Merrill Lynch Wealth Management has launched a new training program that aims to fill skill gaps on advisor teams and potentially develop successors for their practices.
Known as Team Financial Advisor (TFA) program, the program is aimed at building trainees into current advisor teams and is an alternate 31-month training regimen to the firm’s traditional 36-month Practice Management Development (PMD) program.
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As part of the TFA program, Merrill Lynch will directly recruit some of its trainees in addition to teaching core management skills and focusing on specializations.
The first TFA class, which is scheduled to start in August, will focus on specializations such as business development, financial planning, investments and financing, relationship management, and business management.
The trainees in the new program will meet team performance hurdles, rather than individual hurdles and their performance will be analyzed differently. However, TFA trainees will still be compensated on a salary plus commission model.
Prior to the application process, teams must submit a business proposal identifying the specialization they want to fill and a performance plan that they expect to meet.
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By GlobalDataMerrill’s financial advisors will conduct interviews for potential trainees to ensure there’s a skill set alignment prior to selecting trainees for the TFA program.
Following the completion of program, TFA trainees will gain equity ownership in the team.
Oden and Riley Etheridge, head of client segments and adviser development, Merrill, said: "This new role [of TFA] can also allow for succession planning and building the bridges necessary for the next generation of advisers to continue to deliver the experience our clients expect and deserve."
