Merrill Loses Veteran Wealth Manager to UBS -- Street Moves

  By Michael Wursthorn 
 

Bank of America Corp.'s wealth-management unit has lost a 33-year veteran.

Douglas Twohill, who joined Merrill Lynch in 1981, left the firm this week to join rival UBS Wealth Management Americas, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's BrokerCheck database.

Mr. Twohill made the move with Steven Scalici, a 20-year-plus securities industry veteran who had been at Merrill since 2009.

Spokespeople for Merrill Lynch and UBS confirmed the moves. While Merrill Lynch's spokeswoman declined to comment on the advisers' assets under management and production, UBS's spokesman said Mr. Twohill managed $223 million in assets and had $2 million in production, while Mr. Scalici oversaw $109 million in assets and had $966,000 in production.

It wasn't clear why Mr. Twohill and Mr. Scalici broke ranks with Merrill Lynch.

Like its major rivals, Merrill Lynch has been trying to stem the tide of financial-adviser attrition. The large brokerages are in fierce competition for talent, willing to pay signing bonuses of up to three times an adviser's annual production to lure them from one another. Meanwhile, the independent channel, including roll-up platforms like Focus Financial Partners, have been successful in attracting wirehouse talent.

Morgan Stanley, for its part, is experimenting with how it compensates its more than 16,000 financial advisers to improve retention. The firm will tweak its pay plans next year so that a slightly bigger portion of adviser compensation will be deferred in the hopes of "encouraging people to stay," a person with knowledge of the matter told The Wall Street Journal last week.

Despite losing Mr. Twohill and Mr. Scalici, Merrill Lynch has recruited at least six new financial advisers this month.

Its most recent hires include Richard Zinman, a California-based Morgan Stanley adviser who managed $104 million and generated $1.2 million in production, and Christopher Carbone and Charles Sergewick, a New Jersey pair also from Morgan Stanley who together managed more than $200 million in assets and had more than $2 million in production.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswomen confirmed those departures, but declined to speak further.

(Street Moves chronicles the migration of executives on Wall Street, with a particular emphasis on financial advisers with more than $1 million in annual production and those who manage more than $100 million in client assets. Michael Wursthorn can be reached at 212-416-2218 or at [e-mail].)

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