Canadians Give Ex-Merrill Adviser, His $1.3 Billion A Second Chance

Tom Buck and his FA daughters have found a new home.
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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]

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Does The British Business Lady Who Just Felt Really Passionately About Her Clients Having Drinks, Cigarettes, And Pet Names Deserve A Second Chance?

Gang, something's come up in across the pond that needs our immediate attention. I'll get right to it: at issue is whether or not "high powered financial adviser" Amanda Daughters should be allowed to have her job back at Aqua Financial Solutions, the firm she founded and was fired from by the chairman a couple years back. She's currently appealing the decision but ahead of hearing what an employment tribunal has to say, why not give Daughters a trial by jury of her peers? Here's the rub: On January 22, 2010, Daughters left the office to sit down with a couple clients at an off-site meeting place (a bar). Naturally, she got there a few (4) hours early to have a bunch (12*) of drinks. So far, so good. When the clients arrived, one ordered a "spritzer," which was not to Daughters' liking, which would explain why she proceeded to "berate" the woman to the point of tears. Then Daughters had a few more drinks. At this point, things apparently got "hazy" for AD who, while she can't recall much, remembers thinking that making the client cry was "not unduly serious," as the woman accepted her apology. Then Daughters had a few more drinks. Around this time, she "dragged the other client outside to have a cigarette, even though he was a non-smoker" and called him a cunt (which despite her obviously having meant as a joke was received as "shocking and offensive"). Forty** drinks later, Daughters took herself home and despite being more or less black out drunk, had this weird feeling she'd done something she'd be embarrassed about the next day and called up hr chairwoman to let her know she'd "fucked up again and offended a client." Having been there before, Daughters also sent an email to the client the following morning to say "I hope you can forgive me." Unfortunately, the client and the chairwoman couldn't, which resulted in Daughters's firing for "gross misconduct." And while Big D realizes maybe she should have done a few things differently, she's not in agreement a few drinks, a few tears, and a few "you're a cunt"s are necessarily grounds for dismissal. So! Does this lady deserve her job back? On the one hand, perhaps downing 75 drinks prior to and over the course of a client meeting is not the most professional way of conducting business. Okay. That's fair. On the other, she clearly possesses the type of self-awareness any employer would pay good money to have on staff, as evidenced by the "fucked again" call. Please weigh in now. Businesswoman sacked after complaining client drank spritzers [Telegraph] *Guessing. *Ball park.