More Big Firm Folly: The case of Wells Fargo vs. a former Marine

Today’s Investment News reports that an ex-Prudential Securities representative, Jay Belanger, is suing his former firm (now Wells Fargo Advisors). Mr. Belanger is a veteran of the Iraq war and upon returning from his service to our country, he discovered that his book of clients had been distributed to other Advisors and would not be returned to him.
Not only did Wells allegedly not protect Mr. Belanger’s business, but they attempted to collect on the remainder of the $50,000 note that Mr. Belanger had signed when he was first recruited to Prudential (about $29,000). In my mind, and I would guess in the minds of most rational human beings, Wells Fargo’s actions in this case are indefensible and unconscionable. It would not have been difficult to have one or two Advisors “babysit” Mr. Belanger’s clients until he returned. And it would not have been difficult to either forgive the note that was owed as good-will for Mr. Belanger’s service, or to give him back his book and then restart the clock on his note from when he left off.
But then we are assuming that Wells Fargo is a corporation with a single mind, able to make rational decisions as if it were a sentient, rational businessperson. John Kennedy wrote in a speech: “The essence of ultimate decision remains impenetrable to the observer – often, indeed, to the decider himself.” This quotation inspired a book called “The Essence of Decision” where Political Scientist Graham Ellison examines the Cuban Missile Crisis. The book, originally written in 1971, is still on the reading lists at Business Schools around the country. Allison teaches that we must look at the decisions of large institutions, like governments and corporations, not as a decision by a “rational single-minded actor” but a confluence of bureaucratic thoughts and politics of multiple players with different personal agendas.
Using Mr. Allison’s “lens” to examine what Wells and its predecessor firms did to Mr. Belanger, I suggest the following scenario (purely Sarch speculation): Mr. Belanger returns from Iraq and the management team in place has no idea who he is, what his book looked like and who his clients are. The systems to track the clients, if they existed, have long been updated and changed. The managers who recruited him are no longer in any position of responsibility to help him now. Whoops. Then, once Mr. Belanger got registered at LPL, his current Broker-Dealer, the system to go after him for his note DID still exist and the collection agency was set upon him like a Rottweiler protecting his owner’s bedroom.
This possible explanation does not excuse or exonerate Wells Fargo; it only attempts to understand how it could have happened. Let’s see if this Corporation, now under pressure from litigation and under pressure from the shame of this case hitting the press, will have the institutional “cojones” to do the right thing for Mr. Belanger.