BofA Wealth Unit's Profits Jump 10%

What You Need to Know

Total client assets for Merrill Lynch neared $3.4 trillion, while BofA Private Bank assets were roughly $663.7 billion.
Merrill gained about 7,300 net new client relationships in the first quarter, in line with the two prior quarters.
The executives said demand is growing for different support services among high- and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Bank of America’s Global Wealth and Investment Management unit saw its first-quarter revenue grow 5% year over year to $5.6 billlion, while its profits jumped 10% to $1 billion.

“Record revenue … increased 5% from Q1’23, driven by 12% higher asset management fees, due to higher market levels and strong AUM flows, partially offset by lower net interest income,” the firm said Tuesday in its latest earnings report.

Total client assets for Merrill Lynch Wealth Management neared $3.4 trillion, while BofA Private Bank assets were roughly $663.7 billion.

On a combined basis, the bank’s GWIM business unit reported client balances of nearly $4 trillion for the period ending March 31, up 13% from a year ago, driven by higher market valuations and positive net client flows.

(Rival Morgan Stanley’s wealth unit had $5.5 trillion of client assets as of March 31 — $4.3 trillion of which are in its advisor-led channel.)

Merrill gained about 7,300 net new client relationships in the first quarter, in line with the two prior quarters but down on a yearly basis, according to Lindsay Hans and Eric Schimpf, co-heads of the business.

“Many of the new relationships start within the retail bank, and they are then connected to us for their growing and more complex wealth needs,” Hans said Tuesday on a call with media.

“In Q1, we nearly doubled the new assets generated from these inbound referrals, and that’s over a record pace set in 2023,” he said. “The scale of this opportunity is incredible, with 69 million customers at the commercial bank.”

GWIM’s net flows of assets under management in the latest period were $24.7 billion, up from $15.2 billion a year ago and $8.4 billion in the prior period.