Mr Courtois joined Merrill Lynch in 2007 as director of international trust and wealth structuring and in this role has been responsible for trust and fiduciary products for EMEA, establishing trusts for ultra high net worth clients. He was also responsible for Merrill’s relationship with Abacus Trust Company, the bank’s strategic partner for providing fiduciary services for non-financial assets.

Before joining Merrill Mr Courtois was deputy head of tax and estate planning at BNP Paribas.

In other recent developments, earlier this week four directors resigned from Merrill’s London-based discretionary business.

The resignations of Rob Rydon, Tim Gibbons, Alex Roe and Graham Harrington follow the move of Andrew Clark, latterly the head of discretionary at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, to Schroders Private Banking, where he is now a member of the private banking executive committee and the board of Schroder & Co.

Merrill has confirmed that it is seeking a replacement for Mr Clark and will make an announcement in due course.