$6-Mln Merrill Team Breaks Away to Launch RIA in Pennsylvania
Another multi-million dollar Merrill Lynch team has left the “thundering herd,” this time striking out on their own in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
The team, including four associates, had been managing $1.2 billion in client assets and generated around $6 million in annual revenue, according to the announcement and a spokesperson for Dynasty Financial Partners, a service provider that the team used in launching the RIA.
Matt Liebman said in a prepared statement that they opted to leave the wirehouse because they felt they would have more freedom to choose how to serve clients by operating their own firm.
“We were content at our former firm, and our growth over the past several years has been tremendous,” he said in the statement. “But two years ago, we started the due diligence process out of our commitment to always try to do more and do better for our clients and their families.”
Liebman, who is maintaining a brokerage license through Albany, NY-based Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments, could not immediately be reached for additional comment. He joined his father’s practice at Merrill in 2008 after working in asset management, and was ranked #72 on this year on Forbes’ list of the best advisors in Pennsylvania, according to his team biography.
Sam Liebman started his career at Prudential Securities predecessor Bache & Co. in 1970, moved to UBS Wealth Management USA in 1992 and joined Merrill in 2007. Marks began his career at Merrill in 2011, and Swift started at Merrill in 2016 after a rookie year at Axa Advisors, according to BrokerCheck.
Their exit adds to a list of departures from Merrill so far this year that–including the Liebman group–represented over $40 million in combined production at their former firm and have shifted to a variety of competitors, according to a review of reported moves.
The departures include a team said to be generating $3 million in revenue who moved to Rockefeller Capital Management in Newport Beach, California, on Friday as well as a $2 million producer in Dallas who also on Friday joined a registered investment advisory firm founded by another Merrill émigré.
Rockefeller two weeks ago hired a four-person Merrill team generating $2.5 million in revenue in Denver. It also landed a $2.2 million Merrill team in Chicago and a $3.3 million Florida team from the wirehouse in January.
Another $2 million producing manager and his partner left last week to join a New Jersey-based RIA.
Almost two weeks ago, one of Merrill’s top advisors in Alabama, Robert Runkle, took his $4.4 million team to Morgan Stanley. Earlier in February, Morgan Stanley also scooped up a $7.5 million team led by veteran Lawrence W. Catena and hired a longtime Merrill team in New Jersey that had been managing $500 million. In January, it lured two Merrill lifers in Maryland who were generating $2.6 million in annual revenue.
In late January, another Merrill team that was managing $1.3 billion and generating $4.6 million in revenue joined Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. in Dallas, and a million-dollar producer, Christopher J. Collins, in the Chicago suburbs, joined RBC Wealth Management in February.
A Merrill spokesperson said he could not immediately comment on the $40 million figure or the individual move.
Merrill halted its veteran broker recruiting efforts in 2017 as it looked to escape the costly hiring practice. It has maintained the freeze even as Morgan Stanley and UBS Wealth Management USA have revived their own efforts as executives have said the focus on developing its existing sales force is paying off.
Merrill had around 14,000 brokers in its wealth unit in mid-2019 but no longer reports that headcount separately from around 3,000 bank-based brokers at its Bank of America’s Merrill Edge unit.
Numbers are terrible this year, last year, and the last 5 years. Now that RSU’s have paid, the dam is about to break loose. Andy will be glad he hides those headcount numbers!
Good move to freedom. BoffA performed a lobotomy on Mother Merrill.
Total slap in the face to ML.
These smart guys all realized that the ML CTP program does not maximize FA value, and what the acquiring FA has to endure is not a good deal for him either.
This team will have so much flexibility in paying out the oldest advisor, he will be able to stay on longer which is what his clients want, and the team will grow quicker going forward than they would have if still at ML.
We will continue to see more and more articles of ML departures, environment there is awful, only people who are happy are those who have not built the business themselves, which essentially makes them corporate shills with no optionality in their business.
They went for 85% payouts and ability to cash out under cap gain treatment instead of upfront 300% from MS
AND IT’S NOT EVEN FRIDAY
Anthony nailed it! Great move for all. Merrill hates Fridays.
These guys did not establish a true RIA. They kept some of their commission business by affiliating with a broker/dealer, Purshe Kaplan Sterling, so no fiduciary relationship for those clients. Just my opinion, but I would have left the commission business behind. If it’s not fee based, I don’t want it.
Good evening all. Actually Michelle they are very intelligent to maintain the hybrid model at the moment. This is likey the advice guven by counsel and Dynasty. Here is why. Many really good clients have 529 / Next Gen or old VAs on the books. The ML 529 plans which are expensive and not the best are considered by the SEC a broker product because of trails so they will shift them to the new BD then convert them to Vanguard or another better plan and charge .25% hard dollars and it will be less expensive and better for the client. Then there is the issue with any old VA contracts that can be assigened to the new BD and then evaluate the opportunity to go to an RIA type contract where expenses are cut in half assuming you maintain benefit for the client. As such the clients may save costs and get more. If you choose to leave the VAs or the 529s behind you wind up with the leeches left behind at ML talking about how great they are and making up BS about why they left. So by taking now and converting to RIA standards later they are smart and protecting their relationship with clients and their revenue. We did it 3 years ago and it worked magically. Good luck to them. On another topic…… I have consulted to several ML teams over last few years who have either departed or are still contemplating……and a few who don’t feel they can leave. But everyone would leave if they could snap their fingers and go. Only the CTP carrot and DC or RSUs are keeping them there…but otherwise they are miserable and realize ML Culture is now choked in Bank exhaust. Wait til DA becomes head of ML….then the killing will be complete and Tryon Street will be celebrating. Fortunately for people who have the drive and the money….. there is a better way. Have a great evening. — Wiser Advisor
Wiser, all good points. For me, I had zero VA when I left MS 8 years ago. I do have a million or so in 529 plans and I set all of that up at American Funds in an institutional class share with no fee and no trail. my firm does not bill on those assets.
Wiser Advisor – I wish I could convey just how helpful your above comment is to me. Thank you for taking the time to write this! Have a great week!
I give AS about 12-18 months before he “retires to spend more time with his family” and DA absorbs the unit.
Who is “DA”? And do you mean BofA will sell Merrill?
DA is Dean Anathasia (President of Consumer and Small Business Banking, and Merrill Edge). Hell no they aren’t going to spin off MER – that idea was floated long ago and rejected with extreme prejudice.
How bad are things getting? Have an offer to join up after school…
If being being an RIA “Fiduciary” is such an honorable thing, why are there so many RIA’s in jail for fraud (ie -Madoff, Stanford and countless others)? There are many more brokerage FA’s than RIA’s, and yet Google search “financial advisor fraud” and mostly RIA’s come up. When there is fraud at brokerages the clients are instantly made whole. With RIA’s there are years of litigation and lots of money is never recouped. There’s a reason most RIA’s have LLC after their name – it stands for “Lots of luck Collecting” if there’s a problem
I am sure we will see more departures Friday, RSU’s and Wealth Choice have just paid out.
Every ML manager must dread Friday’s
How much “breakage” can the bank handle before changes are made? The 3% taken off the top is a big number, a lot of assets would have to leave.