Displaying items by tag: merrill lynch

UBS Wealth Management lured away a team generating $4 million in revenue from Merrill Lynch in Sarasota, Florida, as the wirehouse continues to keep up its recruiting efforts. The group, led by advisors Brian Mariash and James Barton “Bart” Lowther, had overseen around $640 million in assets. Their practice, called Mariash Lowther Wealth Management, joined UBS on February 24th and includes advisor Jesse Perez and client associates Shannon Murphy, Dionysios Skaliotis, and Sovanna Sok. Mariash had been with Merrill for the last 14 years. He started at the now-defunct firm GunnAllen Financial, moved to Wells Fargo predecessor A.G. Edwards after less than one year, and then joined Morgan Stanley in 2008. Lowther started his career at Merrill in 2010. According to the UBS announcement, Mariash and Lowther had been partners for the last 10 years. As part of the announcement, Greg Kadet, UBS’s Florida market director stated, “The team’s experience, dedication to clients, and passion for philanthropy are a great addition to our business as we look to continue to expand and enhance our ability to serve clients in this growing market.” UBS has been accelerating its recruiting efforts with a special bonus last summer and continues to court million-dollar-plus producers. For instance, it previously landed a Morgan Stanley team, led by Peter E. Black, who generated $3 million in annual revenue in Princeton, New Jersey.

Finsum: UBS continues its recruiting efforts with the announcement that it lured away a Merrill Lynch team generating $4 million in revenue in Sarasota, Florida.

According to a recent announcement, Sanctuary Wealth lured a team with $1.5 billion in assets away from Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in The Woodlands, Texas outside Houston. According to Sanctuary, the seven-person group, which generated about $11 million in annual revenue, is the largest group by assets to join Sanctuary since its 2018 launch. The Merrill team is led by brothers Brent R. and Bradley C. Chappell who inherited the practice from their father, Robert D. Chappell, who retired from Merrill Lynch in 2019. The Chappells have known Sanctuary President Vince Fertitta “for many years” from his days working as a divisional manager at Merrill in Texas before his joining Sanctuary in 2019. Brent Chappell started on his father’s team in 2003 after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, and Brad joined three years later after graduating from the same school. The group also includes advisors Michael Mills and Spencer Carlson as well as support staff Chel Larkin, Jaymie Wendt, and Brianna Warren. As part of the announcement, Brad Chappell said the following, “By partnering with Sanctuary, we see real opportunities to grow our business that weren’t available to us previously and wouldn’t exist in a lateral move to another wirehouse.”

Finsum:A seven-person team with $1.5 billion in assets jumped from Merrill Lynch to Sanctuary Wealth due to opportunities to grow the business that weren’t previously available to them.

Advisors today not only have to compete against each for business, but they also have to keep up with an endless stream of eye-catching content pushed to consumers. That’s why Merrill Lynch, in an effort to keep their advisors front and center, is rolling out a suite of new tools to help advisors become content creators. The brokerage firm recently launched Merrill Video Pro, a virtual video studio for advisors to create clips and connect with clients and prospects at scale. Video Pro is billed as a turnkey video creation tool. It provides access to a template library of topics to help advisors quickly craft compliant clips. Advisors can either personalize one of the scripts already in Video Pro or start from scratch. Once a script is approved by compliance, advisors can record videos up to a minute in length. Video Pro also offers tools such as a scrolling teleprompter and support for selecting the right thumbnail to make things easier for advisors not used to filming. Kirstin Hill, chief operating officer at Merrill Wealth Management, had this to say about the new tool, "Video is an engaging medium for advisors to connect in a modern, simple way. The new tool is the latest example of how Merrill is modernizing the way advisors communicate with clients and connect with prospects."

Finsum: To help their advisors stay in the mix amid an endless barrage of sharable content, Merrill Lynch launched Video Pro, a virtual video studio for advisors to create clips and connect with prospects.

J.P. Morgan Advisors continues to boost its advisor headcount with the latest addition of a Boston-based Merrill Lynch team that generates $2 million in revenue. The team is led by Andrew Parvey and Maureen Wilson who oversee $200 million in client assets. They moved to J.P. Morgan along with support staffers Victoria Steele and Ko Dong. Parve started his career at Olde Discount Corp. in 1996 and also worked at Gruntal & Co., and Citigroup’s Smith Barney before joining Merrill in 2008. Wilson started her career as a personal banker at Bank of America in 2003, and worked at Chase between 2005 and 2007, before restarting her brokerage career in 2015 at Merrill. They will report to Rick Penafiel, regional director for Boston, Miami, and Palm Beach. This marks the second Merrill team to join J.P. Morgan Advisors in as many months. Another team led by Marc Karstaedt in New York City joined in January. The Advisors unit, which JPMorgan acquired from Bear Stearns during the financial crisis, has around 450 advisors. In July 2021, the group announced a plan to double its headcount over the next five to seven years. J.P. Morgan ended last year with 5,029 total advisors, up 6% from the prior year.

Finsum:J.P. Morgan lured away its second Merrill Lynch team in as many months in a bid to boost its advisor headcount.

According to a recent announcement, Raymond James Financial has nabbed a Merrill Lynch advisor managing $250 million in Miami. Daniel Laiter, who has been in the industry for 25 years, joined Raymond James’ Alex. Brown unit on January 20th. He started his career at Lehman Brothers in 1997, joined Credit Suisse by way of its Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities predecessor in 2001, and returned to Lehman for two years between 2006 and 2008 before joining Merrill. Laiter, who focuses on clients in Mexico, will report to Eric Termini, regional executive for South Florida. As part of the announcement, Termini said “Danny represents one of the top advisors in the industry.” Laiter was convinced to move in part by a “client-centric” culture and the “experienced management team” at Raymond James. In June, Raymond James folded Alex. Brown into its core employee channel, Raymond James & Associates, led by Tash Elwyn. The unit had around 150 advisors at that time, a small fraction of the roughly 3,450 advisors in the RIA division. Raymond James announced four additional hires into the unit last year, including three who joined in Miami.

Finsum:Raymond Jamesadds to its Alex. Brown unit with the recruitment of a Merrill Lynch advisor managing $250 million.