Large Companies will Dominate Wealth Management

Sallie Krawcheck, the recently installed head of wealth management at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, said that the road ahead would not be easy for the few large brokerage firms left.

Krawcheck noted that the purported trend of advisors migrating toward the independent channel has been reversed over the past year, she said. The independent channel actually shrunk last year, according to Bank of America’s internal research. She said the reason that channel lost ground could be “summed up in two words: Bernie and Madoff.” Investors have grown wary of the lone advisor hanging their shingle, she said, and instead look for peace-of-mind from a large firm with broad wealth management capability.

Large Companies will Dominate Wealth Management
Source: Financial Planning