program is its Financial Consultant Capital Accumulation Award Plan, or FCCAAP. Under the plan, a percentage of a rep's revenues are placed in a 10-year deferred account. The rep may take the contribution in present-value cash or Merrill stock. Participants who started at the program's inception in 1990 got shares at about $2.50 apiece. Adjusting for splits, those shares are now worth more than $75 each.

According to one broker, FCCAAP amounts to about 10 percent of most producers' overall comp. "So if you're making 33 percent according to the grid, you're getting an overall compensation more like 36 percent," he says.

In 2000, the company created a "household bonus award." This compensates financial consultants with up to an additional 6 percent on the grid when they provide "deeper and broader services," such as advice on financial planning, debt management and managing the financial aspects of life transitions such as the death of a family member or divorce. At the top end, for reps earning $2.5 million or more, the household award can move a rep's combined grid payout to 47 percent. The awards are paid half in stock and half in cash, and vest in five years.

In January, Merrill made the first payments on its $100,000 certificate bonuses, a broker retention program instituted in 1990. At the time, Merrill offered $100,000 to each of its approximately 7,300 brokers if they stayed with the firm for 10 years and met production and asset management targets. According to Bob Dineen, head of Merrill's Northeast division, 4,500 brokers employed in 1990 are still with the firm, and about 3,400 met their 10-year targets and received $100,000.

For 2001, Merrill revised the program. Brokers now receive $100,000 after five years if they meet their targets, earn the in-house Certified Financial Manager designation within 18 months, and later earn one of the following professional designations: Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Financial Analyst, Chartered Financial Consultant or Certified Investment Management Analyst.

Merrill also lets employees buy company stock at 15 percent discount with pre-tax dollars.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

Despite recent management changes that left the Dean Witter side of the firm clearly in charge, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter soon will drop the last half of its corporate name. And that's not the only thing it's trimming.

At the end of December, MSDW instituted a new penalty box that shoved brokers down to 25 percent in payout if they have been in the business longer than five years and produce less than $250,000. The same cut applies if they have more than 10 years' service and produce less than $300,000. Prior to the cut, their payout was 36 percent. This is an exact duplicate of a cut Merrill instituted two years ago.

"In what other industry would you take a guy who's generating $300,000 a year - which means he's taking home $100,000 a year - and cut his pay by a third? It's a huge change, and it was done without much notification."

Reps at the firm voiced ire, in part, because many have been moving their businesses to fees, a step that invariably hurts production during the conversion. Addressing a teleconference of the firm's brokers, branch head Bruce Alonso said the $250,000 cutoff point represented just 68 percent of the production of the average MSDW rep.

Annual Production	Payout*
$150,000-$191,999	33% plus 2%
192,000-199,999	34% plus 2%
200,000-227,999	34% plus 3%
228,000-287,999	35% plus 3%
288,000-347,999	36% plus 3%
348,000-349,999	37% plus 3%
350,000-407,999	37% plus 4%
408,000-499,999	38% plus 4%
500,000-599,999	38% plus 5%
600,000-649,999	39% plus 5%
650,000-899,999	39% plus 6%
900,000-1 million	40% plus 6%
1 million-plus	40% plus 7%
* plus deferred productivity bonus" of 2-7% in stock and stock options when broker improves gross commissions over the previous year. Paid only if broker remains at MSDW for four years after qualifying. Source: MSDW brokers.

"Somewhere around" 1,500 to 2,000 of the firm's 14,000 reps will be affected by the penalty box, he said.

Deferred comp also is changing. When Dean Witter cut its cash payout to reps by 15 percent in 1997, bringing million-dollar producers down to 40 percent from 47 percent, the firm initially made up the difference by paying reps a 7 percent cash bonus at the end of the year. The merger with Morgan Stanley brought in a deferred comp plan that gave million-dollar producers MSDW stock equivalent to 7 percent of their year's gross commissions, instead of cash.

Today, productivity bonuses (ranging from 2 to 7 percent of gross) are paid to brokers only if they remain for four years after earning the award. But, says a broker, the company discounts 7 percent of the present value of the (cont.)

BrokerHunter Facts: BROKERHUNTER.com is an employment website for jobs within the Securities Industry segment of the Financial Services Industry.

In summary, this is the place for you to find employment, jobs, careers, opportunities, new jobs, permanent jobs, job placement information or a new position within the Securities Industry segment of the Financial Services Industry.

Stockbroker mailing list, Stock broker marketing list, financial advisor lists, stockbroker recruiting lists, stockbroker recruiting leads, Life & health recruitin g lists, series 7 recruiting, series 7 recruiting leads, series 7 mail lists, financial advisor recruiting, financial advisor recruiting leads, financial advisor recruiting lists, stock broker recruiting, stockbroker recruiting, series 6 recruiting, insurance recruiting leads, broker recruiting leads, broker lists, securities industry recruiting, securities industry recruiting leads, securities industry candidates. Registrations within the Securities Industry that are important to firms are the Series 7 (General Securities Representative), Series 6 (Investment Company/Variable Contracts Representative), Series 55 (Equity Trader), Series 27, Series 28 (Financial and Operations Principal), Series 63, Series 65 (Registered Investment Advisor), Series 66, Series 3 (Commodities/Futures), Series 24 (General Securities Principal), Series 8 (General Securities Sales Manager), Series 9 (Options Supervisor) and licenses or designations such as Certified Financial Planner - CFP or ChFC , Life Accident and Health Insurance and variable annuity licenses, CPA (Certified Public Accountant), CLU (Certified Life Underwriter) and CMFC (Certified Mutual Fund Counselor). Some of these registrations are administered by the NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers),the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) or other agencies or entities. Stockbroker mailing list, Stock broker marketing list, financial advisor lists, stockbroker recruiting lists, stockbroker recruiting leads, Life & health recruiting lists, series 7 recruiting, series 7 recruiting leads, series 7 mail lists, financial advisor recruiting, financial advisor recruiting leads, financial advisor recruiting lists, stock broker recruiting, stockbroker recruiting, series 6 recruiting, insurance recruiting leads, broker recruiting leads, broker lists, securities industry recruiting, securities industry recruiting leads, securities industry candidates.