By Kenneth Corbin
Bank of America's wealth management unit saw a double-digit increase in net income in the fourth quarter and continued increases in new clients, while asset inflows fell off during the period but were still up slightly for the year.
The Global Wealth and Investment Management division, or GWIM, which includes Merrill Wealth Management and the Bank of America Private Bank, posted record net income of $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter, up 20% from the year-earlier period and up 11% from the third quarter of 2025.
The division added 21,300 net new client relationships in 2025, the eighth straight year in which that metric has topped 20,000. About 18,000 of the net new accounts in the fourth quarter were within Merrill.
"These results point to strong momentum and the continued need for quality advice to be delivered to clients in an increasingly complex macro environment," Eric Schimpf, president and co-head of Merrill Wealth Management, said on a conference call with reporters.
Overall revenue for the wealth division clocked in at $6.6 billion, up 10% from the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase Bank of America attributes to higher asset-management fees, a product of market increases and asset inflows.
The flow of assets under management was solid, at $20 billion for the quarter, but down 10% from the fourth quarter of 2024. Bank of America says that the last four quarters have seen inflows of $82.4 billion, a 3% year-over-year increase.
The wealth unit's results were a subset of a strong quarter for parent Bank of America, which reported profit of $7.6 billion, up 12% annually, representing earnings per share of 98 cents, topping analysts' forecast of 96 cents. The bank reported overall revenue of $28.4 billion, up 7% from a year ago and ahead of the consensus forecast of $27.8 billion.
On the wealth side of the business, Merrill reported total annual revenue of $20.7 billion, up from $19 billion in 2024 and $17.5 billion in 2023.
Merrill is continuing to recruit higher-end clients, with 80% of the net new households it added in 2025 bringing at least $500,000 in assets to the company, up from 72% last year.
GWIM has a 16% market share in serving ultrahigh-net-worth households, according to Lindsay Hans, Merrill Wealth Management's other president and co-head. She said on the conference call that GWIM last year saw a 14% increase in net new accounts of $10 million or more.
"The clients that we are bringing in continue to be increasingly affluent," she said. "Our pipeline as we look ahead for new client acquisition is strong."
Merrill is trying to engage clients with more services available through the Bank of America platform, including lending, with ending loan balances of $163 billion, a 9% annual increase. In the custom lending space, balances were up 29%, reflecting advisors' efforts to help clients find funding alternatives to sitting on cash or selling equities.
"We are increasingly having conversations with our clients about the impact of holding too much cash or selling stock at inopportune times versus using credit," Schimpf said.
Like other large Wall Street players, Bank of America no longer discloses how many advisors it employs. Competition for talent among those firms, independent broker-dealers, and independent registered investment advisory firms, is fierce. A large portion of a $129 billion team left Merrill last year to form an independent RIA, resulting in litigation that is now in an arbitration forum. Hans said that a "core" group of advisors from that team remains at Merrill, and that fewer net advisors are leaving the firm.
"We saw experienced advisor attrition rates at historical lows," she said. "We know it continues to be a very competitive environment, but we're proud of all of our efforts, whether they be local or national, to continue to drive low levels of advisor attrition."
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 14, 2026 13:42 ET (18:42 GMT)
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