$1.8 Billion Merrill Lynch Team Goes Independent With Wells Fargo FiNet

By Intersection Advisory Staff · Advisor Moves

Published: March 4, 2026

Category: Advisor Moves

Gianluca Palermo and Nicholas Frangas moved an 11-person Melville, New York practice from Merrill Lynch to Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network on January 6, 2026. The group is operating as Infinity Private Wealth. AdvisorHub, citing the hiring announcement and a Wells Fargo spokesperson, reported that the team managed $1.8 billion in client assets and produced $10.3 million in annual revenue. InvestmentNews and Financial Advisor magazine, covering the same announcement, described assets as more than $1.8 billion. The $10.3 million production figure is in AdvisorHub and, as reported trailing-12-month revenue, in InvestmentNews. Financial Advisor's account does not include a revenue number.

Who is actually on the Melville roster?

The announcement, as relayed by those three outlets, names eight advisors and three support staff. AdvisorHub described "six other advisors" plus three unnamed support staff. InvestmentNews and Financial Advisor published the support names.

| Role | People |

| --- | --- |

| Lead advisors | Gianluca Palermo; Nicholas Frangas |

| Other advisors | Charles Donnelly; Marc Stenzler; Sheena Marr; John Mulligan; Vincent Parziale; Thomas Houlihan |

| Support staff | Maureen Mack; Tina Nystedt; Christina Panouis |

None of the accounts divides the asset figure among the eight advisors, and none says what share is fee-based advisory, brokerage, lending, or workplace retirement money. The $1.8 billion is a team-level announcement number.

What do Palermo's and Frangas's BrokerCheck reports show?

Palermo's BrokerCheck report, CRD 3259852, shows a broker and investment-adviser registration with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (CRD 11025) effective January 6, 2026. The branch on the report is 534 Broadhollow Road, Suite 200, 2nd Floor, Melville, New York 11747. His immediately prior Merrill Lynch registration, also in Melville, ran from November 2015 to January 2026. Before Merrill, the same report lists J.P. Morgan Securities LLC from April 2010 to November 2015, earlier J.P. Morgan Securities registrations in 2007–2009, Five Mile Capital Securities from March 2004 to July 2005, Lazard Frères & Co. from January 2002 to December 2002, and Pruco Securities from October 1999 to December 1999. He passed the Series 6 in October 1999 and the Series 7 on January 14, 2002. BrokerCheck lists the Certified Financial Planner designation.

A trade-press summary has said Palermo joined Merrill in 2007 from JPMorgan. The registration history on the report reviewed for this draft does not show a Merrill registration in 2007. The Merrill window is November 2015 through January 2026.

Frangas, CRD 4092213, registered at the same Melville FiNet address on January 6, 2026. He passed the Series 7 on January 5, 2000, and the General Securities Principal exam, the Series 24, on June 14, 2004. FINRA approved both a representative registration and a principal registration at FiNet that day. His prior broker registrations run Chase Investment Services Corp. (January 2000 to August 2000, Chicago), UBS Financial Services (August 2000 to June 2007, Weehawken), Merrill Lynch (May 2007 to August 2012, New York), J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (September 2012 to August 2015, Melville), and Merrill Lynch again (August 2015 to January 2026, Melville). BrokerCheck lists the CFP designation for him as well. His Form U4 employment entry lists Bank of America, N.A., as private wealth manager in Melville from September 2015 until January 2026.

InvestmentNews wrote that both advisors appeared on Forbes' Best-in-State Wealth Advisors lists from 2022 through 2025. That is InvestmentNews' reporting. This account did not re-open the Forbes lists.

What kind of "independence" did they actually choose?

John Tyers, president of FiNet, said in the statement carried by Financial Advisor magazine that the team is "steadfast in their dedication to serving clients," and that FiNet's ability "to pair independence with access to specialty wealth services and planning resources empowers them to grow their business while providing an exceptional client experience." AdvisorHub published the second sentence. The statement is the receiving platform's description of the affiliation. It does not disclose a payout, a forgivable note, or how many households had agreed to move.

FiNet is Wells Fargo's independent-contractor broker-dealer. Palermo and Frangas are registered with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC, not with Wells Fargo Clearing Services, the entity that houses the employee advisor channel. Calling the move independent is accurate as a channel label. It is not the same event as opening a standalone registered investment adviser with its own Form ADV. No ADV for this Melville Infinity Private Wealth practice appears in the coverage used here. An Oklahoma state-registered adviser that also uses the name Infinity Private Wealth was formed in 2025 and is a different firm.

AdvisorHub reported that neither lead advisor had responded to a request for comment and that a Merrill spokesperson had not responded either. The asset and revenue figures therefore sit on the hiring announcement and the Wells spokesperson, not on a Merrill filing and not on a statement from the advisors.

Which other Wells numbers do not belong to this team?

AdvisorHub set the Melville hire beside other December 2025 additions: a $1.2 billion team from Citi Private Bank into Wells' traditional brokerage, and an Edward Jones team managing $341 million that had already affiliated with FiNet earlier that month. Those are other practices. Adding them to $1.8 billion would create a recruiting total the Infinity announcement does not claim. The same story said Wells had roughly 12,000 employee and independent brokers and nearly $2.5 trillion in client assets, drawn from the parent bank's third-quarter earnings report. That is the enterprise, not the Melville book.

AdvisorHub also quoted Barry Sommers, identified there as Wells Fargo's Wealth and Investment Management chief executive, from a December podcast. Sommers said headcount growth at traditional wirehouses had stagnated because firms were "recycling" advisors moving "back and forth," and that "almost all the growth is going to the independent side." That is a firm-level argument. It is not a reason Palermo or Frangas gave on the record.

Large affiliation dates are easier to follow on [Advisor Pulse](https://intersectionadvisory.com/pulse), which is built to log the registration rather than the headline. The broader question of when a wirehouse team picks an independent broker-dealer instead of a pure RIA is the sort of channel split the [Crossroads report](https://intersectionadvisory.com/crossroads-report) follows over time. For this practice, the public record supports a tighter statement: eight named advisors and three named support staff affiliated with FiNet in Melville on January 6, 2026, behind an announced book of $1.8 billion, described elsewhere as more than $1.8 billion, and announced production of $10.3 million.

Sources

- https://www.advisorhub.com/merrill-team-with-1-8-billion-jumps-to-wells-fargo-finet-on-long-island/ — Karmen Alexander, January 8, 2026: $1.8 billion and $10.3 million from the announcement and a Wells spokesperson; advisor roster; Tyers quote; Sommers podcast; December Citi and Edward Jones context; Wells firmwide broker and asset totals

- https://www.investmentnews.com/wirehouses/18b-merrill-team-hops-to-wells-fargos-finet/264745 — Leo Almazora, January 7, 2026: "more than $1.8 billion"; support-staff names; $10.3 million trailing revenue; Forbes Best-in-State mention

- https://www.fa-mag.com/news/eleven-person-team-managing--1-8b-leaves-merrill-for-wells-fargo-s-finet-85410.html — FA Staff, January 7, 2026: full Tyers quote; support names; "more than $1.8 billion"; no revenue figure

- https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/individual/individual_3259852.pdf — Palermo, CRD 3259852: FiNet registration January 6, 2026; Melville address; prior firm dates; exams; CFP

- https://files.brokercheck.finra.org/individual/individual_4092213.pdf — Frangas, CRD 4092213: same branch and date; Series 24 and principal registration; prior firm dates; CFP