Pretty interesting, to see this huge Wells Fargo machine. What's the future of this mega bank and brokerage firm? Spin offs? Do you folks that are there, see some signs of progress, going the right direction, or is it just a mess? Wells Fargo, Wachovia, Everen, Finet, Ragen Mackenzie, probably missing some, and you've got a lot of different cultures all under one roof..

[quote=BigFirepower]

Pretty interesting, to see this huge Wells Fargo machine. What's the future of this mega bank and brokerage firm? Spin offs? Do you folks that are there, see some signs of progress, going the right direction, or is it just a mess? Wells Fargo, Wachovia, Everen, Finet, Ragen Mackenzie, probably missing some, and you've got a lot of different cultures all under one roof..

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IMHO, it's a mess.  Same clogged back office but with no authority.   We're convinced Wells management hates the indy channel, we're just a fly in the ointment.  They have 6 products sold for each customer in their bank "stores", and their mantra for the year is "8 is great!".  Hoping to be spun off and acquired, may be why they've moved the transition date so far out to keep headcount steady...but that's probably just wishful thinking.  Literally don't care who buys as long as it's not a bank....even a wire who wants an indy channel would be more broker friendly.  At least they get brokerage and like the biz.

By the way the transition dates are not out to June of 2012. I don't know where he got that info. I called FINET it's 3-6 months out from now. It's funny how much incorrect info floats around in these forums.

Finetized, what would you think of LPL or RJ, or some other indy firm buying that asset from WFC? How many reps does Finet have?

I'm with a privately owned Indy BD. I just love the idea that I don't have to put up with "endless change". My former employer was really big on making excuses about change being good, normal, blah, blah.... No, if you do things the right way, you DO NOT need to constantly change things, create upheaval.

[quote=Finetized]

[quote=ShredderSr]

[quote=I am legend]

The only drawback I see with FINET is for clients who have mutual funds and will pay over $30 to liquidate a fund when they are now used to paying $5.  Of course you could absorb this cost, but that would be expensive to you as well.  Also, on fee based you pay up to 30 bps in admin fees even on platforms that in PCG there are no admin fees on.

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Ticket charges are applied at ALL indies: LPL, RayJay, everywhere.  You can either eat it or bill it to the client.  There are no ticket charges in advisory accounts.

I am pretty sure that RayJay charges an 'admin' for advisory accounts.  FiNet's is based on a sliding scale that decreases as assets go up.  It is just something that you factor into your pricing model. i.e. <$500k is 1.25, $500k-$1MM is 1%, etc. Your net/net payout after admin fees is still close to 75%.  Beats the 42-44% I was averaging at PCG.

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I will second Shredder that Finet does advisory pricing well...at least the client directed Asset Advisor...w/o ticket charges or investment guidelines....and it beats the PCG payout even with the admin.  And yes, RayJay also charges the same admin fee on client directed advisory but ALSO charges a $30 ticket charge both ways that you can always eat.  Still waiting to hear a valid reason for that, btw.

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I don't have a problem with ticket charges when it is something that you are getting paid on, but the problem I have is the $27 FINET charges for mutual fund sells.  Those of you at FINET--do you absorb those or pass to clients?  Also, did the clients have a problem with this when they noticed the difference from PCG?

Depends on the relationship.  If it is a decent size account then yes we eat the $27 ticket charge.  For smaller accounts or acats, we tell them the cost and then charge the client the fee.  No one has given us a hard time.

If you have multiple funds in the same family, the easiest thing to do is do a fund exchange into the money market (no ticket charges on exchanges) at the fund and then liquidate the money market (one $27 charge).

We have an IRA fee at my indy, it's $35. Our fund ticket charge is $20.

On the fund charge, it bugs me. What I need to do is minimize the number of trades in that area, to reduce the cost to the client. Client pays.

The IRA fee, well, if a client calls us, we waive it for them. If they don't call, they pay. We have over 100 IRA accts, so auto waiving the fee, would cost us $3,500. I think we'll wind up waiving about 20 of these.

For anyone contemplating Indy, the issue of fees and ticket charges is something to be well aware of. Also, if you are new, the outgoing and incoming acat fees can be pretty significant. For a good sized operation, between 6-12k. 

FINET has just under 1000 adivsors with 445 offices.  If your comming from PCG it's a good move other than the 15% haircut the first year.  Now you can move an entire "household" with one signature. You cab repaper AGE notes and 4front notes at around 3%. The back office is improving eveyday and your liason at FINET will cut through the bull for you for the first few months. Health insurance for you and your staff could be a deal breaker.  Know the health situation of your gang before you sign a lease. 

Raymond James and LPL also have great platforms.  My buddy at Raymond James says its like AG Edwards with higher payout.  Good Luck!

Make a decision before it's made for you!