RBC Hires Merrill Lynch Mother-Son Team in Atlanta
(Updates group’s assets under management to $453 million.)
A mother-son advisor team at Merrill Lynch’s Buckhead office in Atlanta left before the Labor Day weekend to join RBC Wealth Management-U.S.
Mary Elizabeth Dale, a 38-year industry veteran who had been with Merrill Lynch for more than a decade, made the move Thursday with her son Jacob, another advisor Chase Rosenberg and two associates. She was a senior vice president at Merrill, according to her former website.
They managed $453 million in client assets, according to an RBC spokeswoman.
Their Merrill-to-RBC route in Atlanta traces the same path made by the $210-million-asset team of Christopher Sanders and Daniel Crews in June.
Jacob Dale said the move to RBC was influenced by recommendations that other brokers had made about the Minneapolis-based firm, while the exit reflected discontent with Merrill’s pressure to use in-house investment portfolios and with compensation policies that appeared to be dictated by its parent bank.
“We were saddened by the changes that Bank of America has made to Merrill Lynch over the past decade,” said Dale, who began his brokerage career in 2010 at Merrill. “I did not leave Merrill Lynch; I left Bank of America.”
A spokeswoman at Merrill did not return a request for comment.
Mary Dale joined Merrill in Atlanta in August 2006 after 26 years with Smith Barney and predecessor Robinson-Humphrey Co., according to her BrokerCheck history. Rosenberg, the third advisor on the team, first registered as a brokerage representative in 2017 at Merrill Lynch.
People are so lemming-like. They’ll follow others over a cliff just because the person in front of them stepped over it. Apparently the Merrill advisors in Atlanta do not realize there are options other than the ones their colleagues choose. Not that there’s anything wrong with RBC, as just about anywhere is better than the Bank of America right now.
My complex just hired 2 new PMD’s. Good thing Merrill was easily able to make up for this loss. Lol!!
The Atlanta Market Leader for Merrill Lynch is woefully out of touch. How many advisors need to leave before Merrill Lynch makes a leadership change?
To busy promising free fees for a year to keep clients of departing advisors. No real strategy.
Problem with those free fees for a year is once those house PC accounts run dry they cant do it. Love all the market exec’s making these promises only to scare advisors from leaving instead of actually trying to fix it. You can give free fees if 1 or 2 leave but when 5-10 advisors are walking out the door it’s not possible. Dysfunction at its finest.
Good points but you forget that the new firm policy on “transferred” accounts is a 50% payout to the gaining FA for 12 months so the offer of free fees is only half the cost. The real question is when are the loyal clients of the remaining FAs going to start asking for the same treatment? AH already reported a class action on money mkt rate schemes and my bet is that Brian M shuts this down pretty quickly in the name of “responsible” growth.
The Exodus continues….the junior advisor put it best: “I did not leave Merrill Lynch. I left Bank of America.” And who in their right mind wouldn’t?
wonder how many merrill advisors are leaving this weekend. i’m sure they will be replaced with capable FSAs or PMDs
“I did not leave Merrill Lynch, I left Bank of America”. Love it. My feelings exactly when I left. ML was best organization I ever worked for. BAC, not so much.
Reminds me of the Ronald Reagan quote when he was asked why he left the Democratic Party. His response was “ I did not leave the Democratic Party – The Democratic Party left me”. Applies aptly to Merrill Lynch.