Merrill, Charles (1885-1956), an American stockbroker and investment banker, was a key figure in the financial world during the 1900’s. He was the founder of the firm Charles E. Merrill & Co. The company was later known as Merrill Lynch and is now part of Bank of America. Merrill invented new and different ways to sell securities (stocks and bonds). He considerably broadened the American market for securities by successfully appealing to middle-class clients and small investors. Under Merrill’s leadership, his company transformed the American securities industry, bringing “Wall Street to Main Street.”
Charles Edward Merrill was born in Green Cove Springs, Florida, on Oct. 19, 1885. He tried several jobs before joining an investment firm in 1909. After briefly holding positions in several established firms, he founded his own securities firm in 1914. He soon took Edmund Lynch as a partner and changed the firm’s name to Merrill, Lynch & Company in 1915. The company later became Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane and then Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith before shortening its name to just Merrill Lynch.
In the late 1920’s, rising prices of stocks encouraged many people in the United States to speculate. Investors speculate when they buy or sell shares with the hope of rapidly making large profits based on increases or decreases in prices. Lynch predicted that such speculation would lead to disaster. He rid his firm of most of its securities holdings before the stock market crash of 1929. He advised his clients to do likewise. Merrill Lynch thereby flourished when many investment firms were ruined.
Merrill died on Oct. 6, 1956, in Southampton, New York. One of his children, James Merrill, became a major American poet (see Merrill, James ).
