Howard Diamond and Louis Diamond Quoted
By Lisa Shidler
Bank of America made the second major move of an emerging master plan to recast Merrill Lynch as more of a bank subsidiary and less of a renegade satellite.
Such unilateral disarmament by Merrill, however strategic in nature for the long term, will inevitably expose it to losses at the hands of players in all advice channels, says Howard Diamond, of Diamond Consultants in Chester, N.J. Until now, Merrill lured advisors with fat bonuses and now that those are a thing of the past, RIAs may win more advisors.
“I think that Morgan, Wells, regionals and RIA firms are going to have a field day recruiting current Merrill financial advisors as well as those who would have looked at Merrill had they not pulled their deal,” he writes.
