Sontag takes over as head of the firm's wealth businesses in the Americas. Merrill Lynch has named Daniel Sontag to replace McIntyre Gardner as head of its private-client business in the Americas.

Sontag reports to Robert McCann, head of Merrill's Global Wealth Management division.

Post O'Neal

Sontag joined Merrill in 1978. In 2001 he was put in charge of efforts to diversify revenue and increase service customization within Merrill's retail-brokerage business across 700 North American and Latin American offices.

Sontag's predecessor Gardner left Merrill about 10 days ago for reason that aren't completely clear.

According to scuttlebutt though, he was closely allied with Stan O'Neal, who stepped down as Merrill's CEO several months ago as the firm came under criticism for making bad -- and extremely costly -- bets in the mortgage market.

And word has it that post-O'Neal era departures from Merrill aren't over yet. -FWR

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