Firm's U.S. private-client COO says return to trainee program in the offing. Merrill Lynch, the Bank of America-owned wealth management business, is going back to hiring and training neophyte brokers. The wirehouse fired hundreds of trainees as a cost-saving measure late in 2008 as it prepared to merge with Bank of America, effectively ending its broker-development program.

"We want to re-engage and really refresh what we have been so strong at in the past number of years -- which is to recruit and hire trainees into our program and give them the tools, training, and mentoring to be successful," Todd Myers, COO of Merrill's U.S. private-client business, told the Wall Street Journal.

A commitment

Myers declined to give details about the of the size and scope of Merrill's "Practice Management Development" (PMD) program.

Though PMD hasn't had a head since Phil Sieg became a Merrill branch manager in Short Hills, N.J., a few months ago, the firm plans to name a new program chief shortly, according to the Journal.

Merrill has "a commitment" to rebuilding a strong program, "but exactly where it will be in terms of numbers at the end of the year is still an open question," says Myers.

For now Merrill branch mangers will do the hiring of trainees -- frequently choosing from the ranks of trainees that got the boot last year. Next year, the firm expects to look for help from headhunters.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America acquired New York-based Merrill early this year -- and quickly started squawking about how the U.S. government strong-armed it into completing the deal when it quietly sought to wriggle out of the deal in December 2008. -FWR

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