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By 
April 29, 2022 at 01:32 PM
What You Need to Know
- Wells Fargo sent a letter to some clients of an advisor who had left the firm, mistakenly saying he had died.
- The company's former rep had broken away to join an independent firm affiliated with Kestra Financial.
- Somebody accidentally pressed a button generating the inaccurate letter template, a source said.
Wells Fargo sent out a letter to at least some of the clients of a former advisor who worked for the wirehouse, breaking the news that he had died.
In reality, Robert Brian Watson didn’t die. He had just broken away from the firm.
Watson is currently serving as vice president, Private CFO at the hybrid RIA oXYGen Financial.
He is registered as an advisor and broker for Kestra Financial, after leaving Wells Fargo earlier this month, according to his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website. oXYGen’s advisory services are offered through Kestra, according to its website.
Somebody accidentally pressed a button generating the inaccurate letter template that was sent out to some of Watson’s clients, an industry source told ThinkAdvisor on Friday.
“This was an unfortunate mistake, and we have followed up and apologized to all clients who received the initial letter,” Wells Fargo said in a statement. The company also apologized to Watson, it said.
Reached by ThinkAdvisor via phone on Friday, Watson declined to comment on Wells Fargo’s error or confirm if the firm had apologized to him, saying: “Unfortunately I can’t make any comments on that. We’ve got active stuff going on with legal.”
