By James Langton

(November 13 – 12:05) – Stanley O’Neal, president of Merrill Lynch & Co.’s U.S. Private Client Group brought his vision for the retail brokerage business to the annual meeting of the Securities Industry Association in Boca Raton, Fla.

O’Neal says the debate over whether online or old-style retail brokerage business would prevail is over, ” … and the client won.” O’Neal says, “Today’s clients are more informed, more empowered and more engaged in the management of their financial lives than ever before. They will do business with us in any way they choose to do business — and frequently they’ll do it in multiple ways.”

O’Neal says “the days of ‘one size fits all’ in this business are long gone.” He points out that it’s not a question of one model winning or another, it’s more a question of how do you integrate full-service advice with online trading and access opportunities.

“In our view, that’s who the winners will be. Those who figure out how to offer tiered services through multiple channels … and who can add value at every step along the continuum. Those who do the best job of delivering performance, solutions and service — within a relationship of trust — will be the winners.” Merrill is partnering with tech companies to bring services such as wireless trading, to improve operational efficiency, and build deeper client relationships.

“We do not even consider ourselves to be in the retail securities business anymore,” says O’Neal. “We’re in the wealth management business.” O’Neal says Merrill believes that there are certain fundamental approaches that will appeal to high net worth households: objectivity; open architecture; team-based service delivery to cover all aspects of advice; and lifelong training.

In an effort to boost individual performance Merrill has created an Office of Investment Performance. The group has no revenue targets, no sales duties, no production goals, and no profit responsibility at all. Its purpose is to cull through the firm’s research for the best ideas for individual clients. “We try to put less emphasis on today’s story … and anticipate those sectors and themes that will be the stories of tomorrow.” The stories of tomorrow are financial and energy stocks.

O’Neal closed his talk with a bullish call, noting that Merrill analyst Guy Moszkowski has calculated that the fastest rate of financial asset accumulation occurs among people between the ages of 55 to 64. Baby boomers enter that age group next year he says, arguing that their assets are shifting away from banking products and into investment products. “So it seems pretty clear — the best is yet to come.”