Rare Access to and Insight from Wells Fargo’s Barry Sommers

This week’s featured episode exemplifies how the industry – and our podcast – have evolved.

Barry Sommers, the Senior Executive Vice President and CEO of Wealth & Investment Management at Wells Fargo & Company – a leader from one of the top wirehouses in the industry – agreed to be a guest on the show.

Surely, welcoming a wirehouse leader is noteworthy for a podcast that initially sought to home in on the independent space. (Heck, we’ve been lucky to have several accept our invitation!)

And that’s the reality of today’s evolved wealth management space: Independence is more than a model; it’s a state of mind. And even big firms like Wells recognize that to remain relevant, they need to adopt that same ethos.

Independence is not unfamiliar to Wells: Of the four wirehouses, they are the only firm to offer an independent channel—Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network (FiNet).

While their philosophy around advisor choice has landed them many top advisors, the reputational issues over recent years in their consumer division have created some challenges with the wealth management business—challenges Barry acknowledges?in this episode .

It’s rare access to one of the top-of-the-food-chain leaders: An opportunity to hear, candidly, about the direction of the firm, how it compares to its peers, the value to high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients, his perspective on recruiting and the ideal advisor type, the future of the industry, and much more.?So, I encourage you to listen in.

Plus, our?featured article , originally published on WealthManagement, talks about the one piece of business that’s hard to ignore when an advisor is evaluating firms or models:

The transition deal.

We’re strong advocates of the notion that money shouldn’t be the sole driver of change for an advisor. There’s far too much hassle in making a move not to ensure that the end result will be an improvement in client service and the advisor’s business life.

Then how does an advisor considering change decide which path to take? Is it the firm with the best offer? Maybe not.?Read the article to learn 5 things you need to consider.

Welcoming the cooler days ahead—and time to learn and grow.

Your partner in exploration,

Mindy Diamond

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