Archive

Merrill Lynch takes wraps off training program for advisers

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management last week unveiled a training program to help its 15,000 financial advisers develop a retirement income program for their clients.

As part of the program, the firm has announced a service that will allow its wealth management clients with at least $250,000 in assets to transfer funds from their Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. cash management account into a Bank of America Corp. deposit account on a periodic basis to facilitate their retirement income stream.

Using the service, clients can access their retirement income at a BofA ATM or office. Merrill Lynch advisers will also be able to track their retiree clients’ spending habits.

The goal is to make sure that clients are on course to be able to live off their retirement savings, said Aimee DeCamillo, head of personal retirement solutions at Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management.

“This feature helps to ensure that there is a good conversation taking place between the client and the adviser, and that the adviser is able to recalibrate the client’s investment plan according to the client’s spending habits,” she said.

Clients have to give advisers permission to monitor their accounts.

The new training program for advisers, called Merrill Lynch Retirement Income Framework, is the product of 18 months of focus groups whereby Ms. DeCamillo and her team culled best practices from advisers across the country on how they develop retirement income plans for clients.

The approach takes into consideration four areas of risk: the risk of clients’ outliving their assets, inflation, health care costs and planning risks, and the risk of clients’ not revising their plans as needed, she said.

“Coming off 2008, it’s clear that now, more than ever, it’s critical for clients to have a sound financial strategy to spend down their nest eggs,” Ms. DeCamillo said.

Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management will be training advisers on the new approach through live sessions, webcasts and conference calls, as well as through its local retirement specialists, who work with financial advisers. The company anticipates increasing its 30-person retirement specialist staff to 40 by mid-2010, Ms. DeCamillo said.

E-mail Jessica Toonkel Marquez at [email protected].