What will a WFC/WB retention package look like?
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I got the impression that was close to the proposal, and they expect something lower…his tone was a little differnt than in the past on the conference calls.
Howerever he was speaking to a largely legacy AGE crowd and came off very sincere in his remorse about the way the last year played out for everyone--and fully believes that we deserve a package to make folks somewhat close to whole..The vibe I am getting is that the package will probably not have any upfront money it at all. It will probably be all deferred. I have no factual reason to believe that, but that seems to be the resounding theme.
[quote=BukiRob][quote=Gordon Gekko]http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/302174.html
IB was not handled by WS LLC, but by WS INC, which was part of the bank. Totally seperate.
WFC priced their secondary at $27 per share. That tells me that they desperately needed cash to keep their AAA rating. They are going to shell out billions to keep AGE/WS brokers in their seats? Maybe. I might be pleasantly surprised but I am not holding my breath.
I hope it is a deferred type of deal as it will make my decision that much easier.Being WFC tried to turn down the $25b from the government, I doubt they are in desperate need of cash. Although in this environment, who the hell knows.
RE: New payout formula - I calculated breakeven pay out at a production level of $260,000 assuming a 38% payout under the old formula. This does not included any increases due to adding fee based accounts or asset growth.
My take is that they want households in excess of $250k in fee based accounts with the envision program acting as the primary financial plan.[quote=Herman Munster]
My take is that they want households in excess of $250k in fee based accounts with the envision program acting as the primary financial plan.
[/quote] Really?? You think??? You'll also notice that they really don't want acct's under $50k, small stock trades, little to no discounting, small options trades, non command acct's, and below crest club FA's w/ LOS of +5 yrs....frankly, I don't want them either, they tend to be whinners....really big whinners.I'm not sure I agree.
They'll take anything as long as it's fee based and provides at least the minimum fee. I don't want a bunch of 50K accounts as well but I got a referral for 3 mill from a client with an account of 25K so I'll take anything as long as the client is not a pain to deal with.Trust me Stumpf and more importantly Kovacevich do not think WS/AGE/PRU/First Union is the crown jewel of Wachovia. If they could they would unload it faster than you can blink an eye. Just like UBS is trying to unload Payne Webber and Citi is trying to unload Smith Barney. There are just no buyers out there right now for this business model.
A few years back my team, which does about 2.4 mil, was complaining about the support we were getting from our bank partners to our manager. Why else would we be at a bank if not for the support and referrals from our bank partners. His response was very telling as to what the retail bank thinks of us in the investment division. He said " we are just a fly on the elephants ass and we need to make sure that we don’t get swatted." And this was coming from our regional manager within the investment division.
It’s not a bad place to work, you guys just need to realize that the bank really only has the investment division so they can deepen the cross-sell and make it harder for the customer to ever leave the bank. I guess my point is that Wells wishes right now that WS was not part of the deal. They wanted the bank not the brokerage. Don’t be surprised if the offer is much less than what you expect.
If they only wanted the bank, then why not make a superior offer for just the bank. WFC chose to make an offer for the entire company, and the investment arm is certainly the crown jewel of the bunch. One of the big differences between BAI and WFC is the cost to purchase. WFC basically got the brokerage for free. Stumpf is smart enough to exploit this for profit, otherwise they would not have purchased anything besides the bank.
There is no way that Danny L isnt explaining those very basic facts to the WFC management team. WFC is in a tough spot. [/quote] I can assure you that he is explaining those very facts--and he is worried about it. He told a group of us yesterday that the package has been presented to WFC and we should be hearing something soon. He went on to explain there is a very basic difference btw "brokers" and bankers, and generally banks dont see why we should be comp'ed to keep our jobs. I was surprised by his candor, and willingness to discuss details about the past few weeks. I certainly am not one to EVER drink the Koolaid---however, if you get just a fraction of his vision...it looks pretty damn good comparatively speaking.[/quote] I know the CEO of WFC views WS as a the jewel of WB and that he is "very excited" about having a national scale brokerage firm. I have been told that BAC was supposedly shocked to learn that they needed to offer retention packages to brokers...[quote=stocksandblondes][quote=BukiRob][quote=Gordon Gekko]
I still think the package they offer is going to be fairly close to what was offered AGE when WS aquired them. [/quote]
And what bank would that be!! Lets be honest the only parts of C, UBS, WB MER/BAC making any money is the PCG/Wealth management.
Wells is one of best companies in the world. Unfortunately becoming one of the biggest.
When it comes to retention, how much would WFC care is every rep under $400K left? Only business where you can be making $150K pay and feel like you're worthless.[quote=conage]
Only business where you can be making $150K pay and feel like you're worthless. [/quote] Funny you say that, just the other day I heard a guy said he hoped that some day he would have a job making over 100K. Now that he has it he can't understand why even though he makes much more money than the national average and most people he knows, he feels like a loser. Something is wrong with that picture...[quote=Go_Long][quote=conage]
Only business where you can be making $150K pay and feel like you're worthless. [/quote] Funny you say that, just the other day I heard a guy said he hoped that some day he would have a job making over 100K. Now that he has it he can't understand why even though he makes much more money than the national average and most people he knows, he feels like a loser. Something is wrong with that picture... [/quote It is hilarious how this business has evolved..saw some clown on here the other day say if you do less than 26K a month you should be working at Walmart] Dont know any jobs there that pay 10K a month..Would imagine they would be fairly low stress and would be jobs many would like to have. At MS which has or had a fairly large training class turnover over the years and probably saw 200 guys go though over 10 years and if you put a gun to my head i would say 6-7 have survived past 3 years..and NONE are doing more than 350K. Guess what I am saying is this is tough business to make it if you make 100K income and enjoy the job you are doing better than most in society.That quote sticks in my craw as well (the 26k quote). I don't know about yunz, but with the market off 40% this year, doing 26k per month is not a slam dunk. My Eaton Vance trails which pay monthly are down about 30% - in one month. That's October to November. It's partly clients bailing and part the market being down almost 20% in a month.
[quote=Gordon Gekko]
That quote sticks in my craw as well (the 26k quote). I don't know about yunz, but with the market off 40% this year, doing 26k per month is not a slam dunk. My Eaton Vance trails which pay monthly are down about 30% - in one month. That's October to November. It's partly clients bailing and part the market being down almost 20% in a month.
[/quote] 3/4 of the guys in the office I am in expect to do 40-50% less in gross 2009 as 2008. And the bigger guys are the ones taking the bigger fall (if market stays here), ACAT's are flying out of the office. From buddies at other shops it is pretty common from what I hear. If we take out the lows in Jan or April of next year think lots of guys books will have flames coming out of them.Where else can you go as a business owner and have a fixed profit margin of 35-40% every month?
[quote=fritz][quote=Gordon Gekko]
That quote sticks in my craw as well (the 26k quote). I don't know about yunz, but with the market off 40% this year, doing 26k per month is not a slam dunk. My Eaton Vance trails which pay monthly are down about 30% - in one month. That's October to November. It's partly clients bailing and part the market being down almost 20% in a month.
[/quote] 3/4 of the guys in the office I am in expect to do 40-50% less in gross 2009 as 2008. And the bigger guys are the ones taking the bigger fall (if market stays here), ACAT's are flying out of the office. From buddies at other shops it is pretty common from what I hear. If we take out the lows in Jan or April of next year think lots of guys books will have flames coming out of them. [/quote]I can't believe that 41 pages later you guys are still talking about how bad your business is and wondering what your retention package is going to look like.
Your clients are waiting to hear from you...they need your guidance and leadership, that is if you have any energy left after whining about your pay package. Maybe the reason the "ACATS are flying out the door" is because you aren't giving them what they need to get through this difficult time.
My business is actually up slightly from last year, and trust me I'm no genius or some super big hitter. I'm just working hard and staying in touch with people as much as I can, and working every day to keep a positive attitude. I plan on next year being up quite a bit.
Stop whining and get to work. You might be surprised at the results.
Sorry if this sounds harsh. I know I'm probably going to get flamed for this post. But that's how I see it.
It is a great industry. Especially when you can double those margins by flying free. Then it's REALLY a great industry! Ribbet, ribbet!Where else can you go as a business owner and have a fixed profit margin of 35-40% every month?