If you thought that Bank of America couldn’t do any worse in screwing up a once proud brand like Merrill Lynch, you were wrong. Last week they proved that the puppet masters pulling the ‘Merrill A Division Of Bank Of America’ strings aren’t finished killing off a once proud brand.
You really can’t make this stuff up. In a year that saw the current office-based wealth management business model get completely turned upside down, BofA thought it was a great idea to punish branch managers and other field management by cutting bonuses 30-60%. Those affected simply didn’t do a good enough job growing assets and selling enough bank products.
Seriously, why does anyone still work there?
A little reminder that Merrill basically isn’t allowed to recruit anymore. So managers are severely hampered on the NNA front; effectively at the mercy of the markets. Their best teams (read: with the biggest books and AUM) have been leaving in droves, so bonus cuts based on reduced asset growth during a pandemic while not being allowed to recruit – ludicrous, if not downright cruel. Again, puppet masters.
This is the reality for the ‘bonus pool’ for Merrill’s nearly 100 market leaders/managers. Pay (forget calling it a bonus, it’s PAY) was cut by 30% from 2019. That is 570 branch offices across the country who count on 50-75% of their total comp through bonuses. Good thing those government stimmy checks went out last month. :(
Even worse, some Market managers in the bottom third of performers got hammered with up to 60% reductions in expected bonuses. And one last kick in the crotch… a cut of this size has never occurred at Merrill. Never.
So to recap: your a Merrill manager of some sort, you can’t recruit, you are losing big teams every month, your name is no longer Merrill Lynch, your pitching bank products, during a pandemic, while working from your den or basement – and the bank you work for decided “hey it’s not good enough so here’s an unprecedented cut in your annual compensation.”
Does anyone check Andy Seig’s bonus payout??
