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In separate earnings calls, Bank of America and Wells Fargo reported revenue growth in their wealth management divisions, driven by increases in net income and fees.
For Bank of America Merrill Wealth, the results reflected a payoff to its efforts to move “upstream” among new clients’ affluence; about 80% of the net new client relationships at the bank’s wealth division in 2025 each brought in over $500,000, compared with 72% of net new relationships who did so in the prior year.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo & Co. reported a 4% year-over-year revenue increase to $21.64 billion, and net income rose 5.5% to $5.36 billion, excluding $612 million in one-time severance expense charges.
Merrill Capitalizes on Clients’ Need for Advice
In a wealth-focused earnings call Wednesday, Merrill Wealth Co-Head Eric Schimpf said the results underscored the “continued need for quality advice to be delivered to clients in an increasingly complex macro environment.”
Within Bank of America’s Merrill Wealth and Private Bank divisions, fourth quarter revenue was $6.6 billion, with 2025’s full-year revenue for Merrill alone at $20.7 billion, up more than $3 billion from two years prior.
Merrill’s fourth quarter revenue was $5.5 billion, also 10% up year-over-year, due to higher asset management fees and loan net interest income.
Merrill Wealth and the Private Bank raised $4.1 billion in asset management fees in the fourth quarter, a 13% increase from the same quarter in 2024, and a 20% year-over-year increase in net income to $1.4 billion, underscoring the continued influence of market performance on wirehouses’ bottom lines.
Merrill and the Private Bank combined reported approximately 21,300 net new relationships in 2025, marking the eighth consecutive year of over 20,000 net new relationships. However, it was a dip from approximately 24,000, 40,000 and 28,000 in 2024, 2023, and 2022, respectively (the record 2023 number came amid that year’s regional bank crisis.)
However, Merrill Wealth Co-Head Lindsay Hans said the clients they are bringing in continue to be “increasingly affluent,” amid the firm’s efforts at “moving upstream” with wealth clients.
In 2025, 80% of 2025’s net new relationships brought in more than $500,000, a 72% jump from the prior year. Additionally, Merrill/Private Bank holds approximately a 16% market share in the ultra-high-net-worth client segment, according to Hans, with continued growth in 2025, driven by a 14% increase in households with assets of $10 million or more.
During the call, Hans and Schimpf reiterated their hope to boost the division’s growth rate over the next several years, mainly by attracting existing HNW and UHNW banking and brokerage clients from BofA into their wealth services.
At the firm’s Investor Day last fall, Hans noted that out of 11.5 million BofA clients who could benefit from their services, only about 1.5 million are wealth clients. Schimpf stressed that capturing just 1% of the asset opportunity among existing BofA clients could get the wealth division halfway towards its medium-term growth targets.
Though advisor attrition remained at “historic lows,” Hans acknowledged the Merrill breakaway team that formed the $129 billion Atlanta-based OpenArc Corporate Advisory, a Dynasty-backed firm launched last September, specializing in corporate and wealth management.
Hans said that “the core members of the team remain at Merrill,” and that they feel excellent about the business.
“We know, and we continue to come in to work every day knowing it’s a very competitive environment, and so I’m not here to predict the future,” she said. “Today is today, but we operate this business similarly to all wealth management leadership teams in the industry.”
Wells Fargo Up After Fed Lifts Asset Cap
Wells Fargo & Co.’s results were partly due to the “removal of the asset cap imposed by the Federal Reserve, termination of multiple consent orders and stronger growth in both our consumer and commercial businesses,” Chairman and CEO Charlie Scharf said on an investor call.
In June, The Federal Reserve removed a $1.95 trillion asset cap that had been put on the firm in 2018 after a fake-account scandal that rocked the bank.
In the fourth quarter, San Francisco-based Wells’ wealth and investment management revenue also rose year-over-year by 10% to $4.36 billion. Net interest income increased by 16%, partly due to lower deposit pricing and higher deposit and loan balances. Wells has been working to attract advisors to its independent broker/dealer financial network channel.
In 2026, it plans to invest more in that channel to “build out” its RIA solutions, according to a presentation with the earnings call.
Wells CFO Michael Santomassimo said on the call that the firm expects higher revenue-related expenses in its wealth and investment division, assuming the S&P 500 continues to see at least modest gains. Santomassimo added that higher revenue is a “good thing” for the division, and also cautioned that markets could face volatility in the year ahead.
When asked if Wells Fargo would consider acquisitions in areas including its wealth division, CEO Sharf said the firm felt “no pressure” to do so.
“We, of course, would think about anything that makes sense, but I would just say the bar remains high for us both in terms of what we would expect financially, and it would have to be something that would make us more materially attractive for investors,” Scharf said. “We spend our time focused on driving the organic opportunities that we have.”
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