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To: james ball who wrote (7752)	9/24/1998 10:50:00 PM
From: Jay Scott	Respond to of 34823

Mother Merrill has created its own problems. By insisting on hiring "salespeople" instead of knowledgeable financial types, they've dug their own grave. Too many full service firms want individuals to abdicate responsibility for their investment decisions. The firms train their brokers to be "asset gatherers" instead of skilled professionals. The reason? If you think about it, when you buy a mutual fund from Merrill, they get paid sales commissions AND 12b-1 fees AND then they make commissions when those same high turnover funds trade through Merrill's desk. (Ask them if the funds that they "highly" recommend also trade heavily with Merrill's trading desks.) If you make your own trades, they don't make as much money, and you bother their salespeople a lot more. Who would want to give up the kind of arrangement that they already have? JS