Wells Fargo's Advisors Have New Leader

"Advisor headcount at [Wells Fargo Advisors] stabilized as we had our best recruiting quarter since 2016 in terms of both the number of hires and the associated production," according to a statement.

Hays' Background 

Hays has been with Wells Fargo since late 2005 and most recently led its newly formed Private Wealth Financial Advisors group, which includes advisors grouped in hubs that serve high-net-worth clients.

Earlier, he was in charge of both Wells Fargo's Private Client Group and Wealth Brokerage Services. He started his career at Merrill Lynch in mid-1997.

According to Jonathan Weiss, head of Wealth & Investment Management, "Jim is a strong leader with deep experience in numerous brokerage channels. He has long modeled collaborative approaches across Wells Fargo to serve complex client needs in the best way."

As for Kowach, he will be in charge of some 68,000 community banking employees, including that at Wells Fargo's 5,400 bank branches. He has been in the business for over 25 years and joined Wells Fargo in 2000. Previously, Kowach led the Private Client Group and Business Development. He also was head of National Sales at Evergreen Funds (a predecessor to Wells Fargo Asset Management).

"David's experience running Wells Fargo Advisors — one of Wells Fargo's most distributed, regulated and customer-centric organizations — will help us move Community Banking forward as we continue our transformation," Mary Mack, head of Consumer Banking, explained in a statement.