SKN | Bank of America’s Personal Retirement Strategy Surpasses $100 Billion as Merrill Managed Expands

Key Takeaways:

• Bank of America’s Personal Retirement Strategy has surpassed $100 billion in total assets, marking significant scale since its 2021 launch.
• Merrill Managed, the discretionary managed-account component, has exceeded $10 billion in assets under management.
• The milestone strengthens BofA’s position in employer-sponsored retirement solutions by combining personalized investment guidance with professional portfolio management.
• The expansion reinforces BofA’s broader strategy of integrating retirement planning, investment management and digital financial guidance within its workplace-benefits platform.

Bank of America has reached a significant scale milestone in its retirement-services business, with its Personal Retirement Strategy (PRS) surpassing $100 billion in total assets. The program, launched in 2021, is designed to provide individualized retirement planning and investment guidance within employer-sponsored retirement plans, while its Merrill Managed component has now exceeded $10 billion in assets under management.

BofA Turns Personalized Retirement Guidance Into a Scaled Platform

For Bank of America, the $100 billion threshold is more than an asset milestone. It demonstrates the bank’s ability to combine personalized retirement planning with institutional-scale distribution. PRS uses an individual’s financial information and retirement objectives to help determine an appropriate investment strategy and project potential retirement-income outcomes.

That model gives BofA a broader relationship with employees participating in workplace plans. Rather than limiting its role to administering retirement assets, the bank can provide guidance around investment decisions, savings behavior and the eventual transition from accumulation to retirement income.

Merrill Managed Extends BofA’s Investment Management Reach

The more than $10 billion managed through Merrill Managed adds another layer to the platform. The discretionary managed-account solution provides professionally managed portfolios through Merrill, incorporating investment management capabilities alongside the broader PRS framework.

Bank of America has positioned managed accounts as a more individualized alternative to one-size-fits-all retirement investment approaches. Its own workplace-benefits materials describe Merrill Managed as a solution that can tailor asset allocation to participant circumstances, although the approach depends on accurate participant information and remains subject to applicable fees and investment risks.

The Bank Is Building a Deeper Workplace Financial Relationship

The strategic value for BofA extends beyond retirement-plan assets. Its Workplace Benefits business connects retirement services with broader employee financial-wellness capabilities, including banking and investment solutions. BofA says its platform is designed to provide guidance across employees’ financial needs and retirement goals.

That creates potential relationship depth across the bank’s ecosystem. An employee participating in a BofA-supported retirement program can encounter the institution not only as a retirement-plan provider, but also through Merrill investment services and Bank of America banking capabilities.

Why the $100 Billion Milestone Matters to BofA

For sophisticated investors, the important signal is the scalability of BofA’s wealth and retirement infrastructure. Retirement assets are typically long-duration relationships, giving the bank an opportunity to build recurring investment-management and financial-guidance relationships over decades.

The evolution of PRS also shows BofA expanding the platform beyond accumulation. The bank has been developing capabilities for retirement-income planning and decumulation, including Merrill 401(k) Pay, designed to help participants structure income from accumulated retirement savings.

The next strategic question is therefore how effectively BofA can convert the scale of PRS into deeper, longer-term client relationships across Merrill and its banking franchise. With more than $100 billion already on the platform, the program has moved beyond an emerging product into a meaningful component of Bank of America’s broader wealth-management and workplace-financial strategy.

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