Wells Fargo's Wealth Chief to Retire

(Check out Investment Advisor magazine's cover story, When Will Wells Fargo's Scandals End?)

Latest Earnings, Headcount Woes

Wells Fargo's wealth management unit — which accounts for 12% of the bank's total net income — has a 2% year-over-year jump in profits in the third quarter to $732 billion. That was a big change from the prior quarter, when net income sank 37% from the prior year and the unit set $114 million aside for refunds to wealth management clients who were charged "incorrect fees."

The number of financial advisors in the retail brokerage business, though, fell again. It stands at 14,074 — down 490 from a year ago and 152 from the second quarter.

Since Wells Fargo's fake-accounts scandal began capturing headlines in September 2016, the number of advisors has declined by 1,012 — a drop of 7% from 15,086 two years ago.

The trend seems to be continuing into the fourth quarter. Steward Partners, for instance, recently said the former Wells Fargo team Coyle Financial Group joined it with some $500 million in client assets in Washington, D.C. (Steward is an independent practice affiliated with Raymond James.)

Total assets under management for Wells Fargo's Wealth & Investment Management (WIM) unit stand at $1.9 trillion, a gain of 2% from a year earlier thanks to the strong financial markets. But this improvement was "partially offset by net outflows," the bank said.

The retail-brokerage segment also grew assets by 2% year over year to $1.6 trillion, with advisory assets of $560 billion. As for WIM referrals to Wells Fargo's community banking business, these assets were flat from a year ago and dropped 7% from Q2'18, though they are up 1% year to date.

— See a Timeline on Wells Fargo's Scandals.