Broker-dealer firm · New York, NY

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated

Q: How much does Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated manage?

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated reports $1.8 trillion in regulatory assets under management across 3,253,265 accounts, 25% of it on a discretionary basis, on its Form ADV filed September 24, 2026.

Q: What kind of firm is Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated?

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated is a broker-dealer firm by its Form ADV answers. The firm is itself registered as a broker-dealer as well as an investment adviser. It reports a bank or thrift among its related persons. A public reporting company controls it.

Q: Who are Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated’s clients?

By assets, its largest client types are high-net-worth individuals ($1.2 trillion, 521,763 clients); individuals ($313.5 billion, 1,269,968 clients); corporations or other businesses ($131.2 billion, 22,807 clients).

Q: Does Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated have any disciplinary history?

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated answers yes to 464 disclosure items in Item 11 of Form ADV, which covers criminal, regulatory and civil matters involving the firm or its advisory affiliates. The details are on the SEC’s adviser search.

SEC-registered investment adviser · CRD 7691 · SEC 801-14235

At a glance

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated is an SEC-registered investment adviser based in New York, New York, with $1.8 trillion in regulatory assets under management as of its Form ADV filed September 24, 2026. Its largest client group by assets is high-net-worth individuals, and it reports 1,791,731 individual clients. By Form ADV it is a broker-dealer firm, ranked 2nd of 391 broker-dealer firms and 12th of 17,210 SEC-registered advisers by assets.

Main office 800-637-7455merrilledge.comLinkedInAs filed on Form ADV

Regulatory AUM: $1.78T
Rank among broker-dealer firms: #2 of 391
Rank among all SEC RIAs: #12 of 17,210
Rank in New York: #4 of 2,591
Individual clients: 1,791,731
High-net-worth clients: 521,763
Accounts: 3,253,265
Discretionary: 25% of AUM
Employees: 32,960
Advisory staff: 25,721
Offices: 3,911

Owners and executives on its Form ADV

Lindsay Denardo HansState Designated Principal & Director
David Carleton Jr HeatonChief Legal Officer
Eric A SchimpfDirector & Chief Executive Officer, State Designated Principal
Nancy Monir FahmyDirector
Susan F AxelrodChief Compliance Officer
Vincent C. SantannaChief Operations Officer & Finop
Sara Rathbone MooneyChief Financial Officer
David C TyrieDirector

Custody and brokerage

Custodian

Merrill / Bank of AmericaAffiliate of the firm$1.76T

Other RIAs using Merrill / Bank of America

Broker-dealer

Hybrid RIA

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated is a hybrid RIA: 26,599 of its employees are also registered representatives of a broker-dealer. It names affiliated broker-dealers: Bank of America Singapore Limited, Bank of America Yatirim Bank A.S., Bank of America, National Association, Bofa Securities Europe SA, Bofa Securities India Limited, Bofa Securities Japan Co., LTD., Bofa Securities Prime, Inc., Bofa Securities, Inc., Merrill Lynch (asia Pacific) Limited, Merrill Lynch (australia) Futures Limited, Merrill Lynch (singapore) PTE LTD., Merrill Lynch Argentina S.A., Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust Company (cayman) Limited, Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., Merrill Lynch Corredores De Bolsa, SPA, Merrill Lynch Equities (australia) Limited, Merrill Lynch FAR East Limited, Merrill Lynch International, Merrill Lynch International, Llc-Seoul Branch, Merrill Lynch Markets (australia) PTY. Limited, Merrill Lynch Mexico, S.A. De C.v., Casa De Bolsa, Merrill Lynch S.A. Corretora De Titutos E Valores Mobiliarios, Merrill Lynch Securities (taiwan) LTD., Merrill Lynch Securities (thailand) Limited, Merrill Lynch South Africa (proprietary) Limited, Merrill Lynch, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Company and PT Merrill Lynch Sekuritas Indonesia.

Bank of America Singapore Limited
Bank of America Yatirim Bank A.S.
Bank of America, National Association
Bofa Securities Europe SA
Bofa Securities India Limited
Bofa Securities Japan Co., LTD.
Bofa Securities Prime, Inc. ↗CRD 316331
Bofa Securities, Inc. ↗CRD 283942
Merrill Lynch (asia Pacific) Limited
Merrill Lynch (australia) Futures Limited
Merrill Lynch (singapore) PTE LTD.
Merrill Lynch Argentina S.A.
Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust Company (cayman) Limited
Merrill Lynch Canada Inc.
Merrill Lynch Corredores De Bolsa, SPA
Merrill Lynch Equities (australia) Limited
Merrill Lynch FAR East Limited
Merrill Lynch International
Merrill Lynch International, Llc-Seoul Branch
Merrill Lynch Markets (australia) PTY. Limited
Merrill Lynch Mexico, S.A. De C.v., Casa De Bolsa
Merrill Lynch S.A. Corretora De Titutos E Valores Mobiliarios
Merrill Lynch Securities (taiwan) LTD.
Merrill Lynch Securities (thailand) Limited
Merrill Lynch South Africa (proprietary) Limited
Merrill Lynch, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Company
PT Merrill Lynch Sekuritas Indonesia

Its Form ADV brochure (filed September 2026) names Merrill Lynch as the broker-dealer its advisers are registered with.

As of June 2026, those of our registered representatives with the designation “Merrill Financial Solutions Advisor” (MFSA) have completed the advisor development program and now will have the designation of “Financial Advisor.” We have disc

Other hybrid RIAs

Who it serves

Client type	Clients	Regulatory AUM	Share
High-net-worth individuals	521,763	$1.23T	69%
Individuals	1,269,968	$314B	18%
Corporations or other businesses	22,807	$131B	7%
Pension and profit sharing plans	17,422	$59B	3%
Charitable organizations	6,759	$43B	2%
Insurance companies	246	$5.9B	<1%
Other	19	$1.4B	<1%

Disciplinary disclosures

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated answers yes to 464 disclosure items in Item 11 of Form ADV (criminal, regulatory or civil matters involving the firm or its advisory affiliates). Read the details on the SEC’s adviser search ↗

Services

Portfolio management for individuals and small businesses
Portfolio management for businesses and institutions
Pension consulting
Selecting other advisers
Educational seminars and workshops
Other services

How it’s paid

A percentage of assets under management
Fixed fees
Commissions

Form ADV and brochures on the SEC’s adviser search ↗merrilledge.com ↗

AtlasMembers

The full record on Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated

Ten years of SEC filings, its owners and contacts, and how it stacks up against its peers. Atlas members see all of it.

Assets, accounts, clients and staff, ten years of filings: Locked
Growth over one, three and five years: Locked
Rank against 139 peers of its type and size: Locked
Owners and executives, with titles and stakes: 8 namedLocked
Main office, fax and compliance officer: Locked
Filing changes this year, with alerts: 5Locked

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Background

Questions

How much does Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated manage?

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated reports $1.8 trillion in regulatory assets under management across 3,253,265 accounts, 25% of it on a discretionary basis, on its Form ADV filed September 24, 2026.

What kind of firm is Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated?

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated is a broker-dealer firm by its Form ADV answers. The firm is itself registered as a broker-dealer as well as an investment adviser. It reports a bank or thrift among its related persons. A public reporting company controls it.

Who are Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated’s clients?

By assets, its largest client types are high-net-worth individuals ($1.2 trillion, 521,763 clients); individuals ($313.5 billion, 1,269,968 clients); corporations or other businesses ($131.2 billion, 22,807 clients).

Does Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated have any disciplinary history?

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated answers yes to 464 disclosure items in Item 11 of Form ADV, which covers criminal, regulatory and civil matters involving the firm or its advisory affiliates. The details are on the SEC’s adviser search.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure is Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated’s own answer on its latest Form ADV, from the SEC’s registered-adviser list as of October 1, 2026: regulatory assets and accounts (Item 5.F), clients by type (5.D), employees (5.A and 5.B), compensation (5.E) and services (5.G). Custodians come from Schedule D 5.K(3) of its latest filing (2026-09-24), which lists those holding 10% or more of separately managed account assets and the amount at each. “Hybrid” means some employees are also registered representatives of a broker-dealer (Item 5.B(2)); affiliated broker-dealers are the related persons it lists in Item 7.A and Schedule D. Firm type comes from its own answers: broker-dealer firms are registered broker-dealers themselves (Item 6.A); private fund advisers manage mostly private funds (Item 7.B, 5.D); wealth managers manage at least half their assets for individuals (5.D). Ranks compare it by regulatory assets with every SEC-registered adviser and with firms of its type. Figures are as of the firm’s last annual update, so they can lag recent deals and market moves. Regulatory AUM counts assets the firm continuously supervises and can differ from what a firm markets.

Not an endorsement or a recommendation. Before hiring any adviser, read its Form ADV Part 2A brochure and check its record on the SEC’s adviser search. How to check a financial advisor →