Although the dust is far from settled from the shock news of Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch, a number of trends are likely to be discernable in the newly created wealth management division of the two groups.

It looks like Merrill by dint of size will be the dominant partner in the newly formed unit, despite BofA buying the Wall Street brokerage. Brand is important in wealth management and the fact that the new combined unit will be called Merrill Lynch Wealth Management suggests something about the likely outcome of the merged units.