Merrill Lynch & Co. said Monday that its asset management subsidiary Merrill Lynch Investment Managers is introducing a brand for its U.S. retail asset management business.
Beginning in May, it said, its U.S. retail products will be offered under the Princeton Portfolio Research and Management brand.
The rebranding is part of a growth strategy for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers designed to broaden distribution among non-Merrill financial advisers. Ninety-five percent of the estimated 299,978 registered advisers in the United States are nonemployees of the big Wall Street brokerage company, according to Cerulli Associates.
Robert Doll, the president and chief investment officer of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, said in a press release that many advisers view Merrill Lynch as a competitor so that the company's own name is a negative with them.
The investment managers unit has about $539 billion under management. Retail assets had reached $288 billion worldwide as of Dec. 31. The subsidiary's U.S. third-party retail and subadvisory business assets under management had grown to $28 billion, from $4 billion at the end of 2002.
