Key takeaways
- Bank of America's Q3 2026 materials give no advisor count; the SEC record counted 25,469 IARs at Merrill Lynch on September 30, 2026.
- The SEC count rose by 150 (0.6%) between June 30, 2026 and September 30, 2026: −160 from moves between firms (All) and +310 from first registrations and returns, less exits from IAR registration.
- 387 IARs left for other firms and 227 joined from them, a net of −160 (Competitive, confirmed corporate events excluded).
- The most common destination was J.P. Morgan (69 IARs, 17.8% of those who left).
- Competitive departures were about flat against the 392 in the same quarter of 2025.
What did Bank of America report for Q3 2026?
Bank of America's third-quarter 2026 earnings release and supplemental information, published October 14, 2026, give no count of Merrill financial advisors. The Global Wealth and Investment Management pages report client balances and flows; the only advisor numbers in the release are award listings.
Documents checked: Bank of America Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results and the Bank of America Supplemental Information, Third Quarter 2026.
What does the SEC record show for the same quarter?
The SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure record shows 25,469 IARs registered with Merrill Lynch on September 30, 2026, against 25,319 on June 30, 2026. The count rose by 150 (0.6%) over the quarter.
Between July 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026, 387 IARs left Merrill Lynch for other firms and 227 joined from other firms, a net of −160. The departures are 1.5% of the IARs registered when the quarter opened. These are Competitive counts: moves between different firm families, with confirmed corporate events left out.
Counting every registration change (All) gives the same figures this quarter: no confirmed corporate event moved IARs into or out of Merrill Lynch.
The remaining +310 in the count is what the record does not show as a move between firms: people who registered as IARs for the first time or returned after a long gap, less people who left IAR registration altogether. It also absorbs small differences between the dated records the counts come from.
| Measure | IARs |
|---|---|
| Registered on June 30, 2026 | 25,319 |
| Registered on September 30, 2026 | 25,469 |
| Change over the quarter | +150 |
| Left for other firms (Competitive) | 387 |
| Joined from other firms (Competitive) | 227 |
| Net from moves between firms (Competitive) | −160 |
| Left / joined, every registration change (All) | 387 / 227 |
| Other changes in the count | +310 |
| Left for other firms, Q3 2025 (Competitive, rebuilt) | 392 |
Competitive leaves out confirmed corporate events; All includes them. Other changes are first registrations and returns, less exits from IAR registration. The two quarter-end counts come from the SEC records published July 19, 2026 and October 19, 2026; the moves from the record with data through October 20, 2026.
Where did the IARs who left Merrill Lynch go?
The 387 Competitive departures went to 85 firms. The five most common destinations took 187 of them. Firms are shown as operating families, so a family's legal firms are counted together. The second table groups every departure by the destination firm's channel. Firms outside Continuum's channel classification are shown as not classified.
| Destination | Channel | IARs | Share of departures |
|---|---|---|---|
| J.P. Morgan | Wirehouse | 69 | 17.8% |
| Morgan Stanley | Wirehouse | 41 | 10.6% |
| Wells Fargo Advisors | Wirehouse / Independent Broker-Dealer | 40 | 10.3% |
| LPL Financial | Independent Broker-Dealer | 19 | 4.9% |
| Raymond James | Regional Broker-Dealer / Independent Broker-Dealer | 18 | 4.7% |
| All other firms (80) | 200 | 51.7% |
| Destination channel | IARs | Share of departures |
|---|---|---|
| Wirehouse | 160 | 41.3% |
| Custodian / Direct Advisory | 39 | 10.1% |
| Bank / Institutional | 37 | 9.6% |
| Independent Broker-Dealer | 30 | 7.8% |
| RIA | 27 | 7.0% |
| Regional Broker-Dealer | 20 | 5.2% |
| National Broker-Dealer | 16 | 4.1% |
| Insurance-Affiliated | 13 | 3.4% |
| Not classified | 45 | 11.6% |
How does the SEC count differ from Merrill Lynch's own advisor count?
A firm's advisor count follows the firm's own definition. The SEC record counts investment adviser representatives: people registered to give investment advice through the firm's SEC-registered adviser. An advisor who holds only a brokerage registration is not an IAR, and an IAR in a management, support or training role may not be one of the firm's advisors, so the two counts differ even when both are right.
Bank of America reports Merrill Wealth Management and Bank of America Private Bank together as its Global Wealth and Investment Management segment. This note counts only investment adviser representative registrations at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.
What can't the SEC record tell you?
- Why anyone moved. The record shows a change of registration and its date, not the reason.
- Who left the industry. People who stop being IARs drop out of the record. They are not shown as moves, so retirements and other exits appear only as a smaller count.
- What moved with them. The record holds no client, asset or revenue figures.
- Final numbers. Registration changes can be filed late, so these counts can shift slightly as the record is updated.
How were these figures counted?
- IARs on a date are people with an investment adviser registration open at the end of that day at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith (firm CRD 7691). Both counts are rebuilt from the SEC record published 19 days after each date (July 19, 2026 and October 19, 2026), so each leaves out anyone who left IAR registration in those 19 days.
- Moves are each person's latest change of firm that arrived between July 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026, rebuilt from the SEC record with data through October 20, 2026. Competitive counts moves between different firm families and leaves out confirmed corporate events such as acquisitions and platform conversions. All counts every registration change into or out of Merrill Lynch.
- The same quarter of 2025 is rebuilt from the same record, which has lost people who have since left the industry, so it can read a few percent low. A change under 5% either way is called about flat.
- The full rules are in the methodology.
Continuum's view: A firm's advisor count and the SEC's IAR count answer different questions, so they belong side by side. The movement figures are what the record measures directly. The reasons behind any single move are not in it, and this note does not guess at them.
Related reading: How the movement figures are counted, AdvisorWire: where advisors moved, Advisor Flow Index and firm lookup.
Sources
- Public recordBank of America Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Bank of America
- Public recordBank of America Supplemental Information, Third Quarter 2026 Bank of America
- Public recordInvestment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- Continuum dataAdvisor Movement Data Methodology Continuum Market Intelligence
Editorial standard: Continuum publishes education for financial advisors. It is general information, not legal, tax, or compliance advice.