Merrill Lynch Wealth Management wants a judge to protect its leads.
At issue are four brokers with rival Wells Fargo Advisors. Merrill alleges that the brokers improperly took contact information from Merrill parent Bank of America and then solicited 31 customers. Merrill wants a Tennessee court to forbid any further such actions, according to Advisor Hub.
Merrill also filed a claim for damages and sought a permanent injunction against Wells Fargo with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s arbitration forum.
Contacts, leads, and who owns customer relationships are often the center of disputes among firms and advisors. The Protocol for Broker Recruiting is meant to help solve such disagreements. Merrill is a signatory of the agreement, but told the Tennessee court that customer leads from its parent bank are not subject to the Protocol rules.
Merrill has lost a number of key revenue-generators recently, but has remained in the Protocol.
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and UBS Wealth Management USA left the Protocol in 2017.
Wells Fargo declined to comment to Advisor Hub.
