In the News

BofA’s Darnell Vows to ‘Get Out of the Way’ as Leader of Merrill Brokers

20:57 07 October in In the News by rafferty

September 28, 2011 by Hugh Son at Bloomberg News BofA’s Darnell Vows to ‘Get Out of the Way’ as Leader of Merrill's Brokers Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s David Darnell, the commercial banker put in charge of the lender’s Merrill Lynch brokerage, promised employees he’ll do anything including “get out of the way” to help them improve results. Darnell, 58, addressed the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender’s16,241 financial advisers on Sept. 13 for the first time since being named co-chief operating officer. His message: leaders including John Thiel, head of U.S. wealth management and Andrew Sieg, head of global wealth and retirement solutions, will be running the show. “My job is to do everything I can to help and if not, I’m going to get out of the way,” Darnell told a standing-room only, town hall-style meeting at...

Securities America Sale: Final Price Could Be $220 Million; Big Retention Bonuses

00:00 22 August in In the News by rafferty

August, 2011 by Janet Lavaux and featured in AdvisorBiz: Ladenburg Thalmann files 8-K; retention bonuses of 15% of yearly fees and commissions are being offered by the company, sources say In addition to the $150 million in cash Ladenburg Thalmann said Wednesday that it planned to pay Ameriprise Financial for Securities America, the Miami-based broker-dealer says it will pay up to $70 million in 2012 and 2013 in so-called earn-outs, the firm explained in an SEC report filed Thursday. Plus, Ameriprise (AMP) continues to be responsible for any costs related to the sale of certain private-placements. News is also emerging about the size of retention bonuses being offered to Securities America’s 1,700 advisors, which experts say, amounts to about 15% of an FA’s yearly fees and commissions. (Ladenburg Thalmann (LTS) says it...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

03:46 19 August in In the News by rafferty

August, 2011 by Diana Britton and featured in RegisteredRep: The independent broker/dealer landscape is lately littered with tales of woe — scores of smaller firms have gone up in a puff of smoke over the past two years due to everything from troubled private placements to insufficient net capital. In February of this year, independent broker/dealer QA3 Financial announced it would close its doors following an arbitration related to Regulation D products. Just over a month later, at the end of April, Ameriprise Financial said it would be selling Securities America, its IBD arm, while the firm was in the middle of finalizing a settlement agreement with investors related to private placements. And at the beginning of June, it surfaced that Harrison Douglas, a small IBD of about 28 advisors, would be...