Some brokers at Merrill Lynch are pushing back against a compensation plan they claim rewards them for increasing debt their clients take on and in some cases can punish them for reducing it, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some of the 15,000 financial advisers at Merrill have complained internally to management about a compensation structure they say urges more customer debt at a time when interest rates are rising, according to brokers and managers. Others have written over the past year to Andy Sieg, head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, saying that the policy potentially pits them against their clients’ interests.
