They have screwed you guys already so much at this point they have to figure what is another 3 weeks or sooooo.

I guess I don’t understand why DL would bring up the topic of a retention package and then have it fall through.  It would be much easier to take if they said right away there will not be anything then the way it has been handled.  Why mislead us, I would think less would want to leave with a management team they felt was honest with them.  I can’t imagine the next time there is one of those opportunities to ask the questions of the executive team.  How could you want to stay, why would you want to stay, and how can management not see how their brokers are going to react to this kind of misleading information. That is assuming this latest rumor is true, but the lack of information makes you think it must be.

Fritz, the mkt has blow us all up. Plenty of million dollar guys last year will be 500 or 600k this year. Thats not blown up? Lot of millions dollar guys in my area live like million dollar guys. Cant help it, the lifestyle just creeps in on you. Next thing you know you have a 40% cut in pay and you are having a hard time replacing it fast enough. Bills must be paid. So great producers will need retention to live to fight again. The guy that resigns here and now and is doing 400k or better, well then thats probably for mental health reasons. This biz will break peoples minds after a while if all it is is bad news and losses day after day after day. 2001 to 2003 was my first exp with that. It sucked and it was miserable. There was a lot of washout then. I think it will be far worse in depth and length this time so washout will be higher. A guy who is a great producer but with little savings, a family to support and high overhead may be forced out or into BK. Retention can preserve an otherwise good asset like this to do battle and bring in biz for the firm down the road. 

I know I’ll get (probably rightly) hammered for this, and I’m really not trying to do anything other than make an observation, but, here goes: It seems pretty clear that there are quite a lot of AGE/WB folks out there (not all, but many) who seem willing to take anything and everything the firm (whichever firm that may be at this point) chooses to dish out to them. After the litany of nightmares that have already occurred and seem to continue to occur to this day, there does seem to be a healthy contingent who will act, if not be satisfied by whatever else happens (retention/no retention, new, lower pay-grid/no new lower pay-grid, etc). With market forces in the state they are, perhaps management has picked up on this trend, too. Surely, WFC execs. are orders of magnitude smarter and more observant than I.

YHWY…up to this point you are right. If they come out with no retention you will see many leave. Some for more than just financial reasons. I mean who would want to work for a firm that strung you along for months telling you they will pay you a retention bonus and then they come out and tell you to go pound sand, perhaps after you passed up a deal to stay and wait it out. That would be a disgrace. Could anyone ever again feel good about the firm they work for in this case? No Fing way. 

Fritz, the mkt has blow us all up. Plenty of million dollar guys last year will be 500 or 600k this year. Thats not blown up? Lot of millions dollar guys in my area live like million dollar guys. Cant help it, the lifestyle just creeps in on you. Next thing you know you have a 40% cut in pay and you are having a hard time replacing it fast enough. Bills must be paid. So great producers will need retention to live to fight again. The guy that resigns here and now and is doing 400k or better, well then thats probably for mental health reasons. This biz will break peoples minds after a while if all it is is bad news and losses day after day after day. 2001 to 2003 was my first exp with that. It sucked and it was miserable. There was a lot of washout then. I think it will be far worse in depth and length this time so washout will be higher. A guy who is a great producer but with little savings, a family to support and high overhead may be forced out or into BK. Retention can preserve an otherwise good asset like this to do battle and bring in biz for the firm down the road. 

I feel fortunate to have lived below my means and even if I didn't, I don't expect my employer to bail me out.  However, I do expect them to communicate with me when it involves my future and the future of my clients. 

Fritz…Some firms actually do care about there FA’s. I know for a fact the MS cut checks up to 8% of T-12 for their guys last month as a way of saying “we feel your pain, hang in there”. Now thats a class act and a good business decision. Breeds major LOYALTY. As for the fee based business. Just not whats its cracked up top be I guess. Back to the old churn and burn days. I really think we will need to be very transactional this year to eek it out. No discounting. Clients dont like it tough. They can go in fee based or leave. I have very little tolerance at this point for the nickle and dimer clients. I see some guys killing it the last couple months. Seems they are turning the managed accts into annuities. 

Let me say as someone that has known DL for many years, even before he was head guy. If he has said he wants to pay FA’s retention, he wants to. He has not been trying to string people along. I have heard that he has run into problems with WFC corporate. He and Carroll are working to come up with retention. Its not that WFC doesn’t care, it’s i believe just not the way they are use to doing business. ]
Well BAC/ML paid it!!
Yeah but BAC paid a lot for ML and bought them for brokerage of course you pay retention.

How will this turn out. I have no frigging idea and worry that it will turn out bad. I have worked a long time at WacSec and still, with all that is going on, think it is/will/would have been the best firm in the industry. Because DL really does believe what he says and what he wants the firm to be.

Let me say as someone that has known DL for many years, even before he was head guy. If he has said he wants to pay FA’s retention, he wants to. He has not been trying to string people along. I have heard that he has run into problems with WFC corporate. He and Carroll are working to come up with retention. Its not that WFC doesn’t care, it’s i believe just not the way they are use to doing business. ]
Well BAC/ML paid it!!
Yeah but BAC paid a lot for ML and bought them for brokerage of course you pay retention.

How will this turn out. I have no frigging idea and worry that it will turn out bad. I have worked a long time at WacSec and still, with all that is going on, think it is/will/would have been the best firm in the industry. Because DL really does believe what he says and what he wants the firm to be.

Let me say as someone that has known DL for many years, even before he was head guy. If he has said he wants to pay FA’s retention, he wants to. He has not been trying to string people along. I have heard that he has run into problems with WFC corporate. He and Carroll are working to come up with retention. Its not that WFC doesn’t care, it’s i believe just not the way they are use to doing business. ]
Well BAC/ML paid it!!
Yeah but BAC paid a lot for ML and bought them for brokerage of course you pay retention.

How will this turn out. I have no frigging idea and worry that it will turn out bad. I have worked a long time at WacSec and still, with all that is going on, think it is/will/would have been the best firm in the industry. Because DL really does believe what he says and what he wants the firm to be.

Well, If WFC turns down DL on the retention bid, then this marriage will end in divorce real quick if DL is the stand up guy he’s supposed to be. That would make DL out to be a dishonorable man. There will be hell to pay for that.

It would be hard not respect him if he quit because they lied to him about the retention package.

[quote=JamesF]It would be hard not respect him if he quit because they lied to him about the retention package.[/quote]
Just as it would also be hard for clients not to respect their broker if he quit a firm that has clearly demonstrated by it’s inaction and lack of communication to FAs and clients what it’s priorities are.

It would be hard not respect him if he quit because they lied to him about the retention package.

I find it hard to believe that we are almost through the first full week of the new year and no conferance call.  I think the safe bet is to assume we get nothing.  I don’t understand the name issue.  Maybe they don’t want to distract us until we are through the conversion.  I am sure they have their reason, but morale can’t be good.

Well it does look bad for retention.  The question is what the fallout will be.  How many brokers will leave…really.  I hope everyone.  AGE brokers owe money, WS owe money. My time here is coming to an end.  Danny said in his last call before Christmas he wanted to have retention done by now, but it would be announced after the holidays.  How could the announcement be nothing?  What will it say to us if that happens?  From OCT to JAN being told it’s coming.  A move is not fun, but WFC is not a brokerage firm if they don’t do what all firms have done. 

“…it does look bad for retention”???  You are damn right it looks bad.  It is not coming at this point, we all have to believe that in our heart of hearts.  It will be interesting to see who has the stones to follow thru on their promises to leave.

My branch manager had a call with his regional on Tuesday.  “I have nothing to say about Retention”

Stones are hard to come by after this ride in market and Wachovia implosion.  That being said…brokers will leave.  The lure of a transistion package will make the pain worth it.  This company even with a retention is at a competetive disadvantage with yet another conversion.  Clients may be down in there returns, but good relationships will follow their broker.