Wells Fargo is a powerhouse at lending, it always has been it always will be. WFA and the Private Bank really came together from their '08 acquisition of Wachovia and AG Edwards, and it has never really lived up to its potential, just like WFAM did. If you read the email from Barry it said this Abott Downing move furthers the wells fargo mission of unifying WIM under just one structure. Pretty soon, they will get rid of the WFA brand and it will just be called Wells Fargo. Then after they clean up the business nicely in 4 years or so, it gets sold for a BIG price.
WFC and many banks trade at an 8x cheap Price to Earnings ratio, an appropriate amount for most lenders. However wealth managers and money management businesses that are public trade at a 20x time PE ratio. WIM accounts for about 20% of the revenue for wells fargo, and so if they were to sell 20% of their overall business to a place like Scwab, Goldman, etc for a 20x earnings multiple, it would be a huge cash cow for wells fargo, and there would be many buyers.
What would this amount look like? Assuming WFC can get back to all time highs of a $270 billion market cap, then you would be looking at a 20% sale of the business worth almost $55-60 billion while also eliminating huge costs.
just wait and see.