First Republic Hires $2.5 Million Merrill Producer in California

First Republic on Friday landed another multi-million dollar Merrill Lynch producer, this time in its headquarters city of San Francisco.

Brian Addington, who sources said generated $2.5 million in annual revenue on $300 million in client assets, joined First Republic after 13 years at Merrill and another Bank of America brokerage unit. He arrived with three support staff.

Addington did not return a request for comment on his decision.

First Republic has been reaching into wirehouses, and to Merrill in particular, to build the wealth management brokerage arm of its core private banking business. In August, it made waves when Phil Scott—one of Merrill’s top producers who had been with the firm for 35 years—took his team to First Republic. The team, based in Bellevue, WA, generated around $18 million at Merrill, sources said.

The bank in July recruited Stacy Allred, who counseled Merrill advisors on family wealth strategies for very wealthy clients, for a similar role. Its private bank chief investment officer is Chris Wolfe, another Merrill alumnus.

First Republic, which Merrill purchased in 2007 and which Bank of America subsequently sold back to management after buying Merrill in 2009, went public in late 2010. It has been offering top advisors deals that recruiters say can top 300% of the annual revenue they produced at their previous firms.

Wealth management remains a small part of First Republic’s business. Its approximately 205 advisors generated about 12.4% of the company’s second-quarter revenue of $919 million. But it has added at least seven wirehouse teams teams this year, on pace with the 10 who joined last year

Recruiters said First Republic is vying for top wirehouse brokers with other “boutiques” such as Rockefeller Capital Management, which on Friday landed a Morgan Stanley team in Dallas that produced around $5 million in the previous 12 month. (Rockefeller earlier this year hired Brian Riley, a former Merrill and First Republic veteran, to run its San Francisco office and Pacific Northwest division.)

A Merrill spokesperson did not return a request for comment on Addington’s departure.

Addington spent the first six months of his career as a registered rep with Merrill before leaving for stints at Dean Witter Reynolds, Smith Barney and Wells Fargo from 1998 through 2006, according to his BrokerCheck history. He joined Banc of America Investment Services almost 14 years ago, segueing into Merrill in 2009 when the bank purchased the wirehouse.