Sieg retools Merrill Lynch's retirement services group

Three months after he joined the company, Andrew Sieg, head of retirement and philanthropic services at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, has reorganized its retirement services group. One of the main goals of the reorganization is to tap Bank of America Corp.'s commercial banking clients as prospects for the firm's 401(k) business, Mr. Sieg said in an interview. Under the new structure, announced today, Kevin Crain, formerly the head of plan participant solutions, will serve as the head of institutional client relationships. In this role, Mr. Crain will be responsible for overseeing all of the bank's institutional clients and financial advisers who work with those clients, Mr. Sieg said. Additionally, part of his team will work with the areas of the commercial bank where there could be a need for retirement products. “People in Kevin's team will identify the retirement plan needs in the global commercial banking side of the business,” Mr. Sieg said, noting that this marks the first time its advisers will have seamless access to retirement plan leads from the commercial banking side of the business. “One out of three middle market companies have a relationship with us,” Mr. Sieg said. Mr. Sieg joined BofA in September from Citigroup Inc., where he headed the firm's emerging affluent-client segment. As part of the reorganization, Bank of America/ Merrill Lynch also announced that Aimee DeCamillo will continue to serve as the head of the company's personal retirement business. David Roberts, president and chief executive of Equity Methods, an equity valuation consulting company that Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. bought in 2006, will rejoin the company as head of equity plan services.