Merrill Lynch Nets Advisors With Combined $550M AUM

MerillLynch

Merrill Lynch recruited advisors managing more than $550 million in combined assets last week from UBS and Citi Personal Wealth Management.

A four-person UBS team with $395 million in AUM left the wirehouse to join Merrill in Beaumont, Texas, where they will report to Hong Ogle, director of the firm's Houston complex. The group consists of advisors Heath McGallion, Christopher Davis, Stan Davis and Hugh Hawkins.

Except for Hawkins, the other three advisors are rejoining Merrill, having left the firm in 2008 to join UBS.  Hawkins earned his Series 7 in 1984, according to FINRA records. He worked at E.F. Hutton and Lehman Brothers, and joined UBS in 2009.

Like Hawkins, Lee is an industry veteran, having launched his career in 1984 with Merrill. McGallion and Davis are more recent entrants into the profession, having earned their Series 7 in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

Mario Fratto, the other recent addition to Merrill's advisor ranks, came from Citi Personal Wealth Management where Fratto managed $153 million.  He had been with Citi since 1998, according to FINRA records.

Fratto joins Merrill at their Rockefeller Center office in New York, where he reports to Michael Simonds, complex director.

A firm spokesperson also announced the addition of a four-person team to Merrill Lynch's Private Banking & Investment Group. Advisors David Tracy, Charles Tharnstrom, Chris Chapin and Leonard Kortekaas are based in Los Angeles.

Last month, the wirehouse recruited advisors managing about $400 million in combined assets. In the largest of those moves, advisors Christopher Carbone and Charles Sergewick joined Merrill's Toms River, N.J., office. They managed about $200 million at their previous firm, Morgan Stanley.

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