Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch – Lacks Ethics and Professionalism (Updated 2024)
Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch is an unethical wealth advisor who uses several shady tactics to take advantage of his clients. Before his marketing efforts distract you from the truth, it would be best to read the following review.
Here, you’ll learn about the issues hidden in the fine print of his disclosures:
Who is Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch?
Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch is a financial advisor based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His address is 9921 Dupont Cir Dr. W, Fort Wayne, IN 46825, US, and his contact number are 260-427-6523.
Daniel claims to work with his clients to develop personalized financial solutions so they can pursue their goals freely. He says he helps his clients create a customized wealth management approach that can be as flexible as required.
Apart from him, his team consists of Tyler Haire and Jane Ellen Carter. Daniel makes many attractive claims about his skills and services. He claims that he focuses on using wealth to turn goals into reality.
His firm offers many services including:
- Trust & estate planning services
- Disability insurance
- Home loans
- Succession planning
- Exchange funds
- Education funding
- Concentrated stock management
- Credit cards
- Charitable trusts
- Securities-based lending
- Donor-advised funds
- Structured lending
And plenty of others.
At first, Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch seems like a simple wealth advisor who cares about his client’s successes. However, you would be mistaken to think so. That’s because his firm has multiple predatory provisions that allow them to take advantage of their clients. In the next section of this review, you’ll learn about these provisions. You’ll also understand why it would be best to avoid working with Daniel.
Top Reasons Why You Can’t Trust Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch
Legal Conflict with a Client
Before you work with a wealth advisor, you should check their profile on FINRA BrokerCheck. This is a vast database where you can learn about an advisor’s professional experience, past employers, licenses, the exams they have passed, and the disputes they have faced.
The FINRA BrokerCheck listing of Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch shows one dispute.
Did You Know?
There are ‘Small Scale courts’, that resolve the disputes of consumer and broker. Although the courts get restricted by the amount of money or assets involved. The maximum amount the court deals with is around $25000.
One of his clients filed a dispute against him on 6-6-2018. They alleged unauthorized trading from October 2017 to May 2018. The client requested $6,600 in damages but the firm denied the claim.
They claimed that the client had authorized the respective transactions.
Still, it’s a huge red flag to face a dispute for unauthorized trading. In many cases, the advisor makes unauthorized trades because he knows he is free from any accountability. This dispute shows that Daniel has a history of taking advantage of his clients.
Recommending Proprietary Investments
Daniel’s disclosures reveal that he earns a commission from recommending proprietary investments. Earning commissions from specific investments can introduce bias in an advisor’s recommendations as they might ignore your financial requirements.
Ideally, your financial advisor should recommend your investments based on their suitability for your portfolio and goals. However, if the suitable investments don’t generate any commissions for the advisor, they wouldn’t recommend them to you.
Instead, the advisor would recommend to you unsuitable investments that generate high commissions for them.
That’s why it’s very difficult to trust a financial advisor who earns commissions from certain investments. Another issue with such advisors is that the selection of investments they recommend is quite limited. That’s because such advisors have no incentive for recommending investments that don’t generate commissions.
Also, different commissions generate different commissions for them. Due to these two reasons, such advisors tend to recommend a select few investments to nearly every client. This way, they can earn hefty commissions and the only party that suffers is the investors.
Charging Hidden Fees
Another huge red flag in Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch is that he recommends investments that charge 12b-1 fees. This is a promotional fee that companies pay to him for marketing their investments.
The 12b-1 fee is highly notorious in the finance industry because it doesn’t reflect any value. It only inflates the cost of the investments. But because it goes straight into the advisor’s pocket, they tend to prefer these investments over others.
The SEC conducted a detailed study to compare the returns of the investments that charge a 12b-1 fee and those that don’t. It found no difference between the returns of the two. Instead, it concluded that the ROI of the investments that charge a 12b-1 fee is worse than those that don’t charge this fee.
This means you end up paying more for getting worse ROI. Also, this is a percentage fee so how much you pay depends on the size of your portfolio. Due to this, the 12b-1 fee is particularly detrimental to investors with significant portfolios.
Conclusion
After going through his disclosures, it’s evident that you can’t trust Daniel Finley Merrill Lynch. He is a terrible wealth advisor who puts his clients in compromising situations by trapping them into unfavorable agreements.
If you value your finances and growth, it would be best to ignore this advisor and find someone else.
