Wells Fargo Advisors hired a $2 million producer from J.P. Morgan Advisors in Los Angeles on Friday.
Steven Tann began his career in 1987 with J.P. Morgan Advisors’ predecessor, Bear Stearns, but resigned two years later to pursue a 17-year career in television and film production.
Roger Gershman, an industry recruiter said “The Wells Fargo Private Wealth initiative is really resonating with advisors. Especially when combined with the talents of Paul Vannuki.” The complex manager brought on another PWM team last year, David Romans and Teresa Fisher from JPMS. The dynamic duo generated $4M+ in revenue. “The deals WF is offering are unprecedented. It really is a great combination of a new PWM platform, support, and deal ” says Gershman. Phil Sieg, who took over as CEO of J.P. Morgan Advisors in April last year has stated that he aims to quadruple the present headcount of roughly 450 brokers yet every month there is greater attrition than additions.
Wells Fargo has also been aggressively recruiting with top-tier packages and local managers who do not recruit face significant penalties this year. The rate of attrition shows a large improvement. Across the country in Coral Gables, Michael R. Revilla and Manuel A. Bernárdez joined the J.P. Morgan traditional brokerage firm in Coral Gables, Miami, last Tuesday. According to Forbes, who rated Revilla #428 on its list of the top next-generation advisors in 2021, they managed roughly $285 million in customer assets.
An unnamed source at JPMS said “the systems and ops an atrocity. We feel like the adopted step-child of JPM Private Bank. All the offices across the country have similar concerns. ” Gershman confirms whereas JPM has a terrific name and reputation, clients have no idea how much the advisors struggle under the old the legacy Bear Sterns division and are at their whit’s end with back-office administration and compliance oversight.
Revilla joined Raymond James’ predecessor Morgan Keegan & Co. in 2005. According to his former website, he also served as an associate market director for Raymond James’ Miami-Dade complex in 2018. According to the FINRA BrokerCheck database, Bernárdez began his career with Raymond James in 2014.
J.P. Morgan Advisors, which has been led by former Merrill private wealth executive Phil Sieg since April last year, has implemented a number of policy and compensation changes in order to address common broker complaints though that has apparently not stemmed the tide. The division, which is a modest part of J.P. Morgan’s $700 billion-asset-under-management Wealth Management division and dwarfed by its private bank, has mostly targeted major wirehouse producers but the competition for talent has become more fierce to retain and lower attrition.
