Wells Fargo has a lot fewer advisors than it did a year ago: 1,241 fewer to be precise.
The firm has struggled advisor attrition in recent years, losing talent both to retirement as well as to the competition.
https://www.barrons.com/advisor/articles/wells-fargo-financial-advisors-headcount-falls-51634245122
In case you didn't see the company meeting, OP {and the other people boo-hoo'ing about losing human employees} your gripes are being ignored and the automation wave is in full swing.
That's only one occupation in a bank with thousands.
In other words... So what?
@1dok+1dkteAiv
This is false. Old money wants people. New money and the younger crowd tries to deal with people as little as possible, and will trust a machine to not make unbiased decisions based on numbers rather than a person's gut feelings or "experience".
This is the divide going on here at the bank. A big chunk of people want to keep doing things "the old way" not realizing the world is moving on with or without them. They thrash and complain when things change because it is uncomfortable to deal with. Its not about WF, its not about the US vs other countries - the world is moving to a digital, AI and Automation based workplace. Customer service, branch presence, underwriting, financial advisors, tech support, waiters/waitresses, sales, fulfillment, transportation of goods and services, food prep, even teaching is all ripe for automation. All of these jobs will be replaced by machines in a very short time. I'm sure that even when they replace these jobs, there will still be the "old ways' people that run for cover and find it with another business - who then replaces their people with automation because they see how much it improves their bottom line. The real truth is that nowhere is safe. Nothing will keep this way of doing business from going extinct.
Post ID: @1bdq+1dkteAiv
What does Psypost say about people who uptick their own posts?
Post ID: @1wnm+1dkteAiv
Somehow I think using the term “Russian” is the p-t calling the kettle cookware in your case. 😂
Post ID: @1aro+1dkteAiv
Ahhhh someone who references Psypost.
You are right: enough said. There are some great Russian sources out there you should check out too!
Thank you for making my day 😂.
https://www.psypost.org/2021/10/people-with-higher-socioeconomic-status-have-lower-emotional-intelligence-especially-at-high-levels-of-inequality-61942
Enough said.
It’s like the thin scratchy commercial toilet paper Wells Fargo provides in their employee bathrooms. Some brain surgeon at WFC convinced execs it’s a deal, but it takes 3 times as much to get the job done and we’re all sore by the end of the day. You get what you pay for.
Again, once the Robo's start outperforming the Ho-o's, the big money will go to the Robo's.
I would be happy for WFC to phase in more RoboAdvisor and phase out FAs. Because they will lose their wealthy clients to the firms who understand that there is room for both and that wealth clients place a value on the experience and personalized advice only a human can provide. And WFC will be stuck with all the $10,000 or less accounts, which the firm loses money on daily. Sounds like a great recipe for success!
I can tell you that WFC only offers RoboAdvisor for one reason. That is to make it appear that we are on par with our competitors. We do not profit from the business.
I’m in a position to see what happens behind the scenes. I see what happens when the automated trading systems kick in and decide to buy or sell a stock or a sector at the same time. Driving stock prices up or down exponentially, and then the stock comes back to its normal trading range when the systems are done. Customers end up getting in or out at detrimental prices. It’s ugly.
Most of the people offering up their opinions don’t know what they don’t know. But we all know that won’t stop them.
Post ID: @1ijn+1dkteAiv
Impossible for someone without any regard for the rest of humanity.
I used to suffer the same delusions, thinking that the human aspect of my job would act as a firewall to the takeover of software.
Then I got a clue and realized anything that can be performed as a process can be automated.
Arguing over how well it suits the customer is an interesting philosophical argument, but when the customer has no choice, they adapt. Sure your UHNW folks might still be willing to pay for someone to tell them what a computer can, but it will be the exception. The sooner you give a fair assessment to what technology can take away from you, the sooner you can formulate a survival plan.
Post ID: @1sux+1dkteAiv
A financial professional would understand there are pros and cons to both models. Additionally, you would be more influential with your POV if you could learn to communicate without name-calling.
@1qyg You think a better performing robo advisor, which enhances customer wealth, is bad for customers? Which is more convenient and always available to the customer? Where there's no chance of human error?
You're and id--t and shouldn't be in this industry.
Post ID: @1gnu+1dkteAiv
In the end, WFC will continue to fail as a financial institution because people like you think it’s smart to put WFC’s interests above our customers’ best interests. It’s the underlying reason why we are the only top bank under a federal asset cap.
Do any of you guys saying technology is the way of the future actually deal with clients directly?
People that have money want a human and relationship helping them, not technology. No tech can ever replace this.
Also, FA’s are low expense, high profit employees. This is not an area where we want attrition and leaning out of headcount as part of our layoffs initiative.
And yet WIM’s efficiency is still awful. Maybe they need to have even more attrition.
Robo advisors consistently outperform FAs, and as was pointed out earlier, even if they matched or slightly underperformed FAs, they'd still be a better investment than human advisors due to the cost of people talent.
FAs can figure out how they're going to adapt to the modern world, or join the milk man in irrelevancy.
Seriously, don’t take my word for it regarding Robo Advisor. I dare for one of the smart-mouths out here, who pretend to know what they are talking about (and prove their lack of knowledge the more they talk), to ask Charlie how many trades go through our Robo-Advisor every day. It’s a smarter question than you would ever ask on your own, and he will be impressed that you are aware that we offer that service. You might actually learn something about the business you work in.
Why invest in that when they can invest in whatever AI can do the job for a several thousands of customers at the same time, while absorbing no benefits, no PTO, no missed deadlines or training, no HR staff to watch over it, no sick time, no overtime, no employee feedback, no management overseeing it - other than tech staff, etc? Sure it takes time to teach it how to be efficient, or to teach it what to do. But most of us are doing that every day already through the misc tools and processes we all use. That is how it goes for businesses as they fight to remain relevant in an increasingly digital age. As someone else mentioned below - its about removing that human element.
Post ID: @yhw+1dkteAiv
The fat lady hasn’t sung on that product. Early investors do make money in pyramid schemes, but most people get burned.
Post ID: @ppn+1dkteAiv
Do you work at Wells Fargo? We can’t even get a decent online trading system. (Ours is rated poorly by investors.) Charlie is focused on putting out different colored plastic credit cards, not developing any technology that will take us in to the future. In fact, we’re still playing catch-up from our past.
FYI we did buy another company’s very basic guided investing technology for our customers, and nobody uses it. On another post, someone asked for questions to be presented to Charlie at an upcoming Town-hall. Ask him “How many trades go through our Robo-Advisor per day?”
@zjc+1dkteAiv
Like the people pushing the DRS wave, the people who made millions on crypto by themselves at home, the miners building rigs? I am sure they weren't directed to make those investments by a FA.
Post ID: @hpv+1dkteAiv
That is something people with very little money say. Successful busy wealthy people want a seasoned professional handling their money.
@los+1dkteAiv
People relationships and face to face relationships are old business. New business is digital, 24/7 availability, instant results, instant decisions, and near constant reporting and prediction abilities. People are a stick in the spoke to that kind of business...they slow it down. Banking has to pull itself into a digital age, and unfortunately it will be the end of a lot of "old ways" of doing things.
*Yes its unfortunate that these jobs and many many other jobs will suffer because of that. I am not saying its a preferred future I would like to see myself. I am merely stating that's how many businesses have decided to operate.
Well, some advisors are still making a fortune and growing like crazy. I don't see this profession disappearing any time in the near future. We are in the business of people/relationships...and we gather assets not manage risk. Risk is managed by a PM.
@mvn+1dkteAiv It doesn't have to be better, it just has to have roughly the same rate of error as a person would, but will ultimately cost much less because they aren't paying it bonuses, insurance, benefits, paying to reskill a workforce, etc. Plus it works 24 hours for them, doesn't need a break, and doesn't take PTO.
This goes for all companies - It's not about making better performance for the most part. That's learned and refined over time all by itself. It's about removing the human element and the human costs, increasing their bottom line.
Post ID: @fiy+1dkteAiv
Just because you can automate something doesn’t been you should or it is better.
There is no substitute for experience. Machines only are as smart as those programming them. This comes from a programmer. Many do not understand that and in the bean counters case, want to.
Advisors are a shrinking profession and there a shrinking sub-brand. Its one of the easiest jobs to automate too - this is why many are leaving advisors jobs even outside of Wells.
Any job where your role is to calculate risk based on statistics is a dead-end job. Computers are faster, and far more efficient at it than you could ever be.
It's literally what "AI" is.
First, Wells Fargo is not a “firm”. Don’t try to legitimize it as anything other than what it is. Second, FA will go the way of the travel agent. They’re becoming obsolete and, if you’re being hinest, never really places the interests of their clients ahead of their own. So, this, is natural attrition of a dying profession.
Post ID: @mvo+1dkteAiv
Hey Simpleton! FA’s don’t get paid severance. Again - learn something about the business you work for. Whoever hired you should be fired.
Good. Less severance pay out
Wells Fargo has a lot fewer advisors than it did a year ago: 1,241 fewer to be precise.
The firm has struggled advisor attrition in recent years, losing talent both to retirement as well as to the competition. The company counted 12,552 advisors at the end of the third quarter, down from 13,793 for the same period last year, according to Wells Fargo’s quarterly earnings report. That’s also down from 15,086 advisors Wells Fargo had for the third quarter of 2016, when a fake accounts scandal rocked the bank, cost it billions of dollars, set off a series of regulatory investigations and actions that ultimately led to the departure of several top executives.
Charles W. Scharf took over as CEO in 2019, and has attempted to turn the page on Wells Fargo’s past.
“We are a different bank than we were several years ago, and we run the company with greater efficiency, great transparency and operating discipline,” he said during the company’s third quarter earnings call. “We have a new leadership team: 15 of 18 operating committee members are now new to their roles.”
The bank posted a 59% year over year increase in profits, with net income hitting $5.1 billion.
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Net income for the firm’s wealth and investment management business also rose, increasing 38% to $579 million for the quarter. The company attributed a 10% rise in revenue to expense discipline and earning higher asset-based fees as market valuations rose.
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Total client assets of $2.1 trillion were up 13% year over year, but down 2% from the prior quarter. Morgan Stanley , which also issued earnings the same day, reported client assets of $4.629 trillion, up 62% from the year-ago period and up 2% from the prior quarter.
Wells Fargo’s wealth management unit includes its traditional wirehouse brokerage business as well as its private bank and independent broker-dealer. The unit offers brokerage services, financial planning, banking, cedit, and other services to high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth clients.
The company recently ceased serving international wealth management clients; advisors who served that clientele have decamped for other rivals, such as Snowden Lane Partners. Wells Fargo has lost some advisors to other competitors. For instance, Stifel Financial said Oct. 14 that it had hired Steve Seiler, an advisor who spent nearly 23 years at Wells Fargo. He oversaw $267 million in Overland Park, Kansas.
Wells Fargo has strived to replenish its ranks through recruiting, picking up some notable hires of its own, such as an $800 million team from UBS .
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A company representative said that advisor productivity, at $1.141 million per advisor, is up 21% from the previous year, that attrition has slowed since last quarter, and that the firm’s recruiting pipeline remains strong.
“This represents the last significant quarter of international advisor departures,” the representative said. “We also experienced retirements along with some departures from both Wells Fargo Advisors (WFA) and the Private Bank. At the same time, we saw an increase in hiring momentum this quarter with an influx of million-dollar producers joining in channels across WFA.”
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During the earnings call, Scharf noted that Wells Fargo’s multiple channels may help it attract advisor talent. It’s also exercising expense discipline, he said, adding that the firm is currently “rationalizing” its real estate footprint.
Furthermore, it sees opportunities to expand its bank branch advisor network and other wealth management businesses. “I think we feel that we have underinvested in the online piece and the independent [advisor] piece for sure,” he said.