This is not the Wells most advisors might quickly write off. Damaged severely by the 2008 scandal and subsequently losing almost 4,000 advisors, the firm has taken well over a decade to revamp its reputation with dramatic changes to its leadership, massive investments in infrastructure and its platform. Roger Gershman, from The Gershman Group, who represents the who’s who of some of the nation’s largest advisors says, “Wells is no longer the old stagecoach brand, it’s now a BMW.”
Wells is an undervalued story and many advisors who have looked underneath the hood have come to realize that this platform not only competes head-to-head with most any major bank but also invests more heavily in the growth of their advisors more than any see article Seventy2Capital. It is also the only major bank that offers both a traditional PWM Platform and an Independent Platform.
$10M+ Teams from major competitors are taking notice of which Gershman says he represents nationally. Wells announced its 4th significant acquisition in about as many months.
- $2B/$15M AUM team departed JPMorgan Advisors led by Jay and Neil Canell in New York City to join Wells. Their team included Justin Dembo, Jake Klarberg, Benjamin Mayo and Daniel Zomback, along with 11 other support staff members. Neil began his career in 1993 briefly at Lehman Brothers before building a substantial book at UBS, CItiGroup. Jay also began his 31-year career at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. Together they then worked at UBS and Citi before joining J.P.Morgan and 7 years at Morgan Stanley. Patrick Bowman who recently took over the NY Metro market for Wells is.
- $1.8B/10M+Team from Morgan Stanley in Chicago joins FiNet (independence) a team led by Frank M. Devincentis, Craig R. Eyler and Molly E. Girard, The team was founded in 1977 by two advisors, Mike Del Campo and Bill Lenz, who retired from Morgan Stanley in 2020. Devincentis and Eyler started their careers with Morgan Stanley’s Smith Barney predecessor in 2004 and 2001, respectively,. Interesting to note is this team acquired a retiring team and after 4 years of a payoff, then monetized that book to FiNet independence.
- $1.3B/$10M Team JPMorgan Advisors in Palm Beach, FL to join Wells PWM Group. The team is led by advisors Anthony W. Rizzo, Roy N. Apple, Jeremy S. Schneider and Brett A. Langbert and includes client associates Anna Vazquez and Brandon Jimenez. According to Gershman, he knew Roy Apple very well from his days at Drexel Burnham and the team evaluated many options before arriving at Wells. John McDermott is the regional director at Wells who is managing the fastest growing market in the Americas for Wells.
- $1.2B/$10.5MTeam from Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles, CA joins Well’s PWM Group. (Larry Roth, Lisa Amster, Jerry Gallagher) Amster, who started her career 21 years ago with Thomas Weisel Partners, worked at Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital before joining Morgan Stanley in 2012. Gallagher started his career in 2000 with Wells’ Prudential Securities predecessor and worked at UBS, Merrill Lynch, Northern Trust Securities Inc. and Barclays before joining Morgan Stanley in 2014. Roth started his career at UBS in 2001 and followed the same path as Gallagher to Morgan Stanley. They joined Wells’ Beverly Hills Wealth Hub and report to Paul Vannuki, Los Angeles market leader, and Phil Winterson, manager of its private wealth branch.
“The tide has turned,” said Wells CFO Michael Santomassimo earlier this month at the Barclays Global Financial Service Conference. “We’re seeing good recruiting. We went from industry-leading attrition to industry-leading retention” and “attracting talent to the platform” as “clients have been more receptive to doing more with us.”
