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Merrill Wealth Management

Type	Division
Industry	Financial services
Founded	January 6, 1914; 105 years ago (1914-01-06)
Founder	Charles E. Merrill
Headquarters	250 Vesey Street New York City, New York, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Services	Investment management
Revenue	US$13.8 billion (2012)[1]
Number of employees	15,100 (Financial Advisors as of 2010)
Parent	Bank of America
Divisions	Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Merrill Private Wealth Management Merrill Guided Investing Merrill Edge
Website	ML.com

Merrill, previously Merrill Lynch, is an American investing and wealth management division under the auspices of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banking arm, both firms engage in prime brokerage and security dealings. The firm is headquartered in New York City, and occupies the entire 34 stories of 250 Vesey Street, part of the Brookfield Place complex, in Manhattan. Merrill employs over 15,000 financial advisors and manages $2.2 trillion in client assets.^[2]

The firm has its origins in Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. which, prior to 2009, was publicly owned and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MER. Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be acquired by Bank of America on September 14, 2008, at the height of the 2008 Financial Crisis.^[3] The acquisition was completed in January 2009^[4] and Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. was merged into Bank of America Corporation in October 2013, with certain Bank of America subsidiaries continue to carry the Merrill Lynch name, including the broker-dealer Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.^[5][6] In 2019, Bank of America rebranded the unit to "Merrill."^[7]

History

Main article, Merrill Lynch & Co., which follows the history of the independent company prior to its 2009 merger into Bank of America

Sale to Bank of America

Significant losses were attributed to the drop in value of its large and unhedged mortgage portfolio in the form of collateralized debt obligations. Trading partners' loss of confidence in Merrill Lynch's solvency and ability to refinance short-term debt ultimately led to its sale.^[8][9] During the week of September 8, 2008, Lehman Brothers came under severe liquidity pressures, with its survival in question. If Lehman Brothers failed, investors were afraid that the contagion could spread to the other surviving investment banks. On Sunday, September 14, 2008, Bank of America announced it was in talks to purchase Merrill Lynch for $38.25 billion in stock.^[10]The Wall Street Journal reported later that day that Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America for 0.8595 share of Bank of America common stock for each Merrill Lynch common share, or about US$50 billion or $29 per share.^[11] This price represented a 70.1% premium over the September 12 closing price or a 38% premium over Merrill's book value of $21 a share,^[12] but that also meant a discount of 61% from its September 2007 price.^[13]

Congressional testimony by Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, as well as internal emails released by the House Oversight Committee, indicate that the merger was transacted under pressure from federal officials, who said that they would otherwise seek the replacement of Bank of America's management as a condition of any government assistance.^[14][15][16] In March 2009 it was reported that in 2008, Merrill Lynch received billions of dollars from its insurance arrangements with AIG, including $6.8 billion from funds provided by the United States taxpayers to bail out AIG.^[17][18]

Rebranding

In February 2019, Bank of America announced the division was to be rebranded from "Merrill Lynch" to "Merrill."^[19]

Merrill Edge

Merrill Edge is a discount brokerage service provided by Merrill.^[20] The online service was launched on 21 June 2010.^[21][22][23] The service was expected to compete with similar firms such as Charles Schwab Corporation and E*Trade. Before the launching of this service, Merrill Lynch worked with clients who had over $250,000 of liquid assets. This service was designed to allow a wider demographic to invest with Bank of America. According to the website, the service offers "the investments insights of Merrill Lynch plus the convenience of Bank of America banking". Other competitors listed are Ameritrade and Fidelity Investments.

See also

• Broker-dealer


• Calibuso, et al. v. Bank of America Corp., et al.


• Comparison of online brokerages


• Credit crunch


• Global settlement


• Liquidity crisis


• 
  Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Dabit, a 2006 Supreme Court case involving securities fraud claims.


• 
  Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. v. Manning, a 2016 Supreme Court case involving naked short selling claims.


• Merrill Lynch's Application


• Primary dealers


• World Wealth Report

References

Further reading

• 
  Farrell, Greg (2010). Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, the Fall of Merrill Lynch, and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America. New York: Crown Business. ISBN 978-0-307-71786-3.
  


• 
  McLean, Bethany; Nocera, Joe (2011). All the Devils Are Here All the Devils Are Here (Version_2 ed.). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN 978-1591843634. OCLC 711801567.
  


• 
  Merrill Lynch (March 3, 2008). "Merrill Lynch Names Thomas J. Sanzone as Chief Administrative Officer" (Press release). Business Wire.
  


• 
  Perkins, Edwin (1999). Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-Class Investors. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63029-0.
  


• 
  Stiles, Paul (1998). Riding the Bull: My Year in the Madness at Merrill Lynch. New York: Times Business. ISBN 978-0-8129-2789-4.
  

External links

• Official website


• Total Merrill Website


• 
  Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Company Profile—Yahoo! Finance