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What will Wells Fargo pay to keep brokers?

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Nov 13, 2008 12:03 am
Friday, November 7, 2008  |  Modified: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 10:49 AM Bonus question: What will Wells Fargo pay to keep brokers? Wait-and-see approach is what most Wachovia advisers are resorting to
After a grueling period of uncertainty, financial advisers at Wachovia Securities are waiting to see what kind of retention packages Wells Fargo & Co. will offer them.

But advisers and recruiters say they don’t expect the San Francisco-based bank to offer much more than what Bank of America Corp. has offered advisers at Merrill Lynch & Co. That offer has been called underwhelming by some.

Last week, Wachovia Securities Chief Executive Danny Ludeman traveled to San Francisco to meet with top executives at Wells, a company spokeswoman confirmed. But Wells has not yet communicated anything to the firm’s 14,635 financial advisers about retention bonuses. A Wells spokeswoman says it’s premature to discuss such plans.

Wells expects to close its $15 billion acquisition of Wachovia Corp. before the end of the year.

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Looks like Danny made the transcontinental flight out to the West Coast to get some business done on behalf for the WB brokers but according to a Wells spokeswoman a retention plan is too premature to discuss.  Maybe just waiting until everyone’s t12 is way down before  making an offer.  One would think the retention package would be out asap or is it possible WFC never wanted the brokerage side but took it just to get the deal done to buy the whole bank.  Any thoughts?
Nov 13, 2008 1:13 am
    So how 'bout those Giants?!
Nov 13, 2008 1:26 am

It took 40 days for BAC to announce a retention package to the MER reps…well it has been 41 days since WFC announced they bought WB …and not a word on retention.  They should be focusing on retention and not what they are going to call us.

Nov 13, 2008 1:42 am

[quote=IRONBULL]It took 40 days for BAC to announce a retention package to the MER reps…well it has been 41 days since WFC announced they bought WB …and not a word on retention.  They should be focusing on retention and not what they are going to call us.

[/quote]   Think they have focused in retention..NO RETENTION. 
Nov 13, 2008 1:46 am

Didn’t we beat this topic into the ground with the post I started that is now 40+ pages long?

Nov 13, 2008 3:57 am
Wells CEO speaks to Wachovia workers in N.C. San Francisco Business Times - by John Downey Morgan Stanley taps senior Wachovia execs

Wells Fargo & Co. CEO John Stumpf spoke to Wachovia Corp.’s employees in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Wednesday morning and proved engaging, funny — and noncommittal.

He spoke of the bank’s roots in the city. He told the more than 1,000 assembled that when he started in the business, there was “one bank, and one leader, that was royalty in our business.” He said that was John Medlin, Wachovia’s longtime chairman and CEO when it was based in Winston-Salem.

That won him the most applause in a 40-minute speech frequently punctuated by laughter and applause.

But if he made few promises when addressing bank employees in Charlotte a month ago, he made none in Winston-Salem.

Stan Kelly, head of Wachovia’s wealth-management division — the key unit remaining in Winston-Salem after First Union Corp. bought the bank, took its name and moved its headquarters to Charlotte — noted the division would double in size after the Wells merger. But there is no sign yet that its headquarters will remain in place.

Wells (NYSE: WFC) has agreed to buy Wachovia (NYSE: WB) in a deal now valued at nearly $13 billion. The purchase is expected to close at the end of the year. On Wednesday, Stumpf reiterated that Wells will take its time to merge the banks correctly. But he also acknowledged Wells expects to take $5 billion in annual costs out of the combined company.

Stumpf met with Medlin and his successor, Bud Baker, who sold Wachovia to First Union in 2001, at breakfast in Winston-Salem.

Mayor Allen Joines and Gayle Anderson, president of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, were among a handful of representatives who spoke with Stumpf briefly after his speech. Joines presented him with a file the city had prepared, which made the case for keeping operations such as wealth management and major data centers in Winston-Salem. Anderson presented him with a small replica of the Wells Fargo stagecoach. City leaders also took out a full-page ad in this morning’s Winston-Salem Journal welcoming Wells.

Joines said city officials will meet with the bank’s transition team soon to talk about Winston-Salem’s future. But he took encouragement from Stumpf’s speech. He listened as Stumpf told the crowd the original Wachovia was “about the people here, about their vision, about their values.”

Joines liked what he heard. “I told him he made my business case for me.”

Stumpf has emphasized that Charlotte will be Wells’ East Coast headquarters. In Winston-Salem, he referred to employees as team members and as an “asset to be nurtured” rather than an “expense to managed.”

And he described Wells as a decentralized bank that recognizes the need for local authority. But when he turned to the future, he had little specific to say about Winston-Salem.

Still, more than 150 employees lined up to meet Stumpf after his speech. He spent more than 20 minutes chatting with Wachovia workers, occasionally posing with them for cell-phone photos, before leaving for his next employee meeting in Atlanta. He took no questions from reporters.

Some Wachovia workers said they were encouraged by his remarks.

“I feel a lot better,” said Hillary Peak, who works in the bank division that monitors money laundering. “I liked learning about his 10 brothers and sisters. I liked how he talked about the team, and hopefully he wants to keep the team together.”

Anthony Simes, who works in information technology for the bank, said, “We’ve learned with the acquisitions we’ve made over the last few years that it can take a year or a year and a half for everything to shake out.”

One woman brushed by quickly, saying, “We can’t talk about the merger, but we LOVE John Stumpf.”

Stumpf has proved a dynamic speaker in his North Carolina appearances. He got a big laugh with a reference to his large Catholic family and how “rhythm will get you a lot of kids.” Then he beamed and told the audience, “We can work together. I can see that.”

He also had the audience nodding in agreement when he said the economically troubled nation “needs a victory right now. It needs a company like us that will lead and that will lend.”


Charlotte Business Journal

Nov 13, 2008 5:29 pm

What flavor was the Kool-Aid?

Nov 13, 2008 9:33 pm

Wells is dragging their feet, likely to short sell AGE and Wachovia brokers in my opinion. The  koolaid keeps flowing. Most of my AGE and WS buddies I worked with for years continue to believe and say to me “it’ll get better”… the old story about putting a frog in the pot and turning up the heat comes to mind here. Wake up, our firm and others are going to pull back hard now that they’ve filled their pipelines with high end ML advisors. The average WS or AGE guy is going to wish they had engaged already. Every day is one day closer to a smaller deal or no opportunity worth moving for at all.

Nov 14, 2008 1:06 am
Thursday, November 13, 2008 - 2:40 PM PST Wells Fargo names only Wachovia exec reporting to CEO San Francisco Business Times Wells Fargo & Co. has chosen David Carroll, head of Wachovia Corp.’s capital-management group, to lead the combined firms’ wealth management efforts.

A Wells spokeswoman says Carroll will be the only Wachovia executive who will report to Wells CEO John Stumpf after the merger.

Carroll’s job will include businesses such as retail brokerage, investment management and retirement services.

Wachovia CEO Bob Steel isn’t planning to stay after the bank is sold.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is buying Wachovia in a deal slated to close next month. It was valued at $15.1 billion when it was announced Oct. 3.

This week Morgan Stanley said two senior Wachovia executives joined its retail banking group.

Cece Sutton will become its president and Jonathan Witter has been named its chief operating officer.

Sutton is leaving her post as executive vice president and head of retail and small business at the Charlotte-based bank (NYSE: WB), where she was responsible for 33,000 employees.

Sutton will join the management committee of New York-based Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).


Charlotte Business Journal

Nov 14, 2008 3:10 am
burtonfinancial1:

Wells is dragging their feet, likely to short sell AGE and Wachovia brokers in my opinion. The  koolaid keeps flowing. Most of my AGE and WS buddies I worked with for years continue to believe and say to me “it’ll get better”… the old story about putting a frog in the pot and turning up the heat comes to mind here. Wake up, our firm and others are going to pull back hard now that they’ve filled their pipelines with high end ML advisors. The average WS or AGE guy is going to wish they had engaged already. Every day is one day closer to a smaller deal or no opportunity worth moving for at all.

shorter of breath and one day closer to death . . .
Nov 14, 2008 7:29 pm
burtonfinancial1:

Wells is dragging their feet, likely to short sell AGE and Wachovia brokers in my opinion. The  koolaid keeps flowing. Most of my AGE and WS buddies I worked with for years continue to believe and say to me “it’ll get better”… the old story about putting a frog in the pot and turning up the heat comes to mind here. Wake up, our firm and others are going to pull back hard now that they’ve filled their pipelines with high end ML advisors. The average WS or AGE guy is going to wish they had engaged already. Every day is one day closer to a smaller deal or no opportunity worth moving for at all.

    blah, blah, blah and more blah...   Only fools rush in and in this environment you'd be crazy to risk a move without knowing ALL of the facts.   As a WS broker going to Finet is the only indy move that makes any sense at all.  No account numbers change, it is a transparent move to the client.   If you are EXCEPTIONAL you retain 80% of your clients in a move and that is if the market is a "normal" market.  Moving when the market has CRUSHED clients accounts now you arent going to retain 80% anyone telling you otherwise is either dillusional or lying.   Lose 1 or 2 of your clients who make up the 80% of your revenue and you are totally screwed.   Making a move in here is really a move because you are being forced too and not because firm X is offering me more money.  If you hate the firm then you should already be out the door as the merge was the preverbial straw that broke the camels back and not because the retention offer is not close enough to what Firm X is offering.   I will say it again, IMO the retention is going to look a lot like what AGE brokers were offered.... probably slightly smaller but very much in line with what was offered back then.
Nov 14, 2008 7:42 pm

Newsflash! This just in hot off the press. Your clients know whether they will stay or go with you.

Nov 14, 2008 7:58 pm
indythankgod:

Newsflash! This just in hot off the press. Your clients know whether they will stay or go with you.

  Ya think?   Move when the market has been in a 3 year up cycle where they are making money or move when the market is cut nearly in half.... odd of you getting a bad surprise are MUCH higher in this environment than in the other.  
Nov 14, 2008 11:21 pm

So BukiRob, other than your opinion what factual data do you have to support your statement?

Nov 15, 2008 12:23 am

Lets beat this a bit further into the ground… anyone ever wonder why wfc has not made any calls to us? Ever think about why our regional “complex” manager is ncgnto??? (I adore the term “complex” --what the *** is that?) Consider why the guy under the “complex” manager has made only one or two communications with the troops??? Danny is on vacation in Florida during this intense transition??? No retention package news now until December??? We think wb sec. is up for sale… What do my troops think…

Nov 15, 2008 12:35 am

I concur…odd that only one Wachovia guy is at the top of the various WFC/WB divisions and it happens to be the brokerage.

Nov 15, 2008 12:42 am

You legacy AGE guys just continue to hold tight! I’m having an absolute field day bringing in accounts from your (and other) foundering firm(s). You wouldn’t believe the advertising and mailing campaigns I’m running to do this. I’m actually having the truth printed in ads in my local paper and in mailers (you know, that WB is insolvent and has been sold, in principal…twice, that the future of Wach. Sec. is completely uncertain and that our local Wach. Sec. branch is being closed (a fact which they still haven’t admitted their clients))! Your clients have been SHOCKED to hear it (and SICKENED that they didn’t hear it from you, their formerly trusted advisor), and MOTIVATED to make a move. I tell ya, this is a dream come true for me and I can’t thank you guys enough! Please, please ride this thing to the bitter end.

Nov 15, 2008 1:12 am

I don’t understand why anyone would think it would be harder now compared to other times to move if the relationships are good.

Nov 15, 2008 1:15 am

I get this my friend. emailed Danny last night with my thoughts and he did respond thankfully… My bm does’nt even respond to my emails…what is a girl to think??? Really liking that I or we will have to pay for our state licenses… apprx. 45 and to boot marketing materials…curious to know were the remainder of my 60% is allocated to. grrrrr

Nov 15, 2008 1:22 am

You sound like one of those used car sales man…way too hungary to make a sale…but taking profit on a very difficult situation.   I have not had ONE acat out and I am LEGACY AGE!!!   Kool-aide and all… we have encountered people like you in the past and all I will offer you is nothing. You are wasting your time on our watch. Beware…we will take those relationships from you when you fail and you will.   What you got!