Merrill Eyes Digital Marketing To Fuel Organic Advisor Growth
When Bank of America released its third-quarter results this week, the chairman of its asset management division said the group will increasingly turn to digital channels to attract customers in the future.
"Despite challenging markets, Bank of America's wealth management division delivered record results across multiple metrics in the third quarter," Andy Sieg, president of Merrill Wealth Management, said Monday.
The division, which includes Merrill and Bank of America's Private Bank, reported revenue of $5.4 billion, up 2% from last year. Earnings before taxes and default provisions rose 3% to $1.6 billion from a record year ago, representing a 29% margin for the asset management business.
Net investment income (NPI) for the third quarter also increased 36% year-over-year to a record $2 billion.
The report notes $3.7 trillion in customer accounts across the wealth continuum and $186 billion in customer flows over the past 12 months. Of that amount, $436 billion is in consumer investment accounts, $2.7 trillion in Merrill Wealth Management, and $538 billion in private banking.
The report also noted a 48% year-over-year increase in financial planning clients in the third quarter, with Merrill loans up 11% from the previous quarter to $225 billion.
"Our banking capabilities and success differentiate our platform," Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said in a call with analysts about Merrill's business.
About 5,725 new customer connections were recorded in the third quarter. Merrill Wealth Management acquired approximately 5,200 net new households, an increase of 23% year-over-year, bringing net new household acquisitions to approximately 17,000 for the year. During the quarter, the number of consultants increased by 400 people and reached 18,841 people. including trainees.
Ahead of the fourth quarter, Sig finalized Merrill Advisor Match, a new digital search platform that connects investors seeking financial advice with a financial advisor.
“This digital tool connects people to Merrill Advisors through an intuitive online survey that triggers an algorithm and creates advisor matches. This is a unique offer. We believe this can increase access to financial advice for more customers. segments," Sigg said.
Sieg said he will continue to invest in his Personal Wealth Analysis (PWA) financial planning tool.
"Next month, we'll be rolling out improvements to the PWA, including a more flexible interface that will help advisors model and summarize scenarios for clients," Sigg said.
When asked, Sigg said that since Merrill Advisor Match launched only a few weeks ago, "it's too early to have meaningful quantitative data in terms of the number of leads and the resulting successful matches."
"We're confident it's a good decision," Sigg said.
He said they particularly like the Match tool because they see it as a way to connect with potential customers who might otherwise be out of reach.
"One of the reasons it's had such a strong response is that it's designed to make life easier for people who don't have access to financial advisors in their personal networks." “Think of the various communities where, in some cases, wealth creation has occurred for the first time in this family's history. "It's clear in the market that these people need help finding advisors who can help them, especially at times like this."
Sigg said they've seen "tremendous enthusiasm" among advisors, with more than 5,000 advisors uploading their profiles to be part of the program. The report mentions about 5,500 consultants currently registered.
"That number has increased since launch. So we like what we're seeing in terms of initial momentum. We'll report on that, of course," he said. .'
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