Personal FinanceAndrii Iemelianenko / Shutterstock.comJohn SeetooThis post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receivecompensation for actions taken through them.24/7 Wall Street Key PointsLarge banks are focused on amassing as many assets under management as legally possible since the landscape has become increasingly competitive.
Marketing campaigns promoting wealth management services can generate substantial fee revenues for banks, with combined savings, retirement, brokerage, mortgage, and estate planning services touted in television, print, and social media ads.
Less publicized are the different tiers of quantifying the AUM levels to attain the advertised services, most of which are reserved for high net worth clients of eight figures and up.
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Large financial institutions compete with each other on multiple market fronts. As finance is a global industry, not only are US banking giants like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citibank vying for clients, but international banks like Santander, HSBC, TD Bank, Deutsche Bank, and others are competing for getting assets under management into their coffers. Aggressive advertising campaigns have proliferated television, print, and social media outlets. If you’ve ever seen promotions for “wealth management” services, you are seeing the rebranding process underway for the banking industry, which has justifiably damaged its own reputation over the past few decades. Predatory and unfair fees, closing personal accounts over political preferences, “errors” that confiscate personal funds that are not resolved for months later without compensation, etc. What They Don’t Tell YouAlex Wong / Getty ImagesWhen Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch, CEO Brian Moynihan caused a broker exodus with a policy to focus personal service only on accounts of $250K and higher.After the 2008 subprime mortgage banking meltdown, a number of government-mandated mergers of investment banks into commercial banks were enacted. Bear Stearns was acquired by JP Morgan Chase. Lehman Brothers was taken over by Barclays Bank. Bank of America took control over Merrill Lynch. The last one became particularly contentious. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan instituted a policy shortly after completing the merger for all Merrill Lynch reps to focus on acquiring high net worth clients. They were instructed to route all of their clients with $250K or less in AUM to their computerized order processing system, regardless of the length or depth of the prior client relationships. This caused an exodus of long-time reps who had built their books of business over decades with trusted and loyal clients, both large and small. Bank of America’s agenda, regardless of whatever advertisin
Mer. Gen 8th, 2025
