As a testament to the importance of teamwork,this is the fourth consecutive year that our top spot is taken by a duo. And almost everyone else on our annual Top 40 Under 40 list, which ranked the top advisors in the wirehouse/employer/regional channel, talked about their teams as well. (We rank team members by their individual assets under management so when teammates are placed together, they are counted separately.)

Another common thread we saw this year was a focus on wealthy families and ultra high-net-worth individuals, particularly those who work in private equity and hedge funds. You can read all about the common threads here as well as the differences. Read about the advisor who flies to South America to talk to clients who live and invest in those domestic markets. And learn about another one who also flies there to meet clients who invest in the U.S. One advisor was told he didn't need college (bad advice), while another was told to forget law school (good advice). To compile our list, On Wall Street once again started with the broker-dealers. We asked the companies to identify their advisors, under the age of 40, with the most assets under management custodied at their firm. We separated each advisor's assets from his or her team's and ranked them accordingly. We also included a chart with trailing-12 month production. So read on for a look at the personalities we've profiled here.

1 
Kevin Higginbotham, 38
$3.97 billion in assets

Steven Prediletto, 34
$3.04 billion in assets

BofA/Merrill Lynch//Atlanta

Kevin Higginbotham and Steven Prediletto oversee what is essentially a mid-cap company of financial advice. And in a sign of our global times, they have an extended team scattered around the globe (eight additional equity partners, plus 55 other advisors) all ready to jump whenever a client needs help.

Like many of On Wall Street's top advisors this year, their team is a bifurcated effort -- a corporate team focuses on companies with issues like 401(k) administration and stock plans; and an executive team focuses on the personal wealth management needs of the individuals at those companies.

Their individual retail assets under management alone warrant our top two slots this year, each topping $3 billion. But the total assets they oversee in this empire top $80 billion. Prediletto and Higginbotham spend much of their time on management issues of their disparate company. There are a lot of interlocking financial needs, and they "connect the dots," says Higginbotham. They also try to maintain a boutique feeling on their team, even though it's within BofA/Merrill. Much of the team's retail assets come from wealthy families. More specifically, they have 100 families, each with $10 million-plus in assets; and more than 1,000 families with between $3 million and $10 million.

Working with their clients' other professional advisors like lawyers and accountants, the Merrill team aims to effectively become the chief financial officer for their wealthy patrons. They take care of the finances, so that clients can focus on the businesses that generated the wealth in the first place, Prediletto says.

Both concede that investor sentiment is much better than last year at this time. "The world is not coming to an end," Prediletto says, referring to last year's pessimism.

As if their destinies were predetermined to be intertwined, Higginbotham and Prediletto both started out as interns in 1996. They both moved to Atlanta in 1999, and then teamed up in 2002.

For the corporate side of their team, they deal with some of the largest companies in the world. Home Depot, Coca-Cola, Walt Disney and United Parcel Service are just a few of their clients. In addition to the issues like stock plans, they also draw on Merrill's other strengths like investment banking for needs like equity and debt offerings or treasury services.

3
John Batista Bocchino, 38
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney // New York
$2.27 billion in assets

John Batista Bocchino started in this business 14 years ago at Swiss Bank Corp., (now UBS) trading emerging markets debt. He is now a senior v.p. at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, where he and his three teammates still focus on trading emerging market debt for about 400 mostly ultra high-net-worth families and mid-market client accounts in Latin America.

His primary market is Venezuela, which has been volatile over the last few years, given the political turmoil and overall uncertainty, he says.

But that has caused spreads to widen, so the current yield remains high, making it attractive for investors who can handle the risk. In fact, the Venezuelan yield curve has been the primary focus in emerging market debt lately, he says.