Wells’ New Deals Attract Morgan Stanley Advisors Down South
Wells Fargo Advisors’ campaign to replenish its scandal-shrunk ranks with attractive signing bonuses and headhunter premiums appears to be bearing fruit, at least down in Dixie.
The bank-owned broker-dealer’s private client group on Friday recruited five Morgan Stanley producers in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida cumulatively producing $7.5 million, according to sources at both firms.
Eric G. Johnson and Brooks Collins, who generated about $4.3 million of fees and commissions in the previous 12 months in the small town of Decatur, Alabama, led the migration and will establish a Wells office there after a brief sojourn in Birmingham, Wells sources said.
In Ridgeland, Miss., near Jackson, Wells hired T. Scott Robertson III, a sole practitioner who produced around $1.7 million for Morgan Stanley in the previous 12 months, the sources said.
And in Boca Raton, Fla., Steven A. Rodman and Robert A. DeBlasio—who were producing $1.5 million—returned to Wells which they had left in late 2011 to join Morgan Stanley.
A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman confirmed the departures but declined further comment.
Wells Fargo has been keeping a low public profile in announcing brokers it has been recruiting, and the southern hires on the eve of the President’s Day weekend may be only a fraction of its hiring successes.
The broker-dealer has been wary about advertising its recruiting success while its parent company’s fake-account scandal and cross-marketing incentives remain in the spotlight, and while its net broker account across its private client, in-bank and independent channels are still down by almost 1,000 advisors since the scandal broker in late 2016.
But it has quietly been hosting headhunters with paid trips to headquarters to tell its story and remind them that that it will pay them 10% of a successfully recruited candidate’s trailing-12 production, up from the standard industry rate of 6%. It also has fattened signing bonuses for experienced advisors, giving those producing $500,000 and higher twice their T-12 production in upfront forgivable loans and extending attractive deals to lower-level producers as well.
Headhunters said many of the sub-$500,000 producers have been joining the bank-affiliated wealth management units at Wells, but last week’s flurry of exits from Morgan Stanley indicate that the core private client group unit also is having success.
In Alabama, Johnson and Collins did not respond to requests for comment. Their Morgan Stanley web biographies emphasize their good ol’ boy roots, noting that Collins is “a graduate of Decatur High School and Vanderbilt University – where he played football” while Johnson’s highlights his rearing in a military family and his Chattanooga-born father’s retirement to Huntsville when the advisor was 13 years old. “He has always considered Huntsville as home,” it says.
Johnson first registered as a broker in June 1998 with the bank-owned Compass Brokerage (and its AmSouth successor), shifted to Morgan Keegan in late 2007 and joined Smith Barney in 2009 as it was being integrated into Morgan Stanley. Collins entered the industry with A.G. Edwards in 2000, migrated to AmSouth, and similarly sojourned at Morgan Keegan before joining Morgan Stanley in 2011, according to his BrokerCheck history.
Robertson—who worked at Morgan Stanley and its Smith Barney predecessor for 23 of his 25 years as a registered securities rep—declined to comment when reached at his new Wells office in Ridgeland, Miss.
Rodman spent the first third of his 18-year brokerage career with Banc of America Investment Services in West Palm Beach, Fla., before joining Wells Fargo Advisors in Boynton Beach in mid-2007. He left for Morgan Stanley in Boca Raton in late 2011.
DeBlasio also worked at the Wells branch for just over two years before joining Morgan Stanley in Boca Raton in late 2011. He began his brokerage career in July 2008 at David Lerner Associates, where he spent less than a year.
Neither Rodman nor DeBlasio returned calls for comment.
Wells is experiencing a steady growth in recruiting momentum, and these latest hires are a part of that. This process has been ongoing over the last several months at a demonstrable, if not measured pace. To the firm’s credit, the focus has remained more on quality than mere quantity.
Thanks for continuing to drink that Kool-Aid , Ron. We know we can always count on you
Not drinking anyone’s Kool-Aid, my friend. Just pointing out that foundationally strong firms can rebound from very difficult challenges, as has, to varying degrees, now been evidenced by all four of the large wirehouses.
Ron – must you reply to every blog on here? Clearly you have nothing else going on..
Starkey, I don’t have time or inclination to reply to every “blog”. Clearly you don’t realize that many of the articles involve people either I or my firm have helped move.
So strong they literally lost a $1.4B rainmaker to an RIA in Philly last week.
Come on Ron. Seriously.
Ron,
If you believe that WF is “foundationally strong,” you’re not drinking the kool-aid. You’re on a different planet. Wells is a bucket shop. Its foundation is broken, the culture of cross-selling is absolutely egregious, and they are now grasping at straws. Paying up for these practices isn’t a sign of strength; it just shows that desperation truly is the worst cologne. To the advisors mentioned in this article: congrats on your latest golden handcuff deal. Should you need help discussing the merits of Wells Fargo with your clients, contact Ron Edde!
Has nothing to do with Wells Fargo, the top recruiters at Wells are mostly former UBS market leaders. The final choice was because of one of them, Steven Meadows who runs Alabama. Wells is a career killer for managers that are more talented then connected. Mr Meadows and ex UBSers will never move up at Wells. Wells is a JV team at best. Congratulations……now get out while you can!
With all the flaws of Morgan Stanley, and there are PLENTY, the “sell” of a better CLIENT experience at Wells Fargo from a MS move is outright laughable. These guys are gonna need a BIG 200% SHOVEL to spew this move to their clients. Save some of that $$ because there is ZERO chance they last the decade long commitment. A few for the Rolodex in 2027.
Well, let’s see. UBS was JUST fined $5 billion for tax evasion in France, Morgan Stanley is literally trying to chain advisors to their desks and threaten anyone who dares try to take their clients elsewhere with lawsuits, and the Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s efforts at cross-selling bank products makes Wells efforts in that area look like a lemonade stand by comparison; forget the fact that the firm was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2008 and received enough TARP money to buy Lithuania. Nah, the other firms never have bad press. It’s just all Wells is, right folks?