I’m a Legacy AGE guy that thought it was time to speak out about what I have been seeing with some of my colleagues and what has been written on this forum in regards to the AGE to Wach Merger.  We certainly have a lot to be frustrated with over the last year.  Not least of all this crappy market we have been going through.

  My underlying thought is this: Change happens and it is not easy to make changes in the way we do business i.e. Smart Station, contact management/ no brokervision.  But weren't we compensated to sit in out chairs and deal with some BS?   Didn't we all have realistic expectations about what a conversion would mean?  Did we think smart station actually had Broker Vision and they forgot to tell us about it when the conversion took place?  Quit whining and do your damn job!   I guess I wanted to put another POV out there from a Legacy AGE.  I think Smart Station is better than Client One.  I never used BV except for the notes.  I used Outlook for appts and meetings.  Most of my AGE couterpartsthat I knew about did the same.  So why is everyone complaining about the contact management?  You can still do thes functions now.  Hell, we now even print out an envelope with the clients name on it!  Quit your whining!  Some of the tools on SS are way ahead of what we had at AGE.  The Portfolio Insight tool presents a much better report than Ontrack.  Adding NH accounts and making proposals are much more impressive then what we had. The fee based platform and using custom choice models are much more user friendly.  I have done a couple envision reports and my clients love them.  It wasn't easy to learn how to do them but I have been working every night to work to learn the system.  Envision is light years ahead of OTPP.  The bad part, is you need to learn how to use them, but wasn't this why we got paid to stay?????   I like how my clients with 250k don't have to pay an IRA fee or any acct fees. I like that I have a more complete choice of mutual funds and am closer to a true open architecture than AGE.  I like that after I pay my fixed cost each month I keep 50% of any business I do.  I like the ability of breaking down my business on FA Analysis.  Nothing like this at AGE.  We can finaly analyze our business.  I like the increase in SMA's and the abilty to discount my fee based business without getting scalped.  Hell,  I even think the format of the new statement is better!  I like I like how my clients can make deposits to there accounts at any bank or ATM.  I like the improvement in functionality of the remote access.  Call me nuts but the service request makes life easier once you figure it out.  Service at the home office is not as good as it use to be.  But I also thought there was a general decline even before wach came into the picture.  What I can tell is that most of the home office people are trying hard.  I just had an occasion where the person I talked to did not have an answer for my question.  It was the end of the day and I was not expecting a callback.  First thing the next morning someone from the department called me back and walked me through the process on Smart Station.  I have every confidence service will get better.   If you were Legacy AGE and left Wach, please acccept my Best Wishes.  It is rather pathetic to be spending so much time "selling" your decision to everyone else.  I also did my due dilligence when we were first bought.  Danny L. has made some mistakes and certainly screwed the pooch in regards to retention.  But as a Legacy AGE, I never did think we were particulary entitled to anything.  We had just been paid to sit in our seats and although it was sh*tty to go through Wachovia to Wells for our clients sake, moving to Wells will not create a disturbance to our business like learning smart station and having our clients get new checks from a now dead bank.  I must admit that sucked!   We have had one broker leave our office about 3 months ago.  He has taken about 40% of his book and hardly any of his clients are leaving anymore.  We have not tried hard to retain his clients.  I would imagine he is saying how awful Wach/Wells is to all his old clients trying to get them to come with him.  Apparently they don't give as big a sh*t as we may think.  I think he overestimated his relationships.  He actually sent an email out to his clients saying that Wachovia Securities brokers were "slapped in the face" when we didnt get retention and that was one of the reasons he left was beacuse he "knew" we would not get retention.  None of his clients seemed to be concerened about us not getting a retention.   In sumamary. Change sucks.  Get on with it or get going.  Please stop your whining like little Bit&%es   My apologies to any Legacy Wach.  Not all us AGE are asses.