To talk with a ML Wealth Management representative, you have to have at least $250,000 of investable assets. Preferably more. If you have less, then you will qualify just for Merrill Edge, which a "normal" advisor in a BofA branch can help you with. The normal financial advisor would love to have your $500,000 or $1,000,000 for their own account (not illegal or even unethical) but they are supposed to refer higher net worth individuals to wealth management. The Wealth Management representative will usually be an employee of ML, whereas the branch-based financial advisor is an employee of both BofA and ML. Sometimes the Wealth Management rep is also a BofA employee. You will learn from their business card. Many of the branch-based advisors are part of larger teams and get credit for referrals to the Wealth Management part of their team.
They are going to ask you a lot of questions because they have fiduciary responsibility and need to represent your best interests, not the best interests of themselves (potential commissions), the bank (more potential commissions), or ML (more potential commissions, trading fees, etc.). They need to qualify you, but initially you just need to quote approximate numbers, and not bring in statements (luckily).
Tell him that you are interviewing investment advisors. That is very common. Let him convince you that he or she is the best. If they want to know where else you are looking, mention one of the other large banks in your area. They do not have a way to check. Wells Fargo, Santander, and many others have wealth management divisions. Since I visit many banks, I know that some are interested only in selling annuities regardless of your personal situation. Those are not sold to most customers by reps who have fiduciary responsibility, although there are special circumstances where they would be appropriate.
One of my very first shops was to portray a high net worth individual. I visited a branch of a very large international bank based in Asia. I was treated so well, that I really wanted to be able to had over all the money I was pretending to have. I really enjoy bank shops of all types.
Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008