PHOTO:Virtuoso's Matthew Upchurch (left) and Merrill Lynch's David Tyrie: Forming a symbiotic relationship.(Photos courtesy of Virtuoso)
Last August , Virtuoso, the luxury travel network, featured a keynote speaker from Merrill Lynch at its annual Virtuoso Travel week in Las Vegas. Bill Hunter, director of personal retirement strategy and solutions for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, spoke about his company's focus on lifestyle consulting for its customers, as well as a new program, Merrill Lynch Clear, that the company had recently put in place to advise its clients at all stages of their retirement planning.
At the time, there was speculation that Virtuoso and Merrill Lynch would soon announce a partnership involving travel services. And Virtuoso executives said they were indeed in talks with the financial giant to forge such a link.
Nothing happened in the months following the Virtuoso event, but this week Merrill Lynch announced an exclusive relationship with Virtuoso to provide its retirement clients with access to Virtuoso travel advisors. The new relationship will be marketed as part of Merrill Lynch Clear, the program launched in May 2014 that helps Merrill Lynch clients navigate to and through retirement across seven "life priorities" to achieve their desired outcomes.
Merrill Lynch Clear offers a comprehensive way to help people with their retirement by exploring seven distinct life priorities connecting the financial aspects of life in retirement-health, home, family, finance, giving, work and leisure (including travel). Currently Merrill Lynch has roughly 14,000 financial advisors, 8,000 of whom have been trained on the Merrill Lynch Clear program.
"For many of our clients, traveling is the number one activity they look forward to in retirement," David Tyrie, head of retirement and personal wealth solutions for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "This relationship gives our financial advisors and their clients a terrific resource to broaden the retirement planning conversation and to help clients make the most of their free time."
Merrill Lynch Clear focuses on seven distinct life priorities connecting the financial aspects of life in retirement-health, home, family, finance, giving, work and leisure (including travel).
Under the new partnership, Virtuoso will provide Merrill Lynch clients with travel services using a Virtuoso affiliated advisor, who will oversee all travel arrangements before, during and after the trip. They also can devise plans to help clients achieve their travel objectives, just as Merrill Lynch advisors do on the financial side. Merrill Lynch Clear clients also will have access to Virtuoso's benefits and specialty travel partners, including luxury resorts and unique travel experiences.
"Today's retirees are traveling with more passion and a greater appetite for new experiences than ever, combining adventure and learning, and actively exploring destinations around the globe," said Matthew Upchurch, chairman and CEO of Virtuoso. "Meeting their evolving travel goals requires thoughtful and inventive planning with trusted advisors. Working with Merrill Lynch to serve their clients seeking to stay active and live their lives to the fullest is a natural fit."
Upchurch said the new partnership with Merrill Lynch puts together two professions that have been developing on parallel paths. Just as travel agents have evolved into travel advisors, he said, stockbrokers have developed into financial advisors. Merrill Lynch Clear, which focuses on the lifestyle aspects of retirement, also mirrors Virtuoso's own "Return on Life" concept, which it introduced in 2008 to provide a collaborative process to travel planning for clients of Virtuoso advisors.
Tyrie said Merrill Lynch Clear was developed in response to demographic trends that have led to 76 million baby boomers in the market today, with 10,000 people turning 65 every day. Boomers also represent 74 percent of the net worth in the U.S. today. "There's a massive demographic shift going on," he said. "Baby Boomers have changed every industry they have ever touched…and they are changing retirement."
According to Tyrie, Merrill Lynch's research showed that Boomers weren't just interested in stock advice, but wanted a holistic program that could address their entire life through retirement. Merrill Lynch Clear was introduced as a pioneering framework to accomplish just that.
"What we found out was that people who are living 30, 40 years longer are looking for a framework," Tyrie said. "Merrill Lynch created a holistic relationship with a financial advisor to help them achieve a successful retirement. We wanted to partner with someone in leisure area. So that's how we formed a relationship [with Virtuoso]. We truly envision this as something our clients will be thrilled with. We now have a proprietary platform and framework for our financial advisors to have conversations around retirement."
Under the plan, Merrill Lynch Clear financial advisors will offer their clients access to a selected group of Virtuoso travel advisors, all of whom have been trained to complement the Merrill Lynch Clear program. At this point roughly 70 Virtuoso advisors have been trained on the program. There is no monetary transaction involved between Merrill Lynch and Virtuoso, just a symbiotic relationship. A fact sheet with information on Virtuoso and its relationship with Merrill Lynch will be available on the Merrill Lynch Clear website.
"What Merrill Lynch is doing is similar to what Virtuoso does," said Upchurch. "We know what really makes someone an advisor is the collaborative nature of that relationship. This is the first relationship, the most powerful relationship, where the primary introduction is not just somebody to book your trip, but people who are going to help you optimize your travel experiences. It's the establishment of a real relationship rather than just a transaction."
Virtuoso currently has 355 agencies with more than 9,000 travel specialists in 25 countries throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific and Europe, as well as over 1,700 of the world's top luxury travel providers and destinations. The network's member agencies generate more than $14 billion annually in travel sales.
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