Richard Wald

Board Director

Rich is a Managing Director/Senior Financial Advisor for Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management. He has been a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch for over 33 years, and for nearly 20 years, Rich has been a member of its Circle of Champions, as one of its top advisors. Since 2003, Rich has been the West Coast senior partner of a leading team within Merrill Lynch. In September of 2019, the team surpassed $4 billion dollars of assets under our management. 

Rich was born and raised in and around New York City. In 2003, he moved with his family from Chappaqua, New York to Walnut Creek, CA (a suburb outside San Francisco). But as he likes to say, “Once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker.” On 9/11/2001, Rich was working in ML’s office in midtown Manhattan.“ “The memories of that day and the weeks and months following 9/11 remain seared into my psyche,” says Rich. “Our office in NY was diagonally across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. As you can image, witnessing so many of the hero’s funerals had a profound impact (to this day, hearing bagpipes triggers all sorts of memories). I have long worked to educate others around the country what it was like to be in the New York City area in the days and weeks following 9/11. Working to ‘take back the day’ is something the comes naturally to me. Being able to join your Board, and officially channel my energy and passion, would be an honor and a privilege, Rich says.