Dan Sontag Leaves Merrill Lynch after 30 Years

by Amy Judd | August 4, 2009 at 01:18 pm

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Dan Sontag will leave Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Corp, after 30 years with the company. This announcement comes one day after the bank hired Sallie Krawcheck, a former Citigroup Inc wealth management executive, but Sontag will stay on for a short time to work with Krawcheck for a transition period.

Sallie Krawcheck will also stay oversee Bank of America's private bank unit U.S. Trust and Columbia Management.

Dan Sontag followed in his father's footsteps when he succeeded Bon McCann on January 1st.

Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis referred to the brokerage network as the "crown jewel" when he announced the Merrill acquisition in September. Then it was the world's largest brokerage and its 16,850 advisers were known as the "thundering herd."

Almost 2,300 advisers left the combined banks' wealth management groups in the first quarter and, after losing a further 800 in the second quarter, Bank of America now has about 15,000 advisers.