Merrill has added one of the wealth management industry's most decorated institutional consulting teams, poaching a 14-person group from Morgan Stanley's Graystone Consulting business that oversees more than $13 billion in client assets.
The team, which will operate out of Merrill Private Wealth Management's Boston office, serves ultra-high-net-worth families, corporate executives, entrepreneurs and retirement plan sponsors across the United States. The move ranks among the largest wirehouse-to-wirehouse team transfers disclosed in 2026 and lands at a moment when high-stakes advisor recruitment is reshaping the competitive landscape across Wall Street's biggest firms.
Led by Al J. Hammond, CRPS, a founding partner with more than 35 years of institutional consulting experience, the group also includes Matthew McLaughlin, CRPS, CIMA; Anthony F. Mancini, CFP, CEPA; Peter Ciovacco, CRPS; Scott Tobey, CFP, CPWA, CIMA; and Michael Egan, CIMA, CRPS. The six advisors bring a combined depth of credentials spanning retirement plan consulting, ultra-high-net-worth wealth planning, fiduciary governance and defined contribution program design.
The group's pedigree is well documented. According to Forbes and research firm SHOOK Research LLC, the team ranked No. 8 on the Forbes 2026 Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list for Massachusetts. The team has also appeared on Barron's Top 100 Institutional Consulting Teams list every year from 2022 through 2026, and on the National Association of Plan Advisors' Top Defined Contribution Advisor Teams list every year from 2018 through 2026, according to those respective organizations.
That track record made the team a high-value target. Advisor recruitment at the wirehouse level has intensified sharply in recent years as firms compete for practices with substantial assets, long-tenured client relationships and institutional consulting expertise that is difficult to replicate.
Greg McGauley, head of Merrill Private Wealth Management, International and Institutional, framed the hire as a reflection of the firm's competitive positioning.
"The industry's top teams are looking for a firm that can help them serve increasingly complex client needs while positioning their practices for long-term growth," McGauley said in a statement. "Merrill's combination of industry-leading wealth management capabilities, Workplace Benefit solutions, and the resources of Bank of America continues to resonate with highly successful teams."
The $13 billion transfer places this hire at the upper end of a recruitment market that has grown significantly in scale and frequency.
According to a March 2026 report from recruiting and consulting firm Diamond Consultants, 2025 was a record year for advisor movement, with more than 11,000 experienced advisors changing firms. Diamond Consultants counted 54 teams with $1 billion or more in client assets that transitioned during 2025, 29 of which came from wirehouses.
Among the largest wirehouse-to-wirehouse moves covered by InvestmentNews in the past 12 months, Wells Fargo Advisors landed a Morgan Stanley team overseeing nearly $6 billion in Manhattan, while Steward Partners announced a partnership with Zelniker Dorfman Private Wealth, an 11-person team managing approximately $2.4 billion that the firm described as the largest wirehouse breakaway in its recruiting history. Wells Fargo also recruited the Munster Freeman Group — a Merrill Lynch team managing approximately $3 billion — to its West Coast operation in California.
At $13 billion, the Graystone team's move to Merrill surpasses all of these in AUM terms among wirehouse-to-wirehouse transfers and is second only to the historic 2025 departure of OpenArc Corporate Advisory, a 90-advisor group managing $129 billion, which left Merrill to establish its own RIA affiliated with Dynasty Financial Partners.
Each of the six lead advisors joining Merrill in the latest big-money move carries a distinct area of focus that reinforces the team's ability to serve both institutional and high-net-worth clients under one practice.
Hammond has spent his career advising plan sponsors and investment committees on retirement plan design and outcomes. McLaughlin, who has 29 years of experience, focuses on helping mid-sized to large organizations optimize their defined contribution programs. Ciovacco, with 23 years in institutional consulting, specializes in fiduciary education for plan committees — an increasingly in-demand function as regulatory scrutiny of retirement plan governance has grown.
Mancini, who transitioned into financial advisory from a legal and consulting background in 2012, advises high-net-worth families and corporate executives on tax, estate and business planning. Tobey works with ultra-high-net-worth clients on legacy planning, concentrated stock positions, trust strategies and philanthropy. Before joining Graystone Consulting, he served as Financial Planning Director for Morgan Stanley's Coastal New England Market, overseeing planning support for more than 120 advisors. Egan focuses on retirement plan sponsors, founders and HR teams.
Eight additional team members joined Merrill alongside the six advisors: Jack Brown, Investment Management Specialist; Wilson Bullard, CFP, Senior Relationship Manager; Christina Cecchino, Business Development Specialist and AVP; Jade Dagher, Client Associate; Martin Gauba, CIMA, Investment Management Specialist and AVP; Doug Kublin, Senior Investment Manager and VP; Sonya Pratt, Senior Relationship Manager; and Clare Sheehan, Senior Relationship Manager and VP.
The team will report to McGauley within Merrill's Private Wealth office in Boston and operate within the Northeast region of Private Wealth, led by Nathan Marsden.
The combination of institutional retirement plan consulting and ultra-high-net-worth private wealth planning within a single practice is a structure financial advisors and wealth managers are increasingly adopting to serve clients whose personal and institutional financial lives are closely intertwined — particularly entrepreneurs, corporate executives and family offices.
Graystone Consulting, the institutional advisory business from which the team departed, has roots dating to 1973 and manages institutional assets across the United States. The business was named Best Investment Consultant for service and investment counseling among large consultants by Coalition Greenwich, a division of CRISIL, in February 2026, according to Morgan Stanley. The departure of a team of this profile will be closely watched across the institutional consulting sector.
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