The 15,000-strong Thundering Herd wants Bank of America to stop treating it like cattle � but the chances of that happening are dim, judging from the now-notorious recent interview with Merrill Lynch president Andrew Sieg.
In a 75-minute talk with recruiter Mindy Diamond in January, Sieg declined to acknowledge, much less address, widespread advisor dissatisfaction on issues ranging from time-consuming compliance protocols, onerous growth targets and constrictions on Merrill advisors� autonomy and ability to serve the client.
Rather, Sieg seemed to take a �nothing to see here� approach, saying he saw �enormous contentment� among advisors, with any trouble areas being �momentary� and �transitory.� Sieg pegged Merrill�s advisor defection rate at 4% to 5%, putting it in line with other wirehouses, and attributed most advisor moves to the lure of signing bonuses after the expiration of 10-year deals. He blamed BofA-generated bureaucracy on the wider regulatory environment and dismissed advisors� concerns of a deteriorating Merrill culture as nostalgia for a past that never wholly existed in the first place.
Strikingly, Sieg, who is also a member of parent Bank of America�s executive management team, delivered a hard �no� to Merrill establishing an independent unit for its advisors to affiliate with, as firms like Wells Fargo, Raymond James and Ameriprise have profitably done in years past.
The executive�s comments drew immediate and irate responses from current and former Merrill advisors.
�So arrogant management thinks the bank is responsible for growth, not the FA�s? Nothing new there,� one comment in an AdvisorHub story headlined Don�t Blame the Bank, Merrill Boss Says, read.
�One day, I woke up and found that 70% of my time was spent fulfilling whatever bureaucratic mandates that they could dream up. It was almost as if they TRIED to make it miserable,� read another.
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