In the old days of ticker tape and handshake agreements, the life of a financial adviser was an adventure, according to the founders of Merrill Lynch's Chattanooga office. Since then, advancing technology and an unbridled expansion of wealth management options have simplified parts of their job while complicating others.
In 35 years, the firm has grown from four employees in late 1975 to more than 40 employees, $1.3 billion under management and a projected $15 million in revenue this year, according to Steven Alch, director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Chattanooga office.
The office expanded from its original headquarters at 615 Chestnut St. to the Republic Centre building and finally became a lead tenant in downtown Chattanooga's Tallan Building, Alch said.
Merrill Lynch was founded in New York City in 1914 with the idea that ordinary people across the country should be able to access financial advice and stock market guidance.
The company survived two world wars but couldn't survive the subprime market meltdown, and it was purchased by Bank of America in late 2008 for $50 billion at the behest of federal regulators, the company said.
Still, the Chattanooga office remains intact, said Alch, with an expanded portfolio of options for investors to choose from and with the local office founding managers, Irvin Pressman and Sid Huntley, still at the top of their game.
"We started here with four people, then one guy quit to go to law school, so we lost 25 percent of our work force right off the bat," Pressman recalled.
The three had to go to New York City for six weeks to train at Merrill Lynch headquarters, but it turned out that attracting customers was easier than expected, he said.
With stagflation sending interest rates sky-high during Carter administration of the late 70s, investors flocked to Merrill's certificate of deposit and money-market accounts.
"From '75 to '82 it was a very flat market, so we had six-month CDs at 18 percent return," Huntley added. "Today it might be .6 percent."
The economy recovered, and the firm continued to grow in profitability. Technology, too, became an important aspect of Merrill's success. Electronic terminals wired to the New York Stock Exchange mainframe replaced ticker tape and eventually every employee was issued their own personal computer.
But while technology marched onward, personal relationships and attention continued to dominate the business, Pressman said.
He's even gone so far as go help a loyal client negotiate with a car salesman for a better deal on an automobile, something that's not typically part of an adviser-advisee relationship.
"We've had some clients for 30-plus years," which makes it easier to encourage them to stay the course when they get the recession jitters, said senior financial adviser Vince Stafford.
"June 2008 wasn't a whole lot of fun," Stafford said. "When people want to panic or get out, our job is to make sure they stay the course."
Moving forward in their new partnership with Bank of America, Merrill Lynch advisers will soon have new tools at their disposal, said Jack Pollock Jr., a senior financial adviser with the firm.
Soon, every client will be able to take a picture with his iPhone of a signed check and send it in via e-mail, according to Pollock.
But the biggest change is the ever-expanding scope of the business in which they find themselves.
"Thirty-five years ago we operated as individuals, but the industry has grown more complicated," Huntley said. "No one man can know it all anymore, so we've gone to more of a team approach."
For Alch, third in a line of West Point graduates to lead the office, the team mindset is fine by him.
"There's not much difference between leading troops and leading an office: it's all about earning the trust and respect of your clients and those you work with," he said.