This publication carries latest news of moves and appointments in the North America wealth management market.

Merrill Lynch in the US has appointed Michael Duffy as a director and wealth Strategist in Atlanta. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs.

Duffy will advise clients throughout the Southeast with interests in estate and other wealth planning services, both directly and through their financial and private wealth advisors.  The firm’s strategic wealth advisory group sits in Merrill’s Private Banking & Investment Group and provides expertise in wealth strategy, family wealth dynamics, trust solutions, philanthropic solutions, and estate planning.

As part of his role, Duffy will report to Stacy Allred, head of the strategic wealth advisory group and Michael Nies, Southeast region director of PBIG.

With more than 20 years’ experience working with ultra-high-net-worth clients and their advisors, Duffy has worked in areas such as gift and estate tax, federal and state income tax, securities laws, philanthropy, executive compensations and trust planning.  He has contributed to a variety of external publications on the topics of trusts, wealth transfer and estate planning.

At Goldman Sachs, Duffy was a member of the firm’s strategic wealth advisory team, served as the Southeast regional director of fiduciary services, and served as Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management’s art and collectibles expert for all US private wealth advisors and their clients. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Duffy worked at BNY Mellon Financial, JP Morgan Private Bank and was a tax attorney at Alley Maass Rodgers & Lindsey PA.

Recentlly it was reported that a a team of wealth advisors at Morgan Stanley in the US has defected to Bank of America Merrill Lynch to create a new private banking office, serving clients in the technology sector in the Pacific Northwest. Reports said the team of managers together ran $2.36 billion of assets. The eight financial advisors  are Jason Weese, Mark Harris, Todd Kelly, Matt Bridge, Kristen Buxton, Alan Lubner, Jim Ferguson and Traci Bumpus.

In September, Merrill Lynch welcomed financial advisor Brad Weinman from Morgan Stanley in West Palm Beach, FL.

Recently, Last week, the Merrill Lynch said that its current wealth management chief, John Thiel, would be stepping down from his role to take on a new role as vice chairman of global wealth and investment management. Andy Sieg, current head of the company’s global wealth and retirement solutions division, succeeds Thiel as head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. The changes are effective as of January 1, 2017.