[quote=YHWY]I believe that the real defections have not yet begun. Many will take the path of least resistance until summer (or so) of 2008, when the real changes (like pay-cuts) will begin being announced. There are many of us who are putting together transition plans at a comfortable pace and will actually leave sometime between the end of this year and 3rd quarter of next. IMHO there will be substantial attrition. We will see how many put their autographs on the lump sum retention package agreement (by August 31). I reckon that many who don't intend to stay indefinitely won't put their signatures on anything that contains the words "Non-Solicitation Agreement" no matter how break-away they claim it is. [/quote]

So what happens if the "pay-cuts" don't materilize as you suggest?  This whole thing really depends on how they structure this organiztion after Oct 2008.  Everyone is doing DD, you'd be a fool not to. But why would I NOT take the 'loan' and at least earn 8-10 months of the bonus? I am sure that you have read the 'sample' agreement'? I've had my laywer look it over and there is nothing nafarious about it.  IMHO I think you'll be surprised at the # of FC's that 'take the money'.  There will always be attrition, substantial attrition, I think not. Time will tell.

'Shredder,
 The short answer, in my case, is “I don’t trust them”.
 IMHO we will end up with just about exactly the payout schedule WB has now (that comes from input from my BOM and regional manager). IF that comes to pass, then my fixed monthly expense at WB will be $8000.00 based on a 20% payout up to$10k /mo. I will then get 50% payout LESS ticket charges. At LPL (or RayJay Indy, for that matter) I can have fixed expenses of $7000-$8000 (high end) and then keep a 90% + payout (in my case, it’s be 93% at LPL), less ticket charges. Even if they sweeten the WB payout (slim chance, IMHO), it will still be nothing like LPL/RayJay. These facts made it an easy choice for me. I wish everyone best of luck, whichever way they go.

The last week of July and first week in August over 17 million in production left.  1.8 bil in assets.  That was pale in comparrison to last week.  I will update as the numbers come in.  Several big ones in and around St Louis went Friday.

[quote=agevet]

The last week of July and first week in August over 17 million in production left.  1.8 bil in assets.  That was pale in comparrison to last week.  I will update as the numbers come in.  Several big ones in and around St Louis went Friday.

[/quote]

I made my jump to independence over that bloody time frame that you speak of. Gawd I never knew it would be soooo sweet....yup it's a ton of work moving a book. I've worked every weekend and i'm awake at 3am many nights thinking about what I need to accomplish the next morning. But with nearly 80% of my book now in acat it's starting to get really fun...damn i've filled out so many new account app's that I have nightmares about them...lol. I actually think I'm going to take a day off this weekend.  Several AGE reps are telling me many more will abandon the mothership in the coming months. As I've always said here...the substantial fallout will surprise many & of course time will tell. 

Are most of these brokers leaving from a certain region or is it nation wide.  They are allready making changes to our fee based platforms which will be announced soon and some of these changes, no matter what they say, are notin the best interest of the client.

[quote=7yrage]Are most of these brokers leaving from a certain region or is it nation wide.  They are allready making changes to our fee based platforms which will be announced soon and some of these changes, no matter what they say, are notin the best interest of the client.[/quote]

I've heard of a couple teams in FL and some pretty big defections in the midwest, IA, MI, etc. Some with BOM's going and taking some of the branch w/ them. I don't know what's conjecture and what's not.  Have not heard of any changes to the fee based platform but most of the WB reps I know., and from what I've seen, say the WB fee based platform is much better than what we have.

I know a lot on the fence and 1 branch that lost 7-8 guys including the branch manager. 

We had a private conf. call with a WS home office guy and he danced around every major issue.  Anybody who buys into the “best practices” sales pitch will figure it out soon enough.  Remember they bought the company, so they can use their model, which is successful.  When they answer direct questions with “this has worked for us in the past” or “we’ve had success here”, I think that says where they’re heading.  Which is fine, its their company. 

This is not a merger of equals.  Don’t forget Pru financial owns 38% of WS and many of that wirehouse background is inside WS management.

According to the wholesalers I’ve known for a long time there’s going to be some big losses in the upcoming weeks. 

Personally, I think my branch will be cut almost in half from our current 15.

GoingIndy…
 Keep in mind these little nuggets: AGE owns (debt-free) about two million square feet of prime office space in St. Louis (I don’t know the going rate of office space there, but maybe you do), in which Wachovia seems to have found value. PLUS, AGE holds about two billion dollars in cash (That’s about $2,000,000,000.00). In addition, AGE has $0 (that’s zero dollars) in corporate debt.
 I’m not a math whiz, but I seem to get the impression that, perhaps, AGE’s entire sales force wasn’t the real objective. Just my humble opinion.
 

I know of several large producers in the STL area that have moved in the

past few weeks. No doubt many more will follow.

I am curious about the AGE top producers that have agreed to address the rank-and-file on AGE-Net this week. Were they compensated for this, specifically?
 Either way, it reinforces my distrust of the entire “merger” ordeal.

Have you prayed for guidance?

I have seen the light!

[quote=Guests]GoingIndy...
 Keep in mind these little nuggets: AGE owns (debt-free) about two million square feet of prime office space in St. Louis (I don't know the going rate of office space there, but maybe you do), in which Wachovia seems to have found value. PLUS, AGE holds about two billion dollars in cash (That's about $2,000,000,000.00). In addition, AGE has $0 (that's zero dollars) in corporate debt.
 I'm not a math whiz, but I seem to get the impression that, perhaps, AGE's entire sales force wasn't the real objective. Just my humble opinion.
 
[/quote]

The guys at Wachovia that put this deal together are complete geniuses.  Of course they don't care if they loose 35%-40% of the brokers because they not only made a killing on the real estate plus the cash on the books but most importantly they now have a significant footprint in the midwest & a red carpet into the lucrative midwest west urban markets like chicago, detroit & st.louis where they can expand their banking empire. They will only use their new "profit center" AGE to implement a much more profitable goal. And to think they only paid 6.8billion & got much of that back from the balance sheet...wow!

IMHO, if the Wachovia team were so genius, they may have chosen to keep the 120 year old firm’s name on some of their signs. But, what do I know. (all together now, “Very little!”

[quote=Guests]GoingIndy…
 Keep in mind these little nuggets: AGE owns (debt-free) about two million square feet of prime office space in St. Louis (I don’t know the going rate of office space there, but maybe you do), in which Wachovia seems to have found value. PLUS, AGE holds about two billion dollars in cash (That’s about $2,000,000,000.00). In addition, AGE has $0 (that’s zero dollars) in corporate debt.
 I’m not a math whiz, but I seem to get the impression that, perhaps, AGE’s entire sales force wasn’t the real objective. Just my humble opinion.
 

[/quote]

Great point above.  Bagby had little confidence in the firm longer term and Danny couldn’t say yes fast enough after getting the phone call. 

I bet the boys and girls that went to greenbrier got a little sweetner in there deal!!!

You still have to find assets regardless of staying or going. I figure my book goes up if I stay and gets depleted 25% if I leave. I am willing to give WB some rope.

I am guessing those front money deals will be there in year.

The real question is; What is ultimately best for the client? 

I still haven't gotten over a statement stuffer in May '05  to my clients telling them about their mere 5% increase in commissions followed up with an email to managers explaining that while in a number of cases the increase was actually 20-25% "based on a few normalized trading days the overall increase in revenue to the firm was only 5%" This while not being able to adequately explain why a non-qualified account had a nearly 30% lower payout than a qualified account on the exact same trade.  I could go on, but no reason to. I know some great AGE FCs with significant books who are staying put because they believe it will be best for their clients - good for them. I can respect that. Anyone who stays because its the path of least resistance or because of some notion that they'll land some largess when others leave - not believing its the best firm for their clients - pretty tough to respect that.

As far as depleting your own book - didn't happen. In a few short weeks I had over 80% of my assets and nearly 95% of my revenue in house.

Anyone who stays because its the path of least resistance…

 This will be the main (and only remotely rational) reason any of the 3000+ $300k/yr brokers could give for staying. Unless WB dramatically changes its policies, both for our clients (ie: sweeping cash into 1.5% WB accoount) and for the FC’s (i.e. WB’s payout grid will KILL anyone below about $400k/yr.) it will be a lose, lose, win, with the only winner being WB. The chances, IMHO, of WB changing these (and other) policies meaningfully in the “new, combined firm” are slim and none (leaning heavily toward none).