AXA ditches advisor unit to concentrate on insurance, annuities. Merrill Lynch has agreed to buy Harford, Conn.-based Advest Group from AXA Financial as a complement to its private-client unit. AXA, meanwhile, sees the deal as a chance to concentrate on its “core” insurance and annuities businesses.

The $400 million acquisition is expected to close before the year is out.

All told, Advest has 1,560 employees in three main businesses: retail brokerage, capital markets and investment banking, and, through Boston Advisors, asset management.

“We are extremely pleased and look forward to welcoming the Advest financial professionals to Merrill Lynch,” says Robert McCann, president of Merrill Lynch’s private-client group. “With access to our platform, products and services, they will have an even greater number of wealth management tools to better serve their clients.”

McCann is a long-time Merrill employee. But he left the wirehouse for a few months in 2003 to serve as AXA Financial's vice chairman.

Off you go

Advest’s CEO Daniel Mullane says his firm has been an innovative wealth manager for years. The deal with Merrill Lynch gives him and his colleagues an “opportunity to expand these capabilities by becoming part of the most stable and robust platform in the industry.” 

AXA Financial’s CEO Kip Condron takes a similar view. “This transaction will provide Advest’s financial professionals with a more complementary platform for growth,” he says. “[Although] Advest is an excellent company with a strong reputation in the marketplace, its business is better aligned with Merrill Lynch’s [private-client group].”

In any case, adds Condron, “this transaction allows [AXA Financial] to reinvest in our strong core businesses of life insurance and annuities.”

At a glance, Merrill's takeover of Advest resembles a recent agreement between Baltimore-based Legg Mason and Citigroup. That one calls for Legg Mason to hand over its brokerage business and about $1.5 billion in stock in exchange for most of Citigroup Asset Management. Legg Mason is playing the deal up as its chance to move to pure-play asset management, and Citi is stressing the benefits of an expanded advisor force.

Assuming most of Advest’s 500 or so brokers stick around, its acquisition stands to increase Merrill’s advisor force – already the world’s largest – to nearly 15,700. Number two