No Shania it hasn't.  I was an AGE person though so a WS person might have a better perspective. 

[quote=I am legend]

No Shania it hasn't.  I was an AGE person though so a WS person might have a better perspective. 

[/quote]

I was wrong.

thought for sure strump et al would have the fingers in everything.

  i guess they smart, if bottom line there, leave it alone

only thing that I might add is that I think Danny & Co. have been given a VERY short leash.

ditto. 

1) Counting Crows kicks ass!  Love that!

2) Wells PCG (Private Client Group) is as CLOSE to the PERFECT or former perfect wirehouse you could find. They are very similar and super AGE like even today. Yes, can you work at one of the other 3 'wires' but, fact is UBS is either done or barely surviving, ML is a BANK, and MSSB is a combo crap firm trying to figure out what it is. PCG rocks for anyone in the wires who needs WIRE services

Good luck! '

Is Wells  not a bank?

[quote=burtonfinancial1]

1) Counting Crows kicks ass!  Love that!

2) Wells PCG (Private Client Group) is as CLOSE to the PERFECT or former perfect wirehouse you could find. They are very similar and super AGE like even today. Yes, can you work at one of the other 3 'wires' but, fact is UBS is either done or barely surviving, ML is a BANK, and MSSB is a combo crap firm trying to figure out what it is. PCG rocks for anyone in the wires who needs WIRE services

Good luck! '

[/quote]

Danny, is that you again?

I must haave missed this.  900 fa's have left for stifel in the 1st 2 yrs and  in the last 11 mos  bf edwards is opening a branch every 3-4 weeks with former age/wfa advisors.  Looks like many would disagree with that premise.

I feel strongly that once the retention bonus plans are up, many FA's will pack it up and leave. Business is so slow that almost 48% of the FA's (old AGE brokers) on retention bonus's extended their contracts from 6 years to 10 years. Big changes coming that will effect the FA's in the PCG offices. All bank brokers to be renamed Wells Fargo Advisors, Wells Trade to be renamed Wells Fargo Advisors, and the Wachovia deep discount $6.95 for the 1st 1000 shares and a penny thereafter have already been named Wells Fargo Advisors. Many FA's in the old Wachoiva and AG Edwards offices don't even know that these channels exist. Why should a client pay high commissions at PCG when they can make the trade for $6.95, have on-line access and be attached to their Wells Fargo Bank accounts. Thats one major reason the firm is pushing fee  based accounts. Tranactional brokers at WFA PCG be become dinosaurs. Danny has already told FA's he will not fight the changes and the hard working FA's in PCG will feel the change. FA's at PCG (old AG Edwards offices ) are already being beaten to death by clients complaining about fees. PCG employees from AGE have given up so much already. Can they really withstand another first $10,000 of production cut. Looks like that is coming soon. Small cut but never the less a cut. This really shows how cheap the company is and if they really cared about the FA's they would not do this to them. This company is strictly about sqeezing the blood out of its FA's. They ( the exectives, Ludeman and Kowatch) always have a defense in their reasoning, but soon that reasoning will fail. The industry is changing, no doubt, but it is the hard working FA's in the field that allows the CEO to sit in the Ivory Tower back in St. Louis. Ludeman needs to go undercover in the field to see what the FA's go thru everyday and how hard it is to make a buck in this company.

Three cheers for Tad Edwards and his growing success. If he would have been appointed CEO over Bagby, Ludeman would stil be in Richman or have fallen with Wachovia.

Just another reason to either leave or go FiNet before it's too late. FiNet just raised the minimum to $300k from $250k.

There are now less than 40-45% of 'legacy' AGE FA's remaining.  So much for 'regretable attrition.'

I feel strongly that once the retention bonus plans are up, many FA's will pack it up and leave. Business is so slow that almost 48% of the FA's (old AGE brokers) on retention bonus's extended their contracts from 6 years to 10 years. True but a good economic/numbers case could be made if you have decided to stay.  Unfortunately, with Finet, I had to extend. FYI , only about 40-45% of 'legacy' AGE FA's remain.

 Big changes coming that will effect the FA's in the PCG offices. All bank brokers to be renamed Wells Fargo Advisors, No big deal.

 Wells Trade to be renamed Wells Fargo Advisors, and the Wachovia deep discount $6.95 for the 1st 1000 shares and a penny thereafter have already been named Wells Fargo Advisors. Many FA's in the old Wachoiva and AG Edwards offices don't even know that these channels exist. Why should a client pay high commissions at PCG when they can make the trade for $6.95, have on-line access and be attached to their Wells Fargo Bank accounts. Really, there isn't other competition out there already? You can't justify your value vs. $6.95/trade? If you really feel that way and think this is a huge disadvantage, you need to reconsider your dedication to your clients. 

Thats one major reason the firm is pushing fee  based accounts. Tranactional brokers at WFA PCG be become dinosaurs. Danny has already told FA's he will not fight the changes and the hard working FA's in PCG will feel the change. This is a new and insightful observation? It too is nothing new and is no different at any other firm. 

FA's at PCG (old AG Edwards offices ) are already being beaten to death by clients complaining about fees. Yes, true but no fees for advisory or over $250k.

PCG employees from AGE have given up so much already. Can they really withstand another first $10,000 of production cut. Looks like that is coming soon. Small cut but never the less a cut. This really shows how cheap the company is and if they really cared about the FA's they would not do this to them. This company is strictly about sqeezing the blood out of its FA's. They ( the exectives, Ludeman and Kowatch) always have a defense in their reasoning, but soon that reasoning will fail. The industry is changing, no doubt, but it is the hard working FA's in the field that allows the CEO to sit in the Ivory Tower back in St. Louis. Ludeman needs to go undercover in the field to see what the FA's go thru everyday and how hard it is to make a buck in this company. Agreed but, this sounds like an ad to either move or go FiNet. Don't just sit there and take it.

I just took a look at the "2009 Summary Annual Report for the Benefit Plans of Wachovia Bank" that came in the mail (since I used to be with Edwards).  The A.G. Edwards Retirement and Profit Sharing plan paid out $361,461,775 in benefits to participants in 2009.  Maybe a few people died, but most of that was rollovers from advisors who left.  The plan at the beginning of the year had $1,658,494,485.  That means that 21% of the 401k plan walked in 2009.  Considering that you can roughly correlate an advisor's production to the size of his 401k plan, Wells Fargo lost alot of big advisors in 2009.  That doesn't even count 2010!  I wonder if Danny is still talking about 'regrettable attrition'.

Really, there isn't other competition out there already? You can't justify your value vs. $6.95/trade? If you really feel that way and think this is a huge disadvantage, you need to reconsider your dedication to your clients. 

Hey, one thing is competition the other thing is when the firm you work for sends your clients offers to do all their trades for free.  But a bunch of firms are doing it not just WF. 

As for managers and managed accounts as the solution - they are not all that hot either - how many of the manager roster beat the index the last few years?  Imagine this sales line:  Joe shmo with shmo and hottler management has done sir, negative 1.5% for the last 5 years, isn't that great?  Check the averages on these people - not as impressive as one would like.

There is no panacea except volume of clients and assets.  Stock knowledge is something no one else offers - fidelity, schwabb, no one.  In every other area the offerings are pretty much generic from one place to another.  If you are a good trader and make big money for clients, it is easy to grow.

And, whats with the first $10,000 being cut???

[quote=CommonSense]

I just took a look at the "2009 Summary Annual Report for the Benefit Plans of Wachovia Bank" that came in the mail (since I used to be with Edwards).  The A.G. Edwards Retirement and Profit Sharing plan paid out $361,461,775 in benefits to participants in 2009.  Maybe a few people died, but most of that was rollovers from advisors who left.  The plan at the beginning of the year had $1,658,494,485.  That means that 21% of the 401k plan walked in 2009.  Considering that you can roughly correlate an advisor's production to the size of his 401k plan, Wells Fargo lost alot of big advisors in 2009.  That doesn't even count 2010!  I wonder if Danny is still talking about 'regrettable attrition'.

[/quote]

They also started allowing us to do an inservice rollover on the part of our 401k that the company put in which I took advantage of along with many others I would assume. 

[quote=chartist]

And, whats with the first $10,000 being cut???

[/quote]

starting january 1 PCG gets paid 22% on the first 10k (hurdle) and then 50% on anything above that..... it used to be 24% on the first 10k