The third quarter included mixed results for many of the largest Wall Street firms. Atthe corporate level, Bank of America’sprofits in the period ending Sept.30 dropped 15% from a year agoto $4.9 billion, or $0.51 per share.Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s jumped25% year over year to $2.72 billion, or
$1.66 per share.
Morgan Stanley’s tally is 15,469 advisors, up 70 from June 30, but down by84 from a year ago. The registered repswork with a total of $2.85 trillion inclient assets.
Advisors with Morgan Stanley havean average asset level of $184 million, and average trailing 12-month feesand commissions of $1.20 million as ofSept. 30.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has17,760 advisors, down by 128 from theprior quarter, but up 103 from last year;these figures include some advisorsworking on Merrill Edge and other BofAoperations. The overall wealth unit,which includes BofA Private Bank, has
$3.07 trillion of client assets.
The BofA wealth unit’s advisorshave average yearly production of $1.07million; veteran advisors’ 12 monthtrailing fees and commissions were
$1.46 million.
The wealth unit of Morgan Stanleyhad revenues of about $4.66 billion in Q3,up 7% from $4.36 billion in the year-agoperiod. Its net income, though, dropped
12% year over year to $842 billion.
BofA’s wealth group had revenuesof $4.55 billion in Q3 ($3.75 billion ofwhich came from Merrill), down 7%from a year ago. Its profits fell by 32%from a year ago to $749 million.
As for net new assets, Morgan Stanleyreported fee-based flows of $23.8 billion, while BofA’s wealth unit had $1.4billion of net flows in overall assetsunder management.
WELLS FARGO
Meanwhile, several hundred advisorshave been included in recent layoffs atWells Fargo, which started in August. In itsthird-quarter financial report, Wells Fargosaid it ended the period with 12,908 financial advisors, down 815, or 6%, from a yearago and 391, or 3%, from the prior quarter.
“While this change [from the priorquarter] represents retirements andsome natural advisor attrition, it alsoincludes the displacement of a sizable group of salary/bonus advisorsas a result of the company’s work tobecome as efficient as we can,” according to a spokesperson.
“Wells Fargo has been transparentthat we expect to reduce the size ofour workforce through a combination of attrition, the elimination ofopen roles, and job displacements,”it explained.
BROKER-DEALER BEAT
By Janet Levaux
How the Wirehouses Performed in Q3’ 20
In the latest period, both Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley continue to have
over 15,000 advisors, while Wells Fargo and UBS have under 13,000 each.
“While this change [from the prior
quarter] represents retirements and
some natural advisor attrition, it also
includes the displacement of a sizable
group of salary/bonus advisors … .”
—Wells Fargo spokesperson
