August 11, 2020
Merrill star Phil Scott left on Tuesday for First Republic.
Phil Scott, who rose to the highest of Merrill Lynch’s manufacturing ladder over 35 years with the agency, led his 11-person workforce on Tuesday to First Republic within the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, Washington.
Scott had been producing round $18 million of charges and commissions on $2.7 billion in shopper property, in keeping with an individual conversant in his transfer and his apply.
Scott, who different sources stated manages portfolios for a number of high-producing colleagues in addition to for the tech-executive elite in Bellevue, oversees a workforce of ten funding strategists and shopper associates, together with Mark Broughton, a former lead portfolio supervisor at Blackrock Monetary.
Scott couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
He runs “aggressive” however efficient methods, two different sources stated, which have catapulted him to Barron’s Prime 100 checklist of advisors for the previous 5 years. (Scott additionally has accrued seven buyer disputes on his BrokerCheck report since 2001, together with one which resulted in an award of $1.1 million.)
San Francisco-based First Republic, a now-publicly traded bank that was as soon as owned by Merrill Lynch, has been tapping Merrill persistently for wealth administration expertise because it expands from non-public banking into broader wealth companies.
John P. Ver Bockel and Maureen Raihle, a $10-million workforce who every have been with Merrill for greater than 30 years, joined the bank final fall in Palm Seashore, Florida.
Arif Ahmed, a $16-million producer in Washington, DC and Palo Alto, signed with First Republic in May 2019, and a $22-million Boston workforce led by James Atwood switched in April 2018.
First Republic additionally has been nabbing non-public wealth strategic expertise from its rival. Stacy Allred, a well-liked behavioral strategist at Merrill’s non-public wealth unit, switched to First Republic final month. Chris Wolfe, the previous chief funding officer of Merrill’s non-public banking and funding group, joined in 2016.
A Merrill spokesperson didn’t return a request for touch upon Scott’s departure.
Scott, who ranked #44 on Barron’s Prime 50 Non-public Wealth groups this yr, joined Merrill in 1984 after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, in keeping with his workforce’s former web site. (John Schork, an funding analyst on Scott’s workforce since 1998, is also an Annapolis veteran.)
Scott directs a “proprietary investment program with a long-term track record,” in keeping with his Merrill biography.
Merrill has skilled a gentle trickle of exits of senior advisors lately because it adopted extra stringent insurance policies on managing advisory accounts, imposed carrot-and-stick payout packages to advertise asset and account development and, like a lot of its rivals, inspired brokers to promote loans and make referrals to its bank father or mother.
Bank of America not reviews the variety of Merrill Wealth advisors, making it troublesome to trace web positive factors and losses, however as a substitute amalgamates conventional advisors with bank-based Merrill Edge brokers and personal bank advisors.
Merrill executives have retreated from recruiting skilled advisors from rivals, replenishing its ranks as a substitute with early-career advisors. The executives even have asserted that attrition was at traditionally low ranges, even earlier than constraints imposed by the coronavirus disaster.
Scott’s BrokerCheck historical past notes his feedback that he didn’t contribute to any settlements or arbitrations over buyer complaints and that he denied wrongdoing.
The latest allegation occurred in 2016 from a buyer in search of $825,000 for unsuitable funding suggestions. The grievance settled for $125,000. One other for unspecified damages over related allegations settled for $337,500 in 2013. Two related allegations in 2010 and 2009 resulted in arbitration awards of $872,000 and $880,000.
The $1.1 million settlement of a $2.5 million unsuitability declare got here from a buyer invested in “blue chip” and dividend development portfolios who divested “unsolicited” because the portfolios have been “recovering strongly” after the lows of the 2008-2009 monetary disaster, in keeping with Scott’s BrokerCheck feedback.
