If you want the biggest recruiting check, mows the time to hitch your wagon to Wells Fargo (see what we did there). The firm remains the most aggressive recruiter in the wealth management universe and it probably isn’t close.
Their stated deal (meaning, if you are a viable candidate or team from ML, MS, or UBS) is 340%. That’s is where the bidding begins. We’ve seen deals reach 375% with upfront checks tipping the scales at a cool 200%. Cha fucking ching!!
This past week a large team in TN migrated from (yes, you guessed it) Merrill Lynch and hit the bid in a big way. As we hear it, the upfront approached 200% and the total deal surpassed 360%. Take a look at their team profile and then let’s run the numbers…
Wells Fargo hired a team that included Will David Coleman, Jeremy Stephens, Justin Webb, and Steven Ragan. The group was annualizing revenue at $5.3 million a year. Based in a Merrill branch in the suburbs of Nashville, TN the group manages over $680 million in client assets.
Now for a little math. $5.3M in annualized revenue at 200% is $10.6M when they walk into the doors of their new Wells Fargo offices. In total their deal could go beyond $19M all in. Not bad for a group of guys that effectively started their careers 10-15 years ago. Like we said, cha-ching!
The financial metrics associated with Wells’ recruiting strategy are fairly simple: roll out deals that are nearly impossible to turn down and outbid the competition by 30-40%.
In spurts, being the biggest deal on the street is working.
