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An 11-person Long Island-based team with $1.8 billion in managed assets is joining Wells Fargo from Merrill, while Merrill is acquiring a $800 million Rhode Island-based trio from UBS.
The Melville, N.Y.-based Infinity Private Wealth is led by Gianluca Palermo and Nicholas Frangas, with financial advisors Charles Donnelly, Marc Stenzler, Sheena Marr, John Mulligan, Vincent Parziale and Thomas Houlihan.
According to Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network President John Tyers, Wells Fargo “couldn’t be more excited” for Infinity to join the wirehouse’s independent channel, saying the division’s “ability to pair independence with access to specialty wealth services and planning resources empowers them to grow their business while providing an exceptional client experience.”
In addition to the advisors, support team members Maureen Mack, Tina Nystedt, and Christina Panouis are also moving to Wells Fargo.
This week, Wells Fargo also attracted a duo of Dallas-based financial advisors managing $1.2 billion in client assets from Citigroup. In December, the wirehouse landed its largest 2025 recruit with Hingham Street Partners, a Boston-based team overseeing $6.3 billion in assets. The 32-person team joined Wells’ private client group from UBS.
However, Merrill also had reason to celebrate this week, as the Rhode Island-based team of Robert Procaccianti, Jared Tack, and Doug Bennet joined from UBS.
Combined, the advisors have over 75 years of industry experience and will join Merrill’s Providence, R.I. office. Registered Wealth Management Client Associate Stephanie Mondro will also join the team at Merrill.
According to FINRA records, Procaccianti began his career at Merrill in 2000 before moving to UBS in 2008, while Bennet first registered in 1983 with the now-defunct Kidder, Peabody & Co. before joining UBS in 1995 (Kidder & Peabody’s name was discontinued in 1994 when General Electric sold the remainder of the firm to PaineWebber). Tack first registered in the industry with UBS in 2017.
According to Merrill, the team will work within the wirehouse’s Suburban Boston & Rhode Island Market, led by Allen Jones. The team collectively manages about $805 million in client assets.
According to a year-to-date analysis by Wolfe Research released in early December, both UBS and Merrill parent company Bank of America were near the top of the list in 2025’s advisor losses.
At the time of the report’s release, BofA topped the list with 623 net advisor departures to date, with Osaic in second place with 396 and UBS following behind at 262 (Wells Fargo had 38 net recruits). During UBS’s third-quarter earnings call last year, CFO Todd Tuckner said the firm expected advisor attrition to moderate and that the wirehouse had “a healthy recruiting pipeline.”
As for Merrill Wealth, it still plans to double its organic growth rate by targeting 4% to 5% in the medium term (defined as three to five years), executives said at last November’s “Investor Day.” That target would more than double its current annual rate and surpass the industry’s average growth rate.
According to Merrill Wealth co-heads Eric Schimpf and Lindsay Hans, the firm aims to hit these goals by attracting existing high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth BofA clients into its wealth management services.
Hans noted that only 1.5 million of the approximately 11.5 million BofA clients who could benefit from wealth management services were Merrill clients.
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