Merrill recruiting refresh nets Morgan Stanley hires with over $1B total

A pair of former Morgan Stanley advisory teams collectively managing more than $1 billion jumped to Merrill this week.

Merrill announced Thursday that it had recruited a four-person team overseeing $900 million and led by Scott E. Davis and Thomas L. Benedict to its offices in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, Illinois. Merrill also said it had brought over a two-person, $250 million AUM team led by Desiderio Antonio "Tony" Rodriguez to its offices in Roseville, California.

The moves come amid Merrill's much-ballyhooed return to recruiting. The firm, part of Bank of America's Global Wealth & Investment Management division, backed away from trying to bring advisors over from rival firms for a few years to instead concentrate on training new recruits to the industry and retaining strong producers.

Merrill, under wealth co-heads Eric Schimpf and Lindsay Hans, began moving slowly back into recruiting two years ago and has recently been making aggressive offers in select markets.

Kenneth Correa, head of business and client development at Merrill, said the firm is in a good position to capture a large share of predicted growth in the wealth management industry in coming years.

"We will do this through first and foremost, supporting our existing advisors, along with our continued investment in our training program to expand teams and form new ones, as well as selectively hiring experienced advisors who fit our client focused culture," he said in a statement.

Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

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Rick Rummage, an industry recruiter and the CEO of The Rummage Group, said Merrill's recruiting endeavors now show a "night and day" difference from what they were a few years ago. He said he now regularly hears from Merrill managers and internal recruiters who are eager for help with finding prospects to hire.

Rummage said Merrill has the hard task now of distinguishing itself not only from its usual wirehouse rivals like Morgan Stanley but also the many independent broker-dealers and advisory firms that have pushed big recruiting deals in recent years. He said Merrill is offering big sign-on deals for advisors who come over.

But so are most of its direct competitors. Merrill's biggest advantage, he said, is likely its name.

"For maybe a third of advisors, that is vitally important," Rummage said. "They want to be able to call up a prospect or a client and tell them they are with an iconic name. And for two-thirds or so of advisors, that doesn't matter at all."

Ron Edde, another industry recruiter and the president and the CEO of Millennium Career Advisors, said the recruitment of a $900 million advisory team is indeed impressive. But he said he thinks Merrill is mostly "holding its finger in the dike" in its efforts to make up for wealth managers who are not only leaving for rivals but also simply retiring.

"I'm glad some advisors are showing an interest and they're able to pull some big names," Edde said. "But I think a lot of the long-term damage is already done."

Both Davis and Benedict came to Morgan Stanley in 2009 from its Smith Barney predecessor. Davis has 27 years of industry experience and Benedict 19. Coming with them are Candice McLaws, who has been at Morgan Stanley since 2014, and Lisa Pappageorge, who most recently joined Morgan Stanley in 2019 and was at Wells Fargo for years before that following a previous stint at Morgan Stanley and various other firms. At Merrill, the team will be part of the Chicago North market, which is overseen by Market Executive Marcus Jean-Simon.

Rodriguez helped form a large team at Morgan Stanley called the Artha Wealth Management Group. He was with his former employer for 10 years and, before that, at Wells Fargo for three. 

He and a wealth management client associate, Sara Rodriguez, will work out of Merrill's Sacramento market, which is overseen by Theresa Schnetz. Other recruiting deals Merrill had in the second quarter included:

• A 12-person team of former First Republic advisors in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, led by Salvatore Tiano and John E. Smyth. The team had joined JPMorgan last year when it bought their former employer out of government receivership. 
• L. Brandt Daniel, a private banker who had managed $9 billion, joined Merrill Private Wealth Management in Century City, California in February. He was later followed to the same offices by three other former JPMorgan private bankers. That team, which managed $7 billion at JPMorgan, consisted of Geoff Berlin, Lara Magnusen and Ken Esma.
• Tiffany Fahnhorst, who has 16 years of industry experience, joined Merrill's offices in Bloomington, Minnesota. She had previously managed $140 million for RBC Wealth Management.
• James P. Lowry, with 21 years of experience, is joining Merrill's offices in Lake Norman, North Carolina. He had managed $200 million for LPL Financial.
• Patrick W. Kearny, with 41 years of experience, is joining Merrill's offices in La Jolla, California. He previously managed $180 million for Wells Fargo.