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June 01, 2017 at 10:24 AM
The head of Wells Fargo’s wealth unit, David Carroll, is retiring on July 1. Jonathan Weiss, now head of Wells Fargo Securities, will take over his post.
Weiss will stay in New York and report to Wells Fargo President and CEO Timothy J. Sloan, though the wealth unit is based in St. Louis.
“As head of Wealth and Investment Management, [Carroll] achieved a compound annual growth rate in after-tax earnings of 26% for the last eight years,” said Sloan in a statement, “and [he] developed talent, strategies and best practices that will serve Wells Fargo for years to come as we become a stronger, better bank for our customers and clients.”
Last quarter, Wells Fargo said its advisor headcount fell three from the prior year and two from the earlier quarter to 14,657. The Wealth & Investment Management unit had revenues of $4.2 billion, up from $3.9 billion in the first quarter of 2016. Its net income was $623 million vs. $512 million last year.
The wealth unit is reportedly planning to offer higher recruiting bonuses to prospective advisors in order to address this situation and to take advantage of moves by wirehouse rivals Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS to retreat from the “recruiting wars.”
According to a Reuters report, Wells Fargo Advisors could boost its upfront signing bonuses and deferred compensation by as much as 50%. (The move was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.)
“Attracting the industry’s top talent will always be a priority for Wells Fargo Advisors,” the company said in a statement shared with Reuters.
Over the past year or so, a number of advisors have left Wells Fargo in the wake of the fake accounts scandal at its retail bank. In the first quarter of 2017, for instance, LPL Financial said it picked up 14 advisors from Wells.
Earlier this week, though, Wells Fargo said that advisor John Miller left UBS to join its independent channel, Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network (or FiNet) in Knoxville, Tennessee. He previously managed more than $119 million of client assets.
