The mystery of Sieg's exit

Andy Sieg’s sudden departure from the top of Merrill Lynch yesterday immediately sparked a nationwide parlor game among wealth advisors and financial services recruiters.

Why did Sieg, the face of the bank’s “Modern Merrill” strategy to digitize customer service and marketing for advisors and improve wealth clients’ online experience, opt to return to Citigroup, his former stomping ground??

And what does it mean for the roughly 15,000 advisors overseeing around $2.8 trillion in customer assets, a large chunk of parent Bank of America’s more than 19,000 advisors across Merrill and the private bank?

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One recruiter described a “relentless” wave of high-profile Merrill advisor departures to competitors in recent years, including to registered investment advisory firms, and frequent management shuffles as having depressed moral at the Wall Street bank under Sieg.?

“The advisor population is not happy,” this person said, adding that the departures had created “a daily news cycle” that "detracted" from focusing on strategy.

And what does Sieg’s defection to Citi, where he will?become the new head of Citi Global Wealth?come September and report directly to Citi CEO Jane Fraser, mean for the crosstown rival’s ambitions to capture wealthy investors as clients??

The recruiter said Sieg’s jump could spur more defections from Merrill Wealth Management, which now has two heads, one who in February was a regional executive at the bank before being promoted to head of Private Wealth Management.

Read more: Andy Sieg out at Merrill, returns to Citi

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