Merrill Lynch is targeting growth in the UK private client market and is launching new products and recruiting new staff to grow the busines...

Merrill Lynch is targeting growth in the UK private client market and is launching new products and recruiting new staff to grow the business. Nick Tucker, head of Merrill’s private client team in the UK is the man behind the efforts. He talked to WealthBriefing about Merrill’s strategy. Last year saw the merger of Merrill’s private client business in the UK with the private client side of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Since then the firm has been working hard to design a strategy for the UK market that would underpin the foundations of the newly merged firm and provide new platforms for the business to grow. “The first stage was to put the infrastructure in place for growth — sorting out the product platform and developing the team,” said Mr Tucker. He added: “A lot of this work by our team is just beginning to pay dividends as we are seeing strong growth in our key metric — net new money.” The product platform has been enhanced with the launch, or soon to be launched, of three major products. Taking advantage of the current appetite among private clients with around $5 million-plus of investable assets, Merrill plans to launch a global private equity product. This will have a threshold of $250,000, which Mr Tucker says is “pretty low for such a product.” A new hedge fund structure is also due to be launched, based on Merrill’s Hedge Access programme, which will be open architecture and provide ongoing due diligence. It will be taxable on capital gains, not income, said Mr Tucker, making it more attractive to the UK investor. Merrill will also release in September a UK tax-effective version of Merrill’s Global Selects, which is going to be “a sophisticated product providing intelligent open architecture,” said Mr Tucker. Asked what was different than the last UK initiative by Merrill, which saw considerable resources being spent on developing a regional presence with the acquisition of local stockbrokers and investment managers, Mr Tucker said: “We are going to be a lot more focused and stick to market segments where we have a competitive advantage and learn from our mistakes.” Merrill has also been busily recruiting to add to its staff of around 44 private client advisors on the advisory side and around 20 on the discretionary side. Since the beginning of the year, the firm has hired an additional five staff, one of these will focus on alternative investments, another on sports and media, and another on the corporate side. Mr Tucker was not able now to disclose more information about the hires, but said they will make a big impact on the business in the UK. He plans an additional five hires by the end of the year, but only if the right candidates are tracked down. “We no longer have recruitment targets — that was the old Merrill Lynch model, but I am actively looking to hire experienced financial advisors who have a strong record in servicing clients in the HNW segment.” Recruitment is not easy, said Mr Tucker, but he was seeing a lot of candidates from one or two of his main competitors in the UK, who appeared anxious to leave. He was not prepared to state where these potential recruits were working. Mr Tucker acknowledged the difficulty of growing the business organically and admitted that Merrill was actively looking to grow through acquisitions, but only where synergies could be achieved. Pressed further on what was different this time around for Merrill’s private client initiative in the UK, Mr Tucker said: “We are much more humble — and more cerebral.”