A U.S. District Judge in Atlanta rejected Merrill Lynch’s second bid to compel Dynasty Financial Partners to arbitrate a long-running dispute over the wirehouse’s allegations that the RIA service provider raided its Atlanta office.
Merrill had argued in a motion seeking the judge to reconsider her prior denial that despite agreeing almost six months ago to arbitrate its claim through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s forum, Dynasty “quietly took a position, incompatible with the record, that it never consented to Finra arbitration.”
“The Court is not convinced that Dynasty’s statements (or silence) at the hearing, without more, are sufficient to establish consent to be bound to…arbitration,” U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert wrote in her ruling on Wednesday.
Merrill asked Calvert to lift the stay to allow the case to proceed in court or to enforce the agreement to arbitrate. While the other targets of Merrill’s claim, including Charles Schwab & Co. and advisors who led a move from the wirehouse to the RIA platform, fell under Finra jurisdiction, Dynasty, since it was not a brokerage, did not, according to the ruling.
“The parties agree that because Dynasty is not a FINRA member firm it cannot be required to arbitrate without consent,” Calvert wrote. “Merrill Lynch argues that many statements Dynasty’s counsel made throughout the hearing would lead the Court to believe that it consented to arbitrate. However, the excerpts included in Plaintiff’s Motion are devoid of the context necessary to clearly construe them in Plaintiff’s favor.”
“We are aware of the Court’s procedural decision, and we will continue to vigorously litigate our claims against all of the defendants in both court and arbitration on the merits,” a spokesperson for Merrill said in an emailed statement.
“Dynasty applauds the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia’s well-reasoned decision denying Merrill Lynch’s unfounded and mischaracterized attacks on Dynasty and the entire independence movement,” a spokesperson for Dynasty said in an emailed statement.
In October 2025, the court had stayed Merrill’s lawsuit after denying its motion for a temporary restraining order against the defecting advisors.
Merrill first sued Dynasty, Schwab and the breakaway team’s leaders in September accusing them of orchestrating a “corporate raid.” They had taken almost 70 of the 90 advisors on the team, which provided retirement benefits, equity compensation plan advice and investment management for around $129 billion in client assets. The wirehouse filed its lawsuit hours after the team left.
The group denied the allegations and said that Merrill had acted disingenuously by seeking to retain them while simultaneously planning to sue them once they left.
Merrill has retained the “core members of the team” who “continue to serve clients every day,” the wirehouse’s Co-President Lindsay Hans told reporters after its parent Bank of America reported earnings in January. The bank serves more than 6 million plan participants in thousands of employer-sponsored plans, Hans added.
Maybe Merrill should put more effort in growth and retention by getting rid of the lifers hell bent on destroying the place so they can keep their own jobs
Likely wouldnt be “raided” if the people with any talent were kept and appreciated and not abused by overreaching upper management hell bent on showing they actual do anything.
The “brain drain” there is real. Talent leaves daily and is not replaced except by some lifer who only knows Merrill ways.
Organization is trapped in the 20’s, 1920’s…sad.
Why does Merrill hire people at all from outside, whether FA’s, Assistants or staff if the second they get there some person trashes their knowledge and craps on them until the point they leave 2-3 years later.
Maybe the exodus wouldnt be so great if they actually cared about anyone but those who have been there since the 1980’s.
Have to love when the court says no that’s not gonna happen just because you want it to. Womp womp. Better luck next time. Chin up Merrill
BofA – just sell Merrill already. Geez.
Enough. I read every comment on the last Merrill piece and the fix is simple.
Stop obsessing over the advisors who left. Their stories have already damaged Merrill’s reputation and for good reason. Sure, some left for a bigger check, but a lot left because the systems and culture are stuck in the past. Tech is outdated, favoritism runs deep, and long-timers hold too much control. That affects everyone in the field: ops, compliance, new advisors, trainees, HR.
Stop enabling bad behavior. The people who left handed over a big chunk of their books to the lifers that should be enough. If it isn’t, let them go.
Field managers are part of the problem. Most never made it as advisors, yet they act like they’re above everyone. Hold them accountable. Require each manager to bring at least one new $500K household to every advisor they oversee. If they can’t deliver, they shouldn’t be ordering advisors around. Advisors want to put clients first, not managers.
Other fixes to move the needle now
Mandatory exit interviews
Manager accountability metrics
Independent ombuds or escalation channel
Targeted retention bonuses for critical roles
Culture audit with external consultant
Exit interviews. Capture real reasons people leave and publish anonymized themes so leadership can’t ignore patterns.
Manager metrics. Tie manager performance to advisor outcomes. Require every field manager to bring in a new household acquisition for each advisor satisfaction.
Mentorship. Pair new advisors with high-performing peers, not managers, to improve onboarding and reduce early churn.
Ombuds channel. Give advisors a safe, independent way to report favoritism or abuse without fear of retaliation. Most do not want to involve HR or management (feedback loop)
Retention incentives. Use targeted bonuses for roles or teams where turnover is most damaging.
Culture audit. Bring in an outside firm to diagnose cultural rot, conflicts of interest and recommend concrete fixes.
Stop defending the status quo. Fix the systems, hold managers accountable, and give advisors tools and transparency to do their jobs. If leadership won’t change, let people leave and stop acting surprised when they do.
Lordy, if Merrill won’t fix the busted systems, longer tenured favoritism, and power trips from field managers, stop fussin’ over who left and let folks walk. Hold managers accountable, make ‘em bring a yearly $1-5M household to each advisor they oversee, give advisors the freedom to put clients first, or, let ’em advisors walk
How about just stop being the most toxic culture in the financial business for starters.
For every remaining Merrill employee, there are 5 who have willingly left due to their treatment by said Merrill employee.
Stop allowing some lifer who cant get out of a middle management role to block, thwart, and backstab your experienced new hires.
Stop believing that just because you have only worked at Merrill, you know more than people who have worked elsewhere.
Stop promoting these same toxic culture warriors to higher Band jobs, while sacrifing the employees brought in to change said toxic culture.
Merrill has eaten itself to far to ever course correct, it would take decades to fix.