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REUTERS SUMMIT-Merrill's Thiel ramps up recruiting

Reuters - UK Focus

(For other news from the Reuters Global Wealth Management Summit (LSE: SUMM.L - news) , click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/Wealth14)

By Jed Horowitz

NEW YORK (Frankfurt: HX6.F - news) , June 18 (Reuters) - After a steady reduction in its brokerage force, Merrill Lynch is again adding numbers to its "Thundering Herd."

"We want to grow," John Thiel, the head of US Wealth Management and Private Banking at Merrill Lynch, said at Reuters Global Wealth Summit on Tuesday. "We have market-share opportunity."

Merrill Lynch, once the largest U.S. securities firm as measured by its sales force, ended the first quarter with 13,725 financial advisers, down almost 15 percent since it was bought by Bank of America Corp during the financial crisis in January 2009.

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Morgan Stanley (Berlin: DWD.BE - news) , the world's biggest brokerage measured by sales force, employed 16,426 financial advisers as of March 31, while Wells Fargo Advisors had just over 15,000.

Thiel cautioned that recruiting will be "very selective" and growth will be "thoughtful," but confirmed that expanding the force is a shift.

Headcount at Morgan Stanley is "trending up somewhat but is not significant," Greg Fleming, the head of Morgan Stanley's wealth management group, said at the Summit on Monday. Indeed, Morgan Stanley expects its wealth management compensation ratio to fall "as we grow our revenue, are more selective on recruiting and have more attrition," Fleming said.

Thiel separately said that Merrill Lynch continues to shift "mass affluent" clients who keep less than $250,000 with the firm from the brokerage unit to lower-service call centers and Bank of America (TLO: BAC.TI - news) 's no-frills Merrill Edge unit.

Like most of its big-brokerage rivals, Merrill no longer pays its advisers for servicing client households with less than $250,000 and is not accepting any new mass affluent clients. However, about 1 percent of its $2 trillion of client assets is owned by them. (Editing by Jonathan Oatis)