The Maier Neal Group

Private Wealth Advisors
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Significant wealth requires sophisticated, highly customized strategies tailored to your unique goals and priorities. We recognize that wealth demands both the broad resources of a global institution and highly personalized attention. We are dedicated to managing and enhancing our clients’ investments through a results driven approach.

Meet the Team

The private wealth advisors with Merrill Private Wealth Management are rigorously trained to help meet your specialized needs with relationships based on trust and personalized service.

Additional Resources

The following specialists do not make securities recommendations. Please contact your Merrill Private Wealth Advisor if you have questions about how a specialist might be able to assist you.

William J Bosack

Structured Credit Executive

Bank of America, N.A.

Paul Pellegrini

Wealth Management Banking Specialist

Merrill

Matthew Vandenack

Private Wealth Strategist

Merrill

Strategies designed to help you achieve your goals

As a client of Merrill Private Wealth Management, you have access to services and resources ordinarily reserved for the world’s largest institutions. We work with individuals, families spanning multiple generations, business owners and executives. Using a goals-based wealth management approach, we put our clients at the center of every personalized strategy.

Our Approach

The Maier Neal Group

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, The Maier Neal Group is dedicated to addressing the sophisticated needs of a select number of family offices, corporate executives, professional investors, and entrepreneurs.

We offer the insight and knowledge of a team of professionals who have extensive experience in critical disciplines: concentrated stock, bespoke credit and lending, balance sheet analysis, private equity, and options. We are problem solvers who are relentless in our focus to deliver on the complex needs of our clients.


*Banking products and services provided by Bank of America, N.A.
*Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Before engaging in the purchase or sale of options, investors should understand the nature of and extent of their rights and obligations and be aware of the risks involved in investing with options. Prior to buying or selling an option, clients must receive the options disclosure document Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. This document is available by contacting your Merrill Financial Advisor.
*Some or all alternative investments may not be in the best interests for certain investors. Certain alternative investments carry significant risk and are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as mutual funds and other traditional investments. For these reasons, access to alternative investments may be limited to investors who are designated as sophisticated, high-net-worth investors.

Our Philosophy

We believe your unique goals should be at the center of all of your financial decisions and form the foundation of your financial strategy. Because significant wealth requires customized goals-based financial strategies, we believe in building lasting relationships with a limited number of clients, taking the time to understand your most important priorities for today, tomorrow and your long-term future. Our philosophy celebrates collaboration. Working with a team of specialists, we draw on the resources and insights of a global financial institution to create strategies that reflect your aspirations for yourself and current and future generations of your family. Finally, we believe that while significant wealth brings complex challenges, our experience, passion and perspectives can help you simplify your life.

Bespoke Financial Consulting including:

  • Options Strategy and Trading
  • Estate Planning Services
  • Succession Services
  • Multigenerational Planning
  • Diversified Portfolio Analysis and Management
  • Credit and Lending
  • Form 144 and 10b51 Transactions
  • Liquidity event planning
  • Restricted Stock/Single Stock/LP Unit Safekeeping and Risk Management


*Banking products and services provided by Bank of America, N.A.

*Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Before engaging in the purchase or sale of options, investors should understand the nature of and extent of their rights and obligations and be aware of the risks involved in investing with options. Prior to buying or selling an option, clients must receive the options disclosure document Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. This document is available by contacting your Merrill Financial Advisor. 

Helping Families Navigate Significant Wealth

The foundation of our work is centered on our clients’ wealth preservation goals, cash-flow requirements, and family. We begin by asking what our clients’ most challenging objectives are, and how we can make them easier. We have built our team to respond to the complex needs of significant wealth.

Attuned to the Needs of Wealth Creators

We work closely with select wealth creators, and have developed long term relationships grounded in our client’s priorities. We have particular depth in advising family offices, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs. We are sensitive to the unique circumstances behind each source of wealth, and provide strategies as clients encounter significant decision points.

Family Offices

As private wealth advisors with Merrill Private Wealth Management, we work with prominent families to help them manage the ongoing complexities they face. Our deep experience with family offices enables us to tailor a range of services to help meet your specific needs. We can provide access to Merrill for investment and wealth management strategies, and to Bank of America for governance, asset custody and administration, as well as assisting in the financial education of younger family members. In working with you to create and implement plans reflecting your specific intentions, our goal is to help your family enterprise succeed, and that your knowledge and values are passed along to the next generation. Together, we will focus on strategies that recognize the unique nature of your family’s mission, history and goals.

Company Founders, Private Business Owners & Entrepreneurs

When you have built your own business, your personal finances and the life of your company are closely intertwined. You may be thinking about how to invest in your company’s growth while also deciding how best to use your personal assets. Helping ensure the future of your business likely involves employee benefits, retirement plans and succession planning. Helping secure your family’s legacy could entail wealth transfer strategies, trusts and philanthropy. Whatever your specific needs, we at Merrill Private Wealth Management can help entrepreneurs and business owners balance their personal financial lives with their life’s work. We are dedicated in providing the experience and resources to help support your ongoing success.

Corporate Executives

We understand the complexities that come with your executive position and the extreme demands on your time. We can help you develop a customized strategy that your finances and compensation require. We can help with risk management strategies for your concentrated stock position while navigating complex SEC rules, trading restrictions and reporting requirements. If you’ve just been promoted and would like help evaluating your new compensation plan, or if you’re looking to develop a long-term financial strategy for you and your family — designed to enable you to live life as you want it, with reliable access to cash — we can help simplify your financial life, as well as develop new strategies as your career and goals evolve.

Foundations and Endowments

An investment portfolio tailored to your needs is crucial to advancing your organization’s mission and carrying on its important work. We have extensive experience working with endowments and foundations and have a keen understanding of the requirements and responsibilities of board and committee members for investment management and financial oversight. The strategies we construct are carefully designed to help promote stability, efficiency and growth under a variety of market conditions. We also offer advice on board governance and reporting, and help in meeting regulatory and operating challenges. We provide access to the customized services your organization needs with discretion and skill.

Intergenerational Family Wealth

As a family that spans multiple generations, you have needs that go beyond preserving assets, tax minimization strategies and designating heirs. Your goals also likely include passing on values and helping the rising generation become effective stewards. We can help with personalized wealth transfer strategies, family wealth education and developing and implementing philanthropic visions. In working with you to create an approach that reflects your family’s intentions and helps ensure your assets are distributed according to your wishes, we proceed in a manner that recognizes the complexities of your life challenges and the unique nature of your goals. Our extensive experience working with other families of significant wealth helps  us to see and share best practices to help you achieve them.

Private Equity and Hedge Fund Principals

Your investment expertise as a hedge fund or private equity principal has likely resulted in substantial personal success. We have experience working with a select group of individuals in your industry. Drawing on our extensive capabilities and the broad resources of a global institution, we work to help you coordinate and manage your finances with the aim of simplifying the complexities of your financial life, including wealth transfer advice and guidance from Merrill and access to the banking convenience of Bank of America for your banking, lending and trust needs. We also provide access to Bank of America for your working capital needs in support of the day-to-day needs of your business.

Strategies for Institutions & Family Offices

Complex business objectives, volatile market environments and changing regulatory landscapes often require holistic and innovative strategies. Working closely with specialists in the Bank of America Cross Asset Solutions & Strategies (CASS) team leverages BofA’s entire platform, coordinating the vast resources of the firm to provide integrated strategies for financial institutions and corporate clients, from origination to structuring, execution and distribution. Among the services available to clients include: 

  • Asset Level Financing/ Capital Raising
  • Asset Sourcing
  • Debt Financing
  • Advisory for Business growth
  • Private Equity Placement
     

A Commitment to Service

Merrill Private Wealth Management is committed to providing a select group of clients with highly personalized one-on-one service. When you work with us, our knowledgeable, rigorously trained private wealth advisors will gain a deep understanding of your goals, help you develop a multigenerational wealth strategy, and help you update your strategy as needed. We are committed to providing you access to the investment insights of Merrill and the banking convenience of Bank of America, and Merrill will continue to invest in client tools and new technology to enhance your overall experience as you and your private wealth advisor pursue what’s most important to you.

Let's have a conversation

Your dedicated Merrill Private Wealth Management team is ready to help you pursue what’s most important to you.

Our Vision

For clients of substantial means, Merrill Private Wealth Management provides an experience that is both powerful and personal. We are dedicated to helping you pursue your goals for today while developing an approach designed to support your family members for the years to come.

Your private wealth advisor and team of specialists work with a limited number of clients, enabling them to focus their time, training and passion on helping you simplify your personal and business finances and prepare your next generation.

Boutique-like service with the access to the investment resources of Merrill and banking convenience of Bank of America

We combine the personalized attention and feel of a smaller firm with the power and insights of a global financial institution, creating financial strategies tailored to your unique situation.

A relentless commitment to transparency and customized strategies

As our client, know we are working in your best interests, providing goals-based financial strategies designed to anticipate and help meet your evolving financial needs.