wealth management the wealth management division of bank of america and merrill lynch & co. inc. as an independent company prior to its january 2009 acquisition by bank of america . for the corporate and investment banking division of bank of america see bank of america merrill lynch . merrill lynch wealth management type division 1 industry financial services founded 1914 headquarters 250 vesey street new york city united states area served worldwide services investment management revenue us 13.8 billion 2012 1 number of employees 15 100 financial advisors 2010 parent bank of america website ml.com merrill lynch & co. inc. former type corporation industry financial services fate acquired by bank of america january 2009 merged into bank of america corporation october 2013 successor bank of america merrill lynch merrill lynch wealth management founded 1914 as charles e. merrill & co. 2 founder charles e. merrill edmund c. lynch defunct started closing in 2009 completely closed in 2013 headquarters four world financial center 250 vesey street new york new york united states number of employees 60 000 2008 website www.ml.com merrill lynch wealth management is the wealth management division of bank of america . 3 the firm is headquartered in new york city and occupies the entire 34 stories of the four world financial center building in manhattan . merrill lynch employs over 15 000 financial advisors and manages 2.2 trillion in client assets . 4 the firm has its origins in merrill lynch & co. inc. which prior to 2009 was publicly owned and traded on the new york stock exchange under the ticker symbol mer . merrill lynch & co. agreed to be acquired by bank of america on september 14 2008 at the height of the 2008 financial crisis . 5 the acquisition was completed in january 2009 6 and merrill lynch & co. inc. was merged into bank of america corporation in october 2013 although certain bank of america subsidiaries continue to carry the merrill lynch name including the broker dealer merrill lynch pierce fenner & smith . 7 8 contents 1 history 1.1 founding and early history 1.2 rise to prominence 1.3 orange county settlement 1.4 subprime mortgage crisis 1.4.1 cdo controversies 1.5 sale to bank of america 2 regulatory actions 2.1 analyst research settlement 2.2 enron merrill lynch nigerian barge 2.3 discrimination charges 2.4 market timing settlement 2.5 2008 bonus payments 3 industry awards 4 organizational structure 5 merrill lynch as a subsidiary 6 merrill edge 7 see also 8 references 9 further reading 10 external links history edit founding and early history edit the company was founded on january 6 1914 when charles e. merrill opened his charles e. merrill & co. for business at 7 wall street in new york city . a few months later merrill s friend edmund c. lynch joined him and in 1915 the name was officially changed to merrill lynch & co. at that time the firm s name included a comma between merrill and lynch . 9 in 1916 winthrop h. smith joined the firm . merrill lynch logo c. 1917 in its early history merrill lynch & co. made several successful investments . in 1921 the company purchased path exchange which later became rko pictures . in 1926 the firm made its most significant financial investment at the time purchasing a controlling interest in safeway transforming the small grocery store into the country s third largest grocery store chain by the early 1930s . in 1930 charles merrill led the firm through a major restructuring spinning off the company s retail brokerage business to e.a. pierce & co. to focus on investment banking . 10 11 along with the business merrill also transferred the bulk of its employees including edmund c. lynch and winthrop h. smith . charles merrill received a minority interest in e.a. pierce in the transaction . throughout the 1930s e.a. pierce remained the largest brokerage in the u.s. the firm led by edward a. pierce edmund lynch and winthrop smith would also prove one of the most innovative in the industry introducing ibm machines into the business record keeping . additionally by 1938 e.a. pierce would control the largest wire network with a private network of over 23 000 miles of telegraph wires . these wires were typically used for trade execution . 12 e.a. pierce & co. above merged with merrill lynch in 1940 . the following year fenner & beane below was acquired by the firm despite its strong position in the market e.a. pierce was struggling financially in the 1930s and was thinly capitalized . 13 following the death of edmund c. lynch in 1938 winthrop smith began discussions with charles e. merrill who owned a minority interest in e.a. pierce about a possible merger of the two firms . on april 1 1940 merrill lynch merged with edward a. pierce s e.a. pierce & co. and cassatt & co. a philadelphia based brokerage firm in which both merrill lynch and e.a. pierce held an interest . 13 and was briefly known as merrill lynch e. a. pierce and cassatt . 14 the company became the first on wall street to publish an annual fiscal report in 1941 . merrill lynch pierce fenner & smith logo in use prior to the firm s 1974 rebranding that introduced the bull logo the following year in 1941 merrill lynch e. a. pierce and cassatt merged with fenner & beane a new orleans based investment bank and commodities company . throughout the 1930s fenner & beane was consistently the second largest securities firm in the u.s. the combined firm which became the clear leader in securities brokerage in the u.s. was renamed merrill lynch pierce fenner & beane . 15 in 1952 the company formed merrill lynch & co. as a holding company and officially incorporated after nearly half a century as a partnership . on december 31 1957 the new york times referred to that name as a sonorous bit of americana and said after sixteen years of popularizing it merrill lynch pierce fenner and beane is going to change it and thereby honor the man who has been largely responsible for making the name of a brokerage house part of an american saga winthrop h. smith who had been running the company since 1940 . the merger made the company the largest securities firm in the world with offices in over 98 cities and membership on 28 exchanges . at the start of the firm s fiscal year on march 1 1958 the firm s name became merrill lynch pierce fenner & smith and the company became a big board member of the new york stock exchange . 16 in 1964 merrill lynch acquired c. j. devine & co the leading dealer in u.s. government securities . the merger came together due to the death of christopher j. devine in may 1963 . 17 the c. j. devine & co. partners referred to as the devine boys formed merrill lynch government securities inc. giving the firm a strong presence in the government securities market . the government securities business brought merrill lynch the needed leverage to establish many of the unique money market products and government bond mutual fund products responsible for much of the firm s growth in the 1970s and 1980s . 18 rise to prominence edit merrill lynch rose to prominence on the strength of its brokerage network 15 000 as of 2006 19 sometimes referred to as the thundering herd that allowed it to place securities it underwrote directly . 20 in contrast many established wall street firms such as morgan stanley relied on groups of independent brokers for placement of the securities they underwrote . 21 until as late as 1970 it was known as the catholic firm of wall street . 22 the firm went public in 1971 and became a multinational corporation with over us 1.8 trillion in client assets operating in more than 40 countries around the world . in 1977 the company introduced its cash management account cma which enabled customers to sweep all their cash into a money market mutual fund and included check writing capabilities and a credit card . fortune magazine called it the most important financial innovation in years . 23 in 1978 it significantly buttressed its securities underwriting business by acquiring white weld & co. a small but prestigious old line investment bank . merrill lynch was well known for its global private client services and its strong sales force . orange county settlement edit merrill lynch settled with orange county california for a massive 400 million to settle accusations that it sold inappropriate and risky investments to former county treasurer robert citron . citron lost 1.69 billion which forced the county to file for bankruptcy in december 1994 . the county sued a dozen or more securities companies advisors and accountants but merrill settled without admitting liability in june 1998 . the county was able to recover about 600 million in total including the 400 million from merrill . subprime mortgage crisis edit main article 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis in november 2007 merrill lynch announced it would write down 8.4 billion in losses associated with the national housing crisis and would remove e. stanley o neal as its chief executive . 24 o neal had earlier approached wachovia bank for a merger without prior board approval but the talks ended after o neal s dismissal . 24 merrill lynch named john thain as its new ceo that month . 24 in his first days at work in december 2007 thain made changes in merrill lynch s top management announcing that he would bring in former new york stock exchange nyse colleagues such as nelson chai as cfo and margaret d. tutwiler as head of communications . 25 26 later that month the firm announced it would sell its commercial finance business to general electric and would sell off major shares of its stock to temasek holdings a singapore government investment group in an effort to raise capital . 27 the deal raised over 6 billion . 27 in july 2008 thain announced 4.9 billion fourth quarter losses for the company from defaults and bad investments in the ongoing mortgage crisis . 28 in one year between july 2007 and july 2008 merrill lynch lost 19.2 billion or 52 million daily . 28 the company s stock price had also declined significantly during that time . 28 two weeks later the company announced the sale of select hedge funds and securities in an effort to reduce their exposure to mortgage related investments . 29 temasek holdings agreed to purchase the funds and increase its investment in the company by 3.4 billion . 30 andrew cuomo new york attorney general threatened to sue merrill lynch in august 2008 over its misrepresentation of the risk on mortgage backed securities . 31 a week earlier merrill lynch had offered to buy back 12 billion in auction rate debt and said it was surprised by the lawsuit . 31 three days later the company froze hiring and revealed that it had charged almost 30 billion in losses to their subsidiary in the united kingdom exempting them from taxes in that country . 32 on august 22 2008 ceo john thain announced an agreement with the massachusetts secretary of state to buy back all auction rate securities from customers with less than 100 million in deposit with the firm beginning in october 2008 and expanding in january 2009 . 33 on september 5 2008 goldman sachs downgraded merrill lynch s stock to conviction sell and warned of further losses at the company . 34 bloomberg reported in september 2008 that merrill lynch had lost 51.8 billion on mortgage backed securities as part of the subprime mortgage crisis . 34 cdo controversies edit merrill lynch like many other banks became heavily involved in the mortgage based collateralized debt obligation cdo