Merrill Team Generating $5.2 Million Goes Indie in Indianapolis

Two advisors who produced $5.2 million in annual revenue at Merrill Lynch in the past 12 months have joined Sanctuary Wealth, an independent broker-dealer in Indianapolis led by a former Merrill regional manager.
Elizabeth E. Evans and Brooke V. May were overseeing $800 million of client assets at Merrill, said James R. Dickson, Sanctuary’s chief executive.Sanctuary was created last year as an independent affiliate of Noyes Group, which owned the 110-year-old regional firm David A. Noyes. The small brokerage plans to shed its original name and adopt Sanctuary as it focuses on the independent channel, according to Dickson.
“The economics are slightly better at the employee model, but the growth isn’t because everyone wants to be independent,” said Dickson, who is part owner of the company.
David A. Noyes has shrunk to about 20 brokers while the new Sanctuary unit has grown to about 55 since its founding 14 months ago, he said. Sanctuary last month hired Vince Fertitta, a former Merrill regional manager in Texas, to recruit brokers in the Southwest.
Joining Evans and May in Indianapolis are four client associates and Ian J. Flanagan, who advised on alternative “infrastructure investments” in his previous role as a managing director at the Indianapolis office of KPMG Corporate Finance, according to the company and his BrokerCheck record.
Evans’ father, Carl, retired from Merrill last year after a 44-year career with the firm. Ranked along with May as a Forbes’ Top Women Wealth Advisor, she will serve as a board member of Sanctuary, Dickson said.
Evans began her brokerage career seven years ago at Merrill. May first registered as a broker in 2000 at H&R Block, and also worked at Charles Schwab & Co. before joining Merrill in 2008, according to her BrokerCheck record.
A spokeswoman for Merrill did not return a request for comment on their departure.
The women partners worked with 225 families at Merrill, and were frustrated by the Bank of America-owned firm’s incessant push to grow the number of client accounts and to sell customers mortgages and other bank products, according to Dickson.
Merrill two years ago introduced a “flexible grid” that in 2019 shaves 100 basis point from payouts to broker that fail to add at least four new household accounts over $250,000 (while awarding an extra 100 basis points for hitting six household accounts).
Merrill Lynch Wealth Management President Andy Sieg said last week that the firm’s approximately 14,800 brokers are on pace to add about 47,000 new households this year, in part because of the grid plan he introduced two years ago.
Merrill Lynch and Sanctuary are members of the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, which permits brokers to bring rudimentary customer-contact information with them when moving among signatory firms. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and UBS Financial Services dropped out of the Protocol in late 2017, and have occasionally sued brokers for trying to solicit former customers.
Sanctuary two weeks ago hired a two-advisor team in Walnut Creek, Calif. who it said were managing $275 million in assets and producing $1.6 million of revenue.
Absolutely BRUTAL day for the Thundering Herd management. ML also lost a multimillion dollar production team in New Orleans today.
What the F is Andy Sieg doing? How has Brian M not fired this clown. Huge teams leaving. How is this good for BAC shareholders? Thiel was so much better than Sieg.
Who was the team in New Orleans?
Congratulations to them! Welcome to the world of no more checking account and loan requirements. No more quotas. No more pay cuts. No more householding and asset gathering games. No more games with team grid. No more variances. No more failed FA’s in management and Compliance telling you how to manage money. No more management pay incentives that conflict with you and your clients. No more lies from Sieg. No more forced banking. No more Loan and Trust Officer’s at your door asking what you can do for them. I could go on…
…don’t stop there…
Only a masochist would remain at Merrill.
Wanna make a giant gamble with your career? Stay at Merrill through the end of this year.
Looks like bulk of the book belonged to Daddy from his 40+ year career at Merrill. Willing to bet they will not let these kids set Up their new shop so easily. #TRO
These two women are phenomenal advisors, not kids. Have a little bit of class.
Hopefully daddy didn’t take the Merrill sunset package. If so he may have just gotten royally screwed by them.
Hey Binbo- Evans May are outstanding. I’m a client with a history of multi manager multi trusts- and Evans May outsmarts every single one .
Ginger or MaryAnn?
Seriously? No wonder you’re anonymous
How long before they pull a Morgan and UBS and pull out of protocol? It is going to happen. They are losing a lot of advisors and they are not recruiting. All those advisors at Merrill who haven’t Prepared will be screwed. U snooze u lose. –
ML is ok with advisors leaving. Seems counterintuitive, but the gross revenues aren’t really a dent in the overall BofA enterprise. We will take whats left behind, convert alot to our low cost, high margin platform and increase net profits. Not to mention the extra basis point pick up on bank product penetration. Advisors leave, we win. Why else remain in protocol and not recruit? Just right sizing the wealth management division for maximum profitability.
A lot
Overheard my Complex director talking about “time to thin the herd”. Exactly what they are doing.
Dang ML! What are you management boys are girls doing? This is embarrassing even for an old retiree like myself. Just don’t ask me to re-up and come back to work cause I can’t do the bank thing.
If anyone at ML, sorry BAC (they killed ML earlier this year) thinks they aren’t going to a base and bonus, you are a fool. And if any of you trust Sieg you are a bigger fool, the man got fired by Merrill Lynch for falsifying his departments numbers, and only got hired back to run ML by Moynihan cause he knew he could make Andy his puppet.
My firm’s data tracking on selected firms and advisors reveals the following, which should be of interest to anyone following this story. Since the beginning of 2019, we’ve tracked or been involved in the moves of 141 experienced Merrill advisors to other firms. Number of advisors leaving other firms for Merrill in that same period? Two.
Whats amazing to me is that so many people have yet to leave?? I mean, c’mon, read the comments above, the tea leaves, actions of the management team, or comments on the earnings conference calls. It must be frustrating for Sieg and company as to why so many are staying!
Everyone I talk to at the firm is interviewing with our competition. Lots of deals being negotiated presently
No surprise anymore that so many top producing teams leaving ML. Through these posts, office and industry talk, and from people like me that used to be with the bull we all know the reasons why that I won’t go over again here.
However, with this latest exodus of multiple high production teams nationwide reported by sites like advisorhub I wonder if all these advisors know something (unofficially) that we might not know – and that’s the date Bofa has chosen to go to salary + bonus.
EXACTLY. You figured out our 2021 advisor “incentive” compensation plan!
There are really 2 types of people at Merrill. Those that are under contract due to inheritance of a book (CTP) or recruited. And the lazy chicken, who complains and whines but don’t do anything. Those are the worst. –