April 3, 2023
Jason Diamond Quoted
By Victoria Zhuang
The sudden departure of Merrill Wealth Management’s president, Andy Sieg, last week for Citigroup gives Merrill advisors an opening to hope for changes they had long asked for under their former leader, industry recruiters and consultants told Financial Planning.
On March 30, Sieg announced his departure from Merrill, where he had started his career as a financial advisor in 2001 before ascending to the top role in 2017. He will become the head of Citi Global Wealth in September, reporting to CEO Jane Fraser, after a required six-month break.
Lindsay Hans and Eric Schimpf, who had been regional division executives for six years each, became presidents and co-heads of Merrill that day, reporting to Brian Moynihan, CEO and chairman of parent company Bank of America.
“You have to let this stuff play out,” Jason Diamond, an industry recruiter at Diamond Consultants, said in an interview about what Merrill could look like under Hans and Schimpf. “Are they going to have the autonomy to implement their own decisions? Or are they really just going to be carrying out the orders from Brian Moynihan and the bank?”
