A little more than a month ago, the management of Merrill Lynch’s Indianapolis office had a little chat with one of their financial advisers that ended with his being escorted out of the building. This was probably not a decision taken lightly, because Tom Buck took both the $1.3 billion he advised and his two adviser daughters—one of whom is a Colts cheerleader—with him.

Well, the folks at RBC apparently have less stringent rules covering failure to discuss service level and pricing alternatives with customers, providing inaccurate information to management, mismarking bond cross-trade order tickets and providing information to clients not entirely in line with what firm records show. That or there are exceptions for those advising more than $1 billion and/or who can bring along a colleague-cheerleader.

Tom Buck, 61 years old, reported to work at RBC’s Indianapolis branch on Thursday, less than five miles from the office he had worked at while at Merrill Lynch, a spokeswoman for RBC said….

Asked about the circumstances of Mr. Buck’s departure from Merrill Lynch, an RBC spokeswoman said the firm is “deeply committed to careful management of the wealth of clients.”

“We take special care to ensure that each advisor we bring to our platform shares these same values and characteristics and fits well with our client-focused culture,” the spokeswoman said.

Fired Merrill Veteran, Daughters Hired by RBC [WSJ]