Merrill Lynch Global Private Client

<p>yeah our my leader spends a good amount of time hanging out with clients golfing and taking them out, but he also has aboutl 350 mill in assets under management. </p>

<p>in PCS you still work a good amount of hours, the people in my group work 12 hour days and then usually some time on saturday, none on sunday.</p>

<p>I'm not really interested in going after a career in PCS, just because I don't feel I have great sales skills. I was able to initiate a relationship that worked out well, but that was mostly luck I guess. Just waaay too much selling for me.</p>

<p>As for relationships with banking, it depends. If you work in a PCS division where you're involved with businesses you actually may find yourself working with the investment bankers. This usually happens if someone wants to sell pieces of their company off I think.</p>

<p>Sometimes it can involve traveling too, especially if you work on a state that borders a country (texas, cali, arizona, etc) because you can try to make deals with individuals in that country. Also if you ever get big clients you might find yourself setting them up with private equity, hedge funds, or VC investments.</p>

<p>ok so lets figure this out. as as far as compensation goes in pcs compared to ibanking. </p>

<p>this guy Grunfeld is basically at the top of the industry (similar position to bb ibanking md) with three billion under managment he probly charges 1% and keeps half. So 15 million per year. But he has to pay the 15 people on his team as well as all of the expenses (for the most part, i know they have a spending account that comes out of the half of the revenue that the firm keeps)</p>

<p>my guess would be that it costs him about 5 million to pay all his assoicates and other business expenses (sound right)</p>

<p>Then there are probly 5 or 6 other brokers he works with who take another 7 or 8 million which leaves him with 6 to 6 million?</p>

<p>and that income is more or less guarantied for as long as he wants it. right?</p>

<p>Compensation in PCS actually depends on the transactions that are going on, I don't think he gets to just take a % of assets like HF managers do.</p>

<p>I've heard of MDs at the office making 2-3 million (and they work easy hours) and group leaders who have 300 million in AUM making 450k a year.</p>

<p>haha southpasadena, i've seen that merill building in riverside. I entertained the thought of applying there but cold calling wasn't for me (i had another sales internship and i hated it). </p>

<p>You can make a lot of money through financial advising / sales but it is very hard and you have to have skills b/c the salaries are almost always 100% commission.</p>

<p>whats the difference between a group leader and an md? at my office (not merrill) we dont have mds, just vp and sr vp which is really just reflective on how much business they bring in.</p>

<p>now im preaty sure that most of the big accounts are on a fee not comission basis but there are exceptions.</p>

<p>so lets say that the top guys in ib and pcs make close to the same ammount, what about the jr guys? on my team we only have one other person beside the assistants who is not a broker but i know that in some of the bigger offices the teams have a lot more people on them.</p>

<p>do you know anything about how it works if you work in pcs at a place like goldman or lehman? i think that the hiarchy is more ibanking like?</p>

<p>A group leader leads the group of financial advisors. They're usually given some title like VP/Sr. VP.</p>

<p>the MD actually manages the -groups- of financial advisors. He's responsible for pushing any of the things that ML's corporate group wants to push. For example, sometimes a special CD might come out and they'll push the advisors to sell that to their clients, so the MD would be in charge of pushing the groups to do this.</p>

<p>The group I intern for is about 3 people plus assistants. </p>

<p>I'm pretty sure PCS is structured the same way at other places.</p>

<p><a href="http://askmerrill.ml.com/branch_locator/1,2283,,00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://askmerrill.ml.com/branch_locator/1,2283,,00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>click there and put in your zipcode.</p>

<p>When I put in my zip code I found multiple offices, bigger offices will have Managing Directors, smaller offices may not if it's just a few groups.</p>

<p>Alright. My internship is over and I am back in school. I think I know enough to answer that question first raised. I think the internship experience with ML GPC is valuable - I got a good idea of how a large financial institution functions on the sales side, by working in a division that hires only experienced advisors. (That at the same time means that you won't get a return offer since they don't hire people fresh out of school.)</p>

<p>If you receive another internship from say, a small capital firm, at a wage between $10 to $12 per hour, I would still recommend that you take this nonpaid internship. An internship in the investment banking division, is of course, even better. And I think the people here are very friendly- they respect their interns. They don't have such attitude like, "I make alot of money every year and you are still in school so I can look down on you."</p>

<p>What would be better an unpaid internship at a regional branch of Morgan Stanley or a paid one at Nortwestern Mutual?</p>

<p>what's your end goal? A FT job after college at Morgan Stanley is probably much better for your career than something less prestigious. in terms of risk/reward, it makes sense to forego a summer's income to get a job offer and experience to talk about in job interviews. However, a lot of that depends on A) whether you want a job in finance after college, and B) your perception of your odds of getting a FT permanent offer from MS. Sure, you may be quite confident in your abilities, but the fact that the internship you've been awarded is unpaid may speak to how excited your bosses are to have you - i.e., not very. Be certain that you're on the same track as all the harvard kids cramming into MS's New York offices every summer to grease their career paths for the senior year interviews.</p>

<p>Bringing up an old thread here, but for good reason...</p>

<p>Wildflower, I'm interviewing at ML GPC(PWM) in Houston on Thursday and am trying to prep for it. What kinds of questions did they ask you?</p>

<p>My interview was informal; I assume they vary depending on the office. It'll probably be behavioral. just make sure they like you and show that you are a hard worker, etc...</p>

<p>I think DCFCA interned in Texas. He may be a better person to ask re office culture, etc. Hope this helps.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>