Merrill Lynch has paid $400 million for Axa Financial’s Advest Group. The deal will add Advest’s 515 financial advisors to Merrill Lynch’s 1...

Merrill Lynch has paid $400 million for Axa Financial’s Advest Group. The deal will add Advest’s 515 financial advisors to Merrill Lynch’s 14,420 brokers, and consolidate its position as the biggest private client group in the US. Bob McCann, head of Merrill’s private client business, said the deal underlined the group’s confidence in its brokerage business and its commitment to invest in its growth. “This was a very attractive opportunity to acquire a quality regional brokerage,” he said. Axa Financial, which acquired Advest as a result of last year’s $1.5 billion acquisition of MONY, the US life insurer, said it would fit better with Merrill Lynch’s business. “This transaction will provide Advest’s financial professionals with a more complementary platform for growth. For Axa, this transaction allows us to reinvest in our strong core businesses of life insurance and annuities,” said Christopher Condron, head of Axa Financial, the US arm of the French insurer. In addition to the financial advisors, the Advest group includes Lebenthal, the retail municipal bond specialist, Boston Advisors, an asset manager with $3 billion of funds, and a capital markets business. Mr McCann said no final decisions had been made on which of these businesses Merrill would retain. Advest’s financial advisors are based in the northeast, midwest and Florida. Mr McCann said that while the Advest financial advisers were not as productive as Merrill’s, their performance was very good by industry standards even before the benefits of joining Merrill.