Merrill Adds About $770M in Teams From Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo

Merrill has pulled in two advisory groups that together report roughly $770 million in client assets, according to InvestmentNews, splitting the haul between a New York Park Avenue market hire out of Morgan Stanley and a Boca Raton addition from Wells Fargo Advisors.

In Manhattan, Michael A. Scotto (CRD 4308487) and Michael M. Chong (CRD 5753255) left Morgan Stanley with a book InvestmentNews puts near $530 million. FINRA BrokerCheck shows both men registered with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith as of Oct. 1, 2026, listing One Bryant Park in New York as their Merrill branch. Scotto had been registered with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney since June 2009 after earlier New York seats at Citigroup Global Markets (November 2007–June 2009) and Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing / Spear, Leeds & Kellogg specialists roles that track to floor and trading-desk work dating to 2000–2007. Chong joined Morgan Stanley in February 2011 following a brief Edward Jones stint in San Diego from March to October 2010. InvestmentNews says Douglas Badstein (senior relationship manager) and Louis Aldorasi (registered client associate) made the move alongside them into Merrill’s Park Avenue market, which the outlet identifies as run by market executive Joe Doonan.

Farther south, Jeff E. Chanin (CRD 3109486) switched from Wells Fargo Clearing Services to Merrill’s Boca Raton office, where BrokerCheck lists his Merrill broker registration effective Sept. 17, 2026 and his investment-adviser registration the next day. InvestmentNews first flagged the Boca hire in late September, putting Chanin’s book at about $240 million and production near $2.8 million, and said Tara Mirjah, a registered client associate, accompanied him. The same coverage places the Boca Raton office under senior resident director Scott Kauffman inside Merrill’s Florida Tropics market led by market executive Jason Edelmann. Chanin’s BrokerCheck trail shows he is not new to Merrill: he was registered there in Coral Springs from August 2012 through October 2019, then spent nearly seven years at Wells Fargo (October 2019–September 2026). Earlier Florida stops include Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Plantation (2009–2012), Citigroup Global Markets, and Prudential Securities beginning in 1999—consistent with more than two decades of South Florida wirehouse work.

The twin moves land as Merrill and Bank of America have publicly recommitted to outside hiring. At an RBC Capital Markets conference earlier in 2026, Bank of America Co-President Dean Athanasia described a more aggressive recruiting posture aimed at advisors who fit Merrill’s team model, a shift Financial Planning tied to large hires such as a San Francisco Private Bank addition from JPMorgan who had managed about $2.2 billion and a four-person UBS Private Wealth group that joined Merrill in Miami with roughly $645 million. Against that backdrop, bringing a mid-nine-figure Morgan Stanley duo onto Park Avenue and reclaiming a longtime South Florida producer who once sat on Merrill’s own roster reads as continuation rather than a one-off.

Morgan Stanley loses a long-tenured New York partnership that BrokerCheck pegs at roughly 15–17 years of continuous registration for Scotto and Chong, while Wells Fargo sheds a Boca producer whose prior Merrill tour means the firm is, in effect, watching a familiar name reverse course. Neither InvestmentNews nor BrokerCheck disclosed client-retention figures or transition packages for these groups. WealthManagement.com had not published a matching write-up of the Scotto-Chong or Chanin moves as of Oct. 5, 2026, leaving InvestmentNews’ asset and production figures as the principal secondary-source numbers and BrokerCheck as the registration backbone.

For wirehouse recruiters watching New York and South Florida, the pattern is familiar: Park Avenue remains a destination market for experienced Morgan Stanley teams, and Boca Raton continues to trade talent among Merrill, Wells, and Morgan Stanley alumni who have already circled the same few ZIP codes. Chanin’s return after seven years away underscores how often South Florida books rotate among the same three or four letterheads. Whether the reported assets of about $770 million stick will depend on how clients respond once the CRD stamps settle—something registrations alone cannot show.