Wes Long, head of Wedbush Securities’ private client services group, has left after nearly 20 years with the California-based brokerage, according to BrokerCheck.
Long, who oversaw the firm’s 400 advisors, joined as an assistant sales office manager of the Portland, Ore. private client office in May 1997 and rose to an executive vice president and head of the private client services group in 2012.
“The firm expresses our appreciation to Wesley Long for his many outstanding contributions over 18 years to Wedbush Securities,” a spokesperson from the firm said Wednesday in a statement. No successor has been publicly named.
A source familiar with Long’s departure said the 25-year industry veteran doesn’t have anything lined up yet and that his departure late last month was unexpected. “He is spending more time with family and has nothing lined up industry-wise,” the source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said. Long, an avid classic car enthusiast and golfer, is married with one child, according to his corporate biography.
Long started his career at Smith Barney in 1990 as an account executive before jumping to A.G. Edwards in 1991 as an investment executive, according to BrokerCheck.
Long’s departure follows several enforcement actions by FINRA against Wedbush, including a $2.44 million settlement in November over market access violations. Additionally, Wedbush’s founder Edward William Wedbush is currently appealing a separate case in which FINRA’s National Adjudicatory Council imposed a $300,000 penalty on the firm, a $50,000 fine against Webush himself and temporarily suspended the top executive. The regulator claims Wedbush failed to reasonably supervise his firm’s regulatory reporting.
