Wachovia Securities, with its purchase of Prudential in early 2003, suddenly became the third-largest brokerage in the country. Now, just over a year later, the firm has announced the creation of the Individual Investor Group, a unit entirely devoted to recruitment and retention of individual brokers.
The recruiting plan is much like everyone else’s: Identify top producers from other firms—and steal them.
“This is an aggressive move on [Wachovia’s] part,” one recruiter says. “They are making it clear they’re not just compiling numbers anymore.”
The new division will be headed by David Monday, Wachovia Securities’ new “chief growth and productivity officer.” Monday will have 20 in-house recruiters going directly after other firm’s best producers.
In addition, Wachovia says the new division will have a staff of training consultants focused directly on internal growth. The goal, according to a company spokesperson, is to keep training costs down while still promoting quality people.
Wachovia currently has 10,500 brokers, behind only Merrill Lynch’s 14,100 and Smith Barney’s 12,500.