Wells Fargo Moves to Restructure Wealth Unit

This means Getzoff is directly reporting to Alexander as head of branch network. Caldwell-Meeks recently transitioned to become a direct report of James Hays, WFA CEO and president, leading the partnership with the Trust business.

Why the Move?

The company decided to consolidate the sales regions as part of its ongoing efforts to evolve "into a flatter, more nimble organization that brings all our services to clients and makes it easier for them to do business with us and for advisors to support clients in doing so," according to Wells Fargo spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu.

"We want to make sure our advisors, who are in front of clients every single day, are in a position to deliver seamlessly the services their clients want and need and to get answers quickly," she told ThinkAdvisor by email on Friday.

The announcement of new divisional leaders for those consolidated regions represents the "next step in the journey to bring together the groups who manage client relationships," she explained. "These divisional leaders will be responsible for leading and growing business across Abbot Downing, The Private Bank, and Wells Fargo Advisors."

Wells Fargo "will continue to support our industry differentiating multi-channel model with advisors in bank branches, private client branches, wealth hubs, and independent offices," she pointed out about the plans, which were first reported Thursday by Advisor Hub.

Although the company announced the leaders for the eight regions now, she said: "We're not realigning the organization into the new divisional structure for some time. Whether our teams are in the field structure or support the field structure, their roles will not change today."

What's Next?

The "next level of organizational work" as part of the consolidation "will involve the go-forward market structure," Leordeanu went on to explain.

"We anticipate market leaders in most major metropolitan markets and across some wider geographies as well," she said. "The market leaders will also lead and grow across all three businesses."

As Wells Fargo works on the markets, the "go-forward structure will be made up of existing and new roles," she said, adding: "This type of transformation takes time and it will be several months before all of the market structure details are ready, likely in late spring. In the meantime, most roles are not changing and our core focus is taking care of clients. That will never change."

(Photo: Bloomberg)