Full of pretentious talk and high fees- but no experience, substance or unique investment approach behind it.
I’m, of course, referring to the potential sale of our Asset Management team. But it goes so much deeper than that.
It’s a continuation of an alarming trend within Wells Fargo, if you take the ability to properly advise our clients seriously. We are eliminating our own experienced investment advice professionals, and are now just copying the advice of other firm’s experts.
Gone is our Equity Strategist who had his own time-tested (and highly successful) model forecasting the market. Now we just look at what other firms are saying, such as GSCO and MSCO, and decide who to agree with and then put that out there as our own diluted forecast or opinion.
Gone is the analyst who developed the ever popular DSIP Plan. We now just have people who plug in and pull out stocks according to her original model.
The above are just a few of many examples. There is cost-cutting that eliminates bloat and duplication. And there is cost-cutting that cheapens a brand and makes it irrelevant. We are becoming irrelevant. The word that comes to mind, which I can’t think of a better way to say it is “posers”.
I know many of our Financial Advisors who follow other firms’ research, rather than our own, because we are now just chucking out marginalized Suze Orman -style advice.
I would liken it to Apple News. We are no longer a unique publication with our own experienced journalists, editors, writers and distinct voice. We merely gather and publish the work of others.
Why would wealthy individual or institutional clients want or need to bring their money to Wells Fargo?
The reasons to bring your money here grow fewer every day. Our reputation is tainted and now we are eliminating what could potentially set us apart from other firms. I honestly can’t even think of one sales-pitch I could give a client to convince them to bring their wealth to Wells Fargo. Sad.