Wells Fargo Ups Recruitment Bonuses to Grow Brokerage RanksWells Fargo Ups Recruitment Bonuses to Grow Brokerage Ranks
Wells Fargo Advisors will increase recruiting offers by as much as 50 percent.
May 26, 2017
By Elizabeth Dilts
May 25 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co will offer moremoney in recruitment bonuses to financial advisers aftercompetitors announced plans to pull back from recruiting, twopeople familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The bank's wealth management unit, known as Wells FargoAdvisors, will increase recruiting offers by as much as 50percent, according to two people briefed on the changes whoasked not to be named because they were not authorized todiscuss them publicly.
The extra money will show up in the upfront bonus checksbrokers receive when they join Wells Fargo, as well as in theirdeferred compensation, which is paid out after several years.The increase was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
"Attracting the industry's top talent will always be apriority for Wells Fargo Advisors," said spokeswoman EmilyAcquisto in a statement. "We've been disciplined in recruitingand it has worked for us. Adding great advisers and new clientshas helped us grow in key markets."
Wells Fargo's move comes after three primary rivals, MorganStanley, Bank of America Corp and UBS AGannounced they were cutting recruiting budgets.
While some of those firms, known in industry parlance as the"wirehouses," have said they will continue selective recruiting,it has left an opening that Wells appears to be stepping into,the sources said. Wells has traditionally offered lesscompensation than the other three big Wall Street brokerages, sothe increase puts it at or near what its competitors had offereduntil recently.(Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts and Dan Freed in New York;writing by Dan Freed; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra and CynthiaOsterman)
