Merrill revives hiring as Morgan Stanley tops $8 trillion

At the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York this week, executives from Bank of America and Morgan Stanley outlined different approaches to hiring and technology in wealth management.

Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan confirmed that Merrill has resumed selective recruiting after a period of limited transition deals. Moynihan said the firm is adding advisors across its roughly 600 offices in 97 markets and praised Lindsay Hans and Eric Schimpf, co-heads of Merrill Wealth Management, for recent hires, including an advisor duo that moved from UBS with about $1.2 billion in client assets.

Morgan Stanley Co-president Dan Simkowitz reported that the firm’s wealth unit now oversees $8 trillion in client assets while the advisor count has not risen at the same pace. He highlighted technology and operational changes that have raised revenue per employee and return on investment, and did not present hiring as a current priority.

Recruiting balances illustrate differing activity. Morgan Stanley ended 2025 with $4.86 billion in recruiting balances tied to forgivable transition loans. Merrill’s recruiting balance rose nearly 50% year over year to $374.5 million. Neither firm discloses a firmwide advisor headcount, which complicates direct staffing comparisons.

Recruiting firms and industry executives report intense competition for top advisors. Recruiters note that large firms often offer transition deals equal to 400% to 500% of an advisor’s prior-year revenue. Search firms show a growing preference for advisors whose income comes mainly from recurring asset-management fees rather than commissions, and many recruiters now focus on teams producing at least $1 million in annual revenue.

Both bank executives discussed artificial intelligence as a productivity tool to automate routine tasks for advisors while keeping humans in client-facing roles. Moynihan commented, “It’s just got to be done, carefully crafted. But we still believe a human is the most important advisor we’ve got.” Bank of America and Merrill have rolled out AI tools integrated with customer-relationship and video platforms to help advisors prepare for meetings, summarize client conversations and plan follow-ups.

New AI products are being introduced to advisers and custodians. Anthropic launched Claude for Financial Advisors and initially offered it to 16,000 registered investment advisers connected with a major custodian. Dynasty Financial Partners is adding Claude to its advisor desktop, enabling advisors to query client records and turn answers into proposals, reports or paperwork.

Recruiters and industry observers noted that AI could reduce some pressure to hire by boosting advisor productivity, while stating that high-value client relationships and complex planning needs continue to drive demand for experienced teams.