Sallie’s in, Sontag’s out: Top Merrill exec steps down
Daniel Sontag, who was tapped to guide Merrill Lynch's 16,000-person brokerage force in the wake of the firm's January merger with Bank of America, is retiring.
Daniel Sontag, who was tapped to guide Merrill Lynch’s 16,000-person brokerage force in the wake of the firm’s January merger with Bank of America, is retiring.
The announcement comes just one day after Bank of America Corp. announced the hiring of outsider Sallie Krawcheck, 44, to run its global wealth and investment management unit, which includes the Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. retail-brokerage network.
Mr. Sontag, 53, this afternoon told Merrill brokers that he is leaving after more than 30 years at the firm.
“I’ve offered Sallie any help I can provide, and ask the leadership team to give Sallie the same support you gave me,” he said in an internal telecast, according to a report on The Financial Times website confirmed by people at Merrill.
Sallie’s in, Sontag’s out: Top Merrill exec steps down
The head of Merrill’s massive brokerage force will retire – less than 24 hours after Sallie Krawcheck was tapped to run the global wealth and investment management business
Jed Horowitz
Ms. Krawcheck, a former bank stock analyst, ran Citigroup Inc.’s wealth management group until late last year. She also has been chief financial officer of Citigroup and chief executive of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC, a New York-based broker-dealer owned by AllianceBernstein LP of New York.
This year, Merrill lost its claim as the world’s largest retail-brokerage network when Morgan Stanley in New York took control of Citigroup’s Smith Barney business, a unit that Ms. Krawcheck previously ran. In the first six months of the year, Merrill’s financial adviser count fell 7% to 15,008, down from 16,090 at the end of last year.
Mr. Sontag replaced Robert McCann as head of Merrill’s brokerage operation at the end of 2008 when it was sold to Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America.
The bank yesterday agreed to pay $33 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it failed to tell shareholders about billions of dollars of bonuses that Merrill was paying its executives as the sale was closing, despite large losses at the firm.
Mr. Sontag, a graduate of the University of Tennesseebegan his Merrill career in 1978 as a broker in the firm’s Colorado Springs, Colo., office.
He moved up to senior sales management positions in several regions, was appointed to run the firm’s advisory strategy unit in 2001 and in December 2006 took control of the client relationship group, overseeing more than 700 branches in the U.S. and Latin America. In his most recent role, Mr. Sontag oversaw wealth management and private banking, as well as recruiting in the Americas. He also took over the responsibilities of Keith Banks, who had run Bank of America’s much smaller brokerage business.
Mr. Banks is currently helping to arrange the sale of the bank’s Columbia Management LLC unit said people at Merrill.
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