated against and Merrill Lynch came to an end. |
Registered Rep. January 1, 2007 Kristen French |
More or Less? Smith Barney overhauled its pay package -- just in time for the new year. Some of the changes it made were pretty radical -- especially for an industry in which any pay change, no matter how minor, is often a source of uproar. |
Registered Rep. September 1, 2005 Kristen French |
Gorman to the Rescue? Morgan Stanley brokers should expect a revolution when James Gorman takes the helm of the retail unit. |
Registered Rep. July 1, 2006 Kristen French |
James Gorman's First Marking Period In his first four months as head of Morgan Stanley's brokerage unit, James Gorman wasted no time showing that a new regime was in place. But he hasn't convinced all the troops that it's worth sticking around to see how his turnaround plans play out. |
Registered Rep. March 4, 2009 David A. Geracioti |
The Conflicts of Interest in Not Being a Fiduciary; Hang Charlie Merrill In Effigy? At least one commentator is calling for Charlie Merrill to be hung in effigy for creating the modern-day, hard-charging, sales-oriented brokerage called Merrill Lynch. |
Registered Rep. March 18, 2005 Will Leitch |
Wachovia: On the Recruiting Warpath Wachovia Securities, the third-largest brokerage in the country, has announced an "aggressive" new strategy: the creation of the Individual Investor Group, entirely devoted to the recruitment and retention of individual brokers. |
Registered Rep. October 1, 2002 |
Warm Bodies Brokerages ranked by number of reps. |
Registered Rep. January 13, 2003 Gaffen & Geracioti |
Wachovia-Prudential: For Real This Time? Can you say Pru-chovia? Prudential Securities and Wachovia Securities are very close to an agreement to join forces, one that was scuttled earlier in the year, reportedly due to differences in who would control the unit. |
Registered Rep. June 6, 2005 Kristen French |
Gorman's New Job at Merrill: Demotion or Promotion? The leadership change was welcomed by brokers but is unlikely to shake things up at the brokerage unit. |
BusinessWeek September 2, 2010 Moore & Mildenberg |
In the Battle of the Big Brokers, Merrill Is Winning Merrill Lynch earns higher profits with fewer advisers, thanks to a smooth integration with Bank of America and more cross-selling. |
On Wall Street September 1, 2009 Helen Kearney |
On Life Support a Year Ago, Merrill Pays for Top Producers Merrill, under BofA, seems to be on the hunt to add to its ranks, and it's offering a very competitive package that has almost unlimited upside for top producers. |
Registered Rep. August 26, 2010 John Aidan Byrne |
Neck And Neck, Morgan and Merrill On Hiring Sprees Both firms say they plan to add net financial advisors in 2010, adding to stated plans to sign up 2,000 trainees each this year. |
Registered Rep. February 2, 2006 Kristen French |
Brokers Learning to Play by New Rules It's no longer business as usual on Wall Street. Starting yesterday, broker/dealers must follow a new SEC rule that requires them to disclose at certain times that they may not be acting in their clients' best interest. |
Registered Rep. July 20, 2005 John Churchill |
Wall Street's Second-Quarter Results: It Could Have Been Worse The big financial services players have released their second-quarter earnings, and most private client divisions didn't do as badly as analysts were expecting -- thanks, in part, to an improving equity market. Charles Schwab... Merrill Lynch... etc. |
Registered Rep. March 1, 2007 John Churchill |
Sallie's Back At first glance, this second coming of Sallie Krawcheck probably looks like a cakewalk compared to her first adventure in 2002. But, make no mistake: Smith Barney is not the awesome brokerage it appears to be on paper. |
Registered Rep. June 2, 2003 David A. Gaffen |
Vermont Judge Rules Against a Merrill TRO A federal judge in Vermont has ruled against Merrill Lynch's attempt to prevent two former brokers from contacting clients they held while at the firm. |
Registered Rep. September 5, 2002 Rick Weinberg |
While O'Neal Speaks, Rumors Fly Merrill Lynch President Stan O'Neal spoke at his firm's financial services conference about the erosion of investor confidence and restoring investor trust. But the buzz was all about a report in a German newspaper that UBS AG had made an offer for Merrill. |
Registered Rep. November 6, 2008 |
Bank Of America To Sign Protocol, Herd Still Weighing Options Bank of America intends to sign the so-called "broker protocol," an agreement signed by most of the brokerage firms and RIAs stipulating what client information is acceptable for a departing financial advisor to take without getting sued by the former employer. But when? |
Registered Rep. December 1, 2005 Kristen French |
Where's My Money? After California brokers won $37 million in an overtime lawsuit against Merrill Lynch in August, a slew of copycat lawsuits have been filed against other brokerage firms, many of them in New York. |
Registered Rep. March 23, 2006 Kristen French |
Merrill To Gorman: Quit Poaching Our Reps And BOMs Is James Gorman, the new head of retail at Morgan Stanley, brazenly poaching employees from his old firm, Merrill Lynch? A judge apparently thinks so. |
Registered Rep. April 15, 2011 Kristen French |
Merrill Earnings Strongest Since Bank of America Takeover Bank of America's Global Wealth and Investment Management division, which includes Merrill Lynch, reported its highest earnings since Bank of America's takeover of Merrill in late 2008, as asset management and brokerage fees rose. |
On Wall Street April 1, 2010 Howard J. Stock |
Back Office Move Has Advisors Up In Arms -- Some Bolt Questions surround what will happen to BAI clients when Merrill moves their accounts from National Financial to Merrill Lynch. |
Registered Rep. December 1, 2004 David A. Gaffen |
Merrill Watching Consolidation with Eyes Wide Open James Gorman, head of Merrill Lynch's private client group, believes the brokerage industry will continue to consolidate in the coming years. |
Registered Rep. November 23, 2005 Kevin Burke |
Mom-and-Daughter Team Wins $2 Million Arbitration Over Sex Discrimination Merrill Lynch got dinged -- again -- for allegedly mistreating its female reps. |
Registered Rep. September 1, 2004 David A. Gaffen |
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow You won't have to steal client addresses and phone numbers any more when switching firms --- that is, if you work for Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney or UBS Securities. |
Registered Rep. October 1, 2010 John Aidan Byrne |
Who Will be Number One Among the Wirehouses? A good old-fashioned Wall Street fight for retail assets -- and a fierce tussle over which firm can call itself the Number One retail wealth management firm on Wall Street -- is brewing. |
Registered Rep. July 1, 2005 Kristen French |
Apres Purcell--Le Spinoff? Now that Morgan Stanley's CEO has given up, the future of the old Dean Witter organization is in question. Morgan Stanley remains under pressure to improve profitability and its stock price. |