Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: ON THE MOVE-Wells Fargo adds big teams to indy broker unit

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ON THE MOVE-Wells Fargo adds big teams to indy broker unit Jun 6th 2012, 20:40 By Ashley Lau June 6 | Wed Jun 6, 2012 4:40pm EDT June 6 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co's independent brokerage unit landed two veteran adviser teams in California and Connecticut, expanding its client asset base and reach across the United States as it grows to compete with other top U.S. brokerages. The new additions, who manage more than $400 million in combined client assets, came from LPL Financial and CCO Investment Services Corp. The teams joined Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, the company's broker-dealer division catering to independent advisers who also function as business owners. In California, advisers Robert Floe, Kenneth Sanchez, Lee Wolfe and Marjan Neyestani Khazra joined Wells with their independent firm, Floe Financial Partners, on Monday. Floe, based in Pasadena, had been with LPL for nearly two decades. The team manages more than $300 million in client assets. In Connecticut, advisers James "Jim" Venditti and James Oliver joined Wells on Friday from CCO Investment Services Corp, the broker-dealer affiliated with Citizens Financial Group. The advisers manage about $110 million in client assets and generated $1.2 million in revenue last year, according to a recruiter with knowledge of the move. Wells Fargo, which also has a traditional employee broker-dealer and banking division, said in April that its independent "FiNet" channel added 70 independent practices and 152 financial advisers in 2011. As a result, the division increased its client assets under management 18 percent to $52.7 billion. While some of those teams joined Wells from existing independent practices, many were also newly independent advisers who decided to start their own businesses, which recruiters say has become an increasingly attractive option for veteran brokers. With its broker-dealer subsidiaries, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has the third-largest U.S. brokerage by client assets after Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Bank of America's Merrill Lynch. The brokerage business, based in St. Louis, has more than 15,000 advisers with roughly $1.2 trillion in client assets among its brokerage subsidiaries. Since the start of the year, Wells Fargo has added advisers from rival brokerages who managed at least $5.4 billion in client assets at their old firms, as tracked by Reuters. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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