Displaying items by tag: recruiting

Wells Fargo sent out a thank you note to external recruiters for their work and efforts in locking in lots of senior hires in 2021. Well’s is going to continue and extend many of the measures it implemented in 2021 into 2022 such as hiring offers for brokers and higher referral fees for outside recruiters. Wells saw their recruiting and retention drop after their scandal in 2016 and it’s been a continuing effort to get back to par with hires. In addition to all the sweetened deals surrounding recruiting there are also measures such as pay cuts if managers lose brokers or don’t hit sufficient hiring statistics. Well’s decision to close their international business has also been a major contributor to their inability to gain transactions in recruiting efforts.

Finsum: Wells used to stand out for their Broker compensation, however competitors are stepping up, and Wells no longer stands out.

According to a report from Charles Schwab registered investor advisor firms with less than $100 million in assets are improving recruiting efforts as of late. In a poll, it was the fourth listed initiative among RIAs in 2021, up five spots from the previous year. How these new recruiting efforts are delegated is also interesting with a quarter of RIA’s planning on adding relationship managers and 15% looking to add a client-facing management role. Additionally, more than half the firms are also adding back office and admin staff. Talent is an increasingly important commodity in the average RIA firm and many new efforts will be made to obtain it.

Finsum: It will be interesting to see exactly how the details of obtaining new talent come out: whether that’s specific programs or bonus-based incentives.

Wells Fargo is aggressively pushing branch managers to maintain and recruit new brokers with a variety of incentive-based packages. For example, penalties will be in place for a drop in headcount when it comes to year-end bonuses and will include headcount retention and arrivals rather than purely based on overall revenue. Managers say they could lose big if they don’t increase new brokers and retain old ones. Wells has suffered in its ability to retain advisors as of late and is trying to play catch up with the incentives. Separate recruiting and retention bonuses will also be part of next year’s pay incentive structure.

FINSUM: These are drastic pay changes to the management structure; Wells is serious about growing its working base.

(New York)

Whether you are thinking of changing firms or just keeping an eye on the market, it is always good to know where you could maximize your take-home pay. With that in mind, here are the firms where you can get the best pay as a $1m producer. It is important to note that these are pretty bullish times for the industry given high market pricing and how that inflates fee income. Additionally, the totals shown have assumptions in them, for example an average balance of AUM across asset classes, length of service at 10 years etc. Here they are: Merrill Lynch, $485,000; UBS, $475,000, Wells Fargo, $472,325; Morgan Stanley, $445,000; Edward Jones, $543,350; Stifel, $514,000; Janney, $510,000; Raymond James $493,000.

FINSUM: The advantage of being at an independent really sinks in when you see these stats. There is nearly a full $100,000 spread between Ed Jones’ payout and Morgan Stanley’s at the same production level.

(St. Louis)

Stifel is a well-regarded firm in our industry. However, one characteristic of it that doesn’t work for all brokers is that they have an employee model. This runs counter to many of the independents with whom Stifel often gets grouped. Well, that looks like it is about to change as the firm has just hired a leading executive away from Wells FiNet in order to grow Stifel’s independent side, which currently stands at only 90 advisors, or only 4% of their total advisors. The firm is rebranding its independent arm to Stifel Independent Advisors and is looking to recruit new advisors to join.

FINSUM: This seems long overdue in our eyes. Stifel is a great brand and there is untapped interest for advisors to join them as independents.