Dan Sontag, a 30-year veteran of Merrill Lynch, is to head the brokerage’s asset management business that was acquired recently by Bank of America. Mr Sontag had been deputy to Robert McCann, vice chairman and president of global wealth management, who has left Merrill Lynch.

The departure of Robert McCann, vice chairman and president of global wealth management at Merrill Lynch, spells the end of the old guard at the brokerage firm, industry participants agree.

Industry consultants say that Mr McCann’s departure compounds retention and recruitment issues among Merrill financial advisors that surfaced when Bank of America announced it would acquire Merrill Lynch and its close to 17,000 advisors at the end of last year.  

“I believe this will have an accelerating affect on those who want to leave, this would push many of them over the edge,” said Howard Diamond, chief operating officer of Diamond consultants, currently talking to “a number” of Merrill advisors contemplating leaving the network in the

US.

“Also, it has the effect that advisors who were thinking about considering joining Merrill Lynch are now thinking twice,” he added.

Before he announced he would leave Merrill Lynch after 26 years with the firm Mr McCann was responsible for crafting a retention package designed to encourage brokers to stay on after the acquisition.

The retention package cut a lot of the lower producing advisors out of the picture while making it more attractive for advisors who brought more than $1 million of yearly revenue into the firm.

“It goes without saying following the retention packages the lower producing advisors are disenfranchised and have no real reason to stay,” Mr Diamond said.

“Those who are in that middle tier, bringing in, say, a million [dollars] in yearly revenue, those are the advisors who may be part of a team, they may have recently seen their manager leave, and now with McCann departing, they are most likely to be looking around as well,” Mr Diamond added. The really big producers are happy, he said.

Many consultants believe the departure of Mr McCann marks the end of an era at Merrill Lynch and the beginning of a more spendthrift culture under new owner BofA.

“This [McCann’s departure] is a bitter reminder that Merril Lynch has turned the page and is not the same as it once was since going to BofA,” said Darin Manis, chief executive of RJ & Makay, a Colorado-based recruiting firm.

“McCann will be missed – he had a strong reputation with Merrill FAs, he was generally liked by the advisors,” added Mr Manis

In Mr Sontag's most recent role, he was head of Americas Wealth Management, responsible for the region's network of more than 600 advisory offices. The division included private banking and investment services to ultra-high-net-worth clients; investment and insurance products, and distribution and business development; corporate and diversified financial services.

Mr Sontag joined Merrill Lynch in 1978 as a financial consultant in the Colorado Springs office. In 1986, he was promoted to management and has held a variety of leadership positions across the United States, including Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas and New York.