Wells Fargo to Cut Pay Rate for Lowest-Producing Reps

Wells Fargo & Co.’s financial advisors with at least seven years of experience will see their pay rate drop next year if their 12-month revenue falls below $250,000.

Financial advisors at Wells Fargo typically keep 22 percent of their monthly revenue until they reach a monthly target — $11,500, $12,500 or $13,250, depending on the individual’s plan — and 50 percent on every dollar thereafter.

Under the 2019 compensation plan, advisors who at any point drop below $250,000 in revenue for the prior 12 months will see their pay rates fall to 19 percent on the target amount, and 47 percent on every dollar thereafter, until revenue reaches that benchmark.

“We’re going to review their trailing-12 revenue every month, and when it exceeds $250,000, then they’ll be back on the standard grid the following month,” Rich Getzoff, Wells Fargo Advisors’ head of advisor-led business for the eastern regions, said in a phone interview.

The rest of the 2018 compensation grid will stay the same next year, including the “client segmentation grid” introduced last year to reward advisors for having a higher proportion of wealthier clients.

Advisors who met that qualification for a portion of 2018 also will get a one-time payment bringing their annual compensation to the level it would have been had they reached the benchmark for the full year.

“People were aspiring to be on this grid, they were organizing their businesses to get on it and we think that’s a good thing for clients,” said John Alexander, Getzoff’s counterpart for the western regions. “We decided that we would reward them for that behavior.”

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