Here is what we know now:

Merrill Lynch

If you are among the clients of the more than 16,000 Merrill Lynch financial advisers, you continue to have access to your accounts online or can call your stockbroker at the same number as you did last week.

“It’s business as usual,” said Scott Silvestri, a spokesman for Bank of America, which reached an agreement on Sunday to acquire Merrill Lynch. “As we move further into the integration process, we’ll have more to share with customers when we can.”

This is what generally happens next in these situations: Recruiters besiege the best brokers with lucrative offers to move elsewhere and avoid the tumult that is part of working for an acquired company. If your broker bolts, you will have to decide whether to go along. If you do, the transition period is a bit of a bother and you may lose access to your funds for a week or two as the new firm moves your securities from Merrill.

There may be similar hiccups if you and your broker stick with Merrill, however, if Bank of America decides to use different technology for tracking Merrill accounts or a new account numbering system. This has been a problem in previous mergers, though the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has made efforts to fix it.

Image Passers-by stopped Monday to look at market information shown on electronic boards at Lehman Brothers headquarters on Seventh Avenue near Times Square. Credit... Tina Fineberg for The New York Times

Lehman Brothers

First, it is important to note that Lehman’s brokerage unit did not file for bankruptcy; its parent company did. So for high net worth investors with accounts there, things continue as they were last week.