Bank of America Corp. is seeking to become a one-stop shop foremployee benefits.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender is uniting itsofferings for employers—including retirement, healthcare savings,equity, and deferred-compensation plans—alongside its traditionalbanking and investing services. It's also on a path to hire about150 specialists in employee benefits across the U.S. for itscombined Financial LifeBenefits services.

"Companies are begging us to help their employees every day,"Lorna Sabbia, Bank of America's head of retirement and personalwealth solutions, said at a briefing in New York. At the same time,"employees are stressed out" and seeking better tools to managetheir finances, she said.

The bank wants to expand its workplace presence by tapping itsexisting roster of corporate banking clients. It has relationshipswith 95 percent of Fortune 1000 companies, as well as 3 millionsmall-business owners. Services can include financial-planningworkshops at client offices, discounts on mortgages and bankaccounts for employees, and bank branches on site, according toAron Levine, head of consumer banking and investing.

The push comes as Morgan Stanley aims to attract newwealth-management clients from its stock-plan administrator,Shareworks, which has about 3,900 corporate customers. Over thenext five to seven years, the bank expects to sign up more than 1million employees to its digital wealth or financial-advisoryservices, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said in an earnings calllast month.

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